(Last Updated on December 3, 2024 by Amiee)
The four characteristics and five flavors originally referred to Chinese medicine. However, Chinese medicine believes that medicine and food are of the same origin, so the four characteristics and five flavors should be included in the classification of food. The four characteristics include cold and cool, hot and warm, and another is neutral(balanced).
Five flavors originally meant that Chinese medicine has five flavors: sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty, and has different therapeutic effects. The Emperor’s Internal Classic pointed out that hotness has a divergent effect, sourness has an astringent effect, sweetness has a softening effect, bitterness has a hardening effect, and salt has a softening effect. The Emperor’s Internal Classic also pointed out the relationship between taste and the five internal organs. Sour taste in the liver, bitter taste in the heart, sweet taste in the spleen, spicy taste in the lungs, and salty taste in the kidneys.
Chinese medicine doctors will tell you in the prescription and doctor’s order to avoid cold and greasy food. It means that eating too much cold food will affect your health. For healthy people, try to eat plain foods, or use cold foods to balance hot foods when cooking. This is good for health.
What are the cold cool, hot warm and neutral foods?
Cold and cooling foods(Cool in nature)
Cereals: millet, wheat, gluten, barley, buckwheat, floating wheat;
Meat: duck meat, frog meat, rabbit meat, pig brain, duck blood, water snake meat;
Eggs: duck eggs, preserved eggs;
Milk: horse milk;
Aquatic products: mullet, octopus, crabs, clams, mussels, snails, sea noodles, mud snails.
Fruits: Pear, loquat, apple, tangerine, orange, lotus mist, mango, orange, strawberry, mangosteen, dragon fruit, jujube, prickly pear, sugar cane, watermelon, grapefruit, persimmon, persimmon, cantaloupe, banana, mulberry, star fruit, Kiwi, water chestnut;
Dried fruits: water chestnut (the raw ones are cool in nature, the ripe ones are warm in nature), Luo Han Guo;
Fungus and algae: ground mushroom, enoki mushroom, wakame, partridge, seaweed, straw mushroom, kelp, hair vegetable;
Camellia: chrysanthemum, honeysuckle, rose flower, camellia, lily, dense flower, apocynum, rose flower, kapok, marigold, kudingcha, senna, ginseng leaf, nasturtium, trumpet creeper, gynostemma;
Vegetables: bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, celery, parsley, kale, cauliflower, beets, spinach, day lily, asparagus, eggplant, tomatoes, mung beans, tofu, radish (cold in the raw, warm in the cooked), burdock, soil Melon, wax gourd, loofah, cucumber, amaranth, lettuce, rapeseed, chayote, wormwood, wolfberry leaves, water spinach, lotus root, bitter gourd, soybean sprouts, purslane, golden luffa, aloe, cactus, houttuynia, bracken, Fungus, watercress;
Condiments: tea, salt, soy sauce, noodle sauce, bean sauce;
Neutral Foods
Cereals: rice, black rice, crispy rice, corn, oats, rice bran, sesame, highland barley;
Meat: beef, pork, silky chicken, goose, pigeon, donkey, quail;
Eggs: eggs, quail eggs, pigeon eggs;
Milk: human milk, yogurt, milk, cheese, cream, condensed milk;
Fish: crucian, herring, carp, cuttlefish, squid, bass, eel, loach, pomfret, golden thread, whitebait, sardine, pond lice, flounder, tuna, sturgeon;
Other aquatic products: fish fat, sea urchin, jellyfish, scallops, turtle meat, soft-shelled turtle, turtle shell;
Fruits: grapes, pineapples, plums, passion fruit, sweet almonds, raspberries, jackfruits, figs, jelly fruits;
Dried fruits: peanuts, plums, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, lotus seeds, cashews, olives, ginkgo, lilies, ginseng, hazelnuts;
Fungus and algae: Tremella, black fungus, shiitake mushroom, winter mushroom, hericium erinaceus, bamboo fungus, ganoderma lucidum, matsutake, stone fungus, Phellinus linteus, oyster mushroom, puffball;
Camellia: Chamomile, Globe Amaranth, Perrin, Agastache, Albizia Julibrissin, Peach Blossom, Green Calyx Plum, Lotus Flower, Tortoise Flower;
Vegetables: Chinese cabbage, Qingjiang cabbage, shepherd’s purse, kohlrabi, cabbage, chrysanthemum, carob, soybean, bowl bean, string bean, black bean, gourd, lentil, lentil flower, broad bean, tempeh, carrot, sweet potato, yam, potato, Taro, golden cauliflower, papaya, Jerusalem artichoke;
Condiments: MSG, white sugar, rock sugar, maltose, honey
Warm foods(warm in nature)
Cereals: glutinous rice, sago rice, purple rice, sorghum, millet rice, grain sprouts;
Meat: tripe, beef marrow, beef brain, dog meat, pork liver, pork belly, ham, lamb chicken, bamboo chicken, pheasant, donkey whip, cat meat, deer whip, sparrow meat, partridge meat;
Eggs: goose eggs, sparrow eggs;
Milk: Goat milk, camel milk;
Fish: hairtail, eel, carp, trout, silver carp, catfish, puffer fish (poisonous), gurnard, corydalis, silver carp, burdock fish, tang fish;
Other aquatic products: shrimp, cockles, sea cucumbers, mussels, seahorses;
Fruits: longan, guava, lychee, custard apple, kumquat, apricot, pomegranate, rambutan, bergamot, bayberry, citron, peach, cherry, durian;
Dried fruits: jujube, walnut, chestnut, ripe water chestnut, pistachio, betel nut, pine nut, date;
Vegetables: leek, chive flower, garlic, coriander, green onion, onion, pumpkin, papaya, sweet potato, konjac, potherb mustard, scallion white, toon, scallion, chili, green pepper; Insects: silkworm pupae, locusts, grasshoppers;
Condiments: red sugar (brown sugar), vegetable oil (including: rape oil, soybean oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, tea oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil), vinegar, wine, mustard, ginger, dried ginger, pepper, star anise, coffee, cumin, Clove, perilla, tangerine peel, cardamom, evodia, turmeric, amomum, grass fruit, angelica, red yeast rice, galangal, fenugreek, nutmeg, coriander, fennel, cumin, dill, Ginger, pepper, cinnamon, long pepper;
