Temperature Characteristics of Common Foods

According to Chinese Medicine, diseases can be either caused or made worse by the foods and drinks we consume. Each food has a temperature and can be used to balance the body. Food can be classified as either cold, cool, neutral, warm or hot. Cold and cooling foods cool the body, warm and hot foods heat up the body, and neutral foods are just that, neutral. 

Cold / Cool Foods

Cold or cool foods are great to clear heat and toxins out of the body. They are good for people who run hot, have fevers, hot flashes or other hot diseases. Cool foods can treat feelings of heat, thirst, constipation, perspiration, pungent or smelly body order or stools, burning anus, emotions like anxiety, agitation, anger, red eyes or face, headaches, vivid dreams, mouth ulcers, heart burn and dark yellow urine. Below is a list of cold or cooling foods:

 

FRUIT Apple, banana, grapefruit, kiwi, lemon, kiwi, orange, pear, persimmon, pineapple, pomelo, star fruit, strawberry, watermelon VEGGIES Alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, bitter gourd, celery, daikon radish, cucumber, eggplant, green leafy vegetables, kelp, lettuce, lotus root, mushroom, spinach, Swiss chard, tomato, water chestnut, watercress, winter melon.

GRAINS  Barley, buckwheat, millet, wheat BEANS Mung bean, soy bean, tofu MEAT / DAIRY Clam, cheese, Egg, crab, cream, rabbit, yogurt  SPICES / CONDIMENTS Seaweed, Chrysanthemum Tea, Green Tea, Peppermint Tea, Salt, Sesame oil, Soy sauce

 

Warm/Hot Foods

One of my favorite things to do on a cold winter day is drink a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon and ginger. It warms me up from the core. Warm foods increase circulation and warm you up. Consume warm foods when you are feeling cold, have cold hands or feet, have poor circulation or are feeling sluggish, sore joints, have diarrhea or other digestive disorders, get bloated after eating or drinking cold beverages or fluid retention. Below is a list of warm or hot foods:

 

FRUITS Apricot Cherry Chestnut Chinese Red Dates Coconut meat Coconut milk Guava Hawthorn Fruit Longan Lychee Mandarin peel (dried) Mango Nectarine Peach Raspberry VEGGIES Chives Leek Mustard greens Onion Pumpkin Spring onion Squash NUTS/SEEDS/GRAINS Caraway seed Chestnut Glutinous Rice Malt Pine nut Pistachio nut

MEAT/DAIRY Butter Chicken Deer (Venison) Eel Goat Milk Ham Lamb Mussels Prawns (shrimp) Sea cucumber SPICES Basil Black pepper Brown Sugar Chilli Cinnamon Clove Coffee Coriander Cumin Fennel seed Garlic Ginger Ginseng Jasmine tea Mustard Nutmeg Rosemary Spearmint Vinegar Wine

 

Neutral foods

Neutral foods are just that, neutral! They have minimal effect on your body and can be consumed by most people regardless of temperature based symptoms. Below is a list of neutral foods:

 

FRUIT Figs Goji Berries Grape Olive Papaya Plum VEGGIES  Black fungus mushrooms Carrot Chinese cabbage Corn Potato Pumpkin Shiitake mushroom Sweet potato Taro Turnip White fungus GRAINS Rice bran Rye White rice DAIRY Cow’s milk

BEANS / LEGUMES Adzuki Bean Black soybean Broad bean Kidney bean Peanut Peas String bean Yellow soybean NUTS / SEEDS Almond Black sesame seed Lotus seed Sunflower seed MEAT Abalone Beef Duck Fish Oyster Pork Scallop CONDIMENTS  Peanut oil Honey Saffron Licorice

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