The Yin & Yang Principle of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Yin is the cooling, calming, aspect of our body. It allows us to sleep, to relax, allows our skin to stay moist, our organs to have proper circulation. Yang is our energizing, get up and go aspect. It allows us to move, to react, allows our organs to function correctly, our muscles to be strong and energized.
For ideal health, Yin and Yang need to be balanced. When we want to relax we should be able to do so (the opposite being insomnia, anxiety, etc.), when we want to get up and go we should not be hindered (fatigue, lethargy, etc. being the opposite). In reality, we are always bounding back and forth between these two principles. If we have been stressed for a few weeks we may be falling into the yin deficiency pattern (dizziness, tinnitus, anxiety, vertigo, sore back, constipation, mallor flush, night sweats, insomnia, dry throat, restlessness, etc.). If we have been working too hard physically we may be falling into the yang deficiency pattern (sore a/or weak back/knees, sensation of cold, aversion to cold, weak lower limbs, lassitude, fatigue, clear copious urine, poor appetite, loose stools, edema, etc.).
The remedy for these patterns, along with acupuncture, bodywork, herbal medicines, tai chi, meditation, yoga, etc. is our diet. If we have a general sense of where we are within the Yin and Yang aspects, we can then make food choices to rebalance this relationship and improve our health.
Yin & Yang Foods
Yang Foods, Properties and Uses:
Yang foods have a warming, energizing effect on the body.
- Meats: Beef, Lamb, Duck
- Grains: Oats, Wheat, Quinoa
- Legumes: Garbanzo (hummus), Lentils
- Nuts: Almonds, Coconuts, Peanuts, Walnuts
- Vegetables: Cabbage, Carrots, Kale, Shiitake Mushroom, Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Ginger
- Fruits: Avocado, Cherry, Grapes, Figs, Rasberry
- Others: Alcohol, Coffee, Black Tea, Green Tea (to a lesser extent), Cinnamon
Yin Foods, Properties and Uses:Yin foods have a cooling, calming effect on the body.
- Meats: Chicken, Seafood (fish, oyster, mussels, shrimp)
- Grains: Barley, Rye, Wild Rice
- Legumes: Soybeans (Tofu), Black, Kidney, Mung
- Nuts: Flax, Pistachio
- Vegetables: Broccoli, Beets, Celery, Cucumber, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Spinach, Radish
- Fruits: Apples, Bananas, Lemons, Limes, Oranges, Peaches, Strawberries, Watermelon
- Others: Herbal Teas such as Lavender, Chamomile
These lists offer you a new angle of looking at your diet and the function of various foods in relation to your personal health needs. Take our common western diet, for example. A diet that is high in red meat, coffee, and alcohol will lead to an excess of yang energy. Due to the yin and yang relationship, this will bring about yin deficiency signs such as anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, etc. which are very common in our society. To help us improve our health, the western diet needs to be counterbalanced by adding more yin foods like various fruits and including more yin "meats" such as fish and tofu in place of their yang counterparts.
All in all, if we improve our relationship with foods and we better understand their effect, we will be healthier. A good dietary path to health is one where we eat a range of foods, we enjoy what we are eating, and we are conscious of the effects of our choices.
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