The Healthy Diet - the Yin and Yang Diet

The anti-aging yin and yang diet is the Oriental healthy diet of balance and harmony for optimum health rejuvenation and wholesome wellness.

People commonly think of yin and yang as the female and the male, respectively; or any two opposing forces in Nature that balance and complement each other, thereby resulting in perfect harmony for anti-aging living.

For centuries, the Chinese have observed the importance of harmony, which is manifested in the wholesome wellness of an individual.

The concept of balance and harmony of life forces - yin and yang - is central to not only the Chinese healing methods that use food and herbs as medicine, but also the Chinese way of anti-aging living and eating.

Such concept originates from the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), which are not only fundamental to the cycles of Nature, but also corresponding to the human body.

Western anatomy and physiology look at body organs in terms of structure and function. According to the Five Elements, your body organs are a network of functions and interrelationships, manifested in the balance and harmony of yin and yang. The yin and yang diet is a healthy diet based on the principles of control and restrain to attain harmony and health.

The following is an excerpt from my book: NO MIRACLE CURES - Only Wholesome Self-Healing.
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The yin and yang diet is a healthy diet that focuses on the basic principles to restore balance and eliminate imbalance.

Essentially, it is a natural anti-aging approach to physical and spiritual well-being through the consumption of foods influenced by the forces of yin and yang, which directly affect your organs through balance and control of the Five Elements. This healthy diet emphasizes living in harmony with Nature and eating a simple balanced healthy diet of natural foods, thereby living to an active ripe old age. The dietary and lifestyle principles of the Five Elements are instrumental in inducing health rejuvenation, which reverses aging and degeneration in your body.

Remember, every food has an effect on your body's metabolic temperature, which is the heat energy generated through all your organ systems from the food you eat as well as from your digestive system. Some foods, such as tofu or ice cream, produce a characteristic internal cold. Others, such as ginger or chicken, generate internal heat.

If you eat too much warming food, you increase the chance that your condition will become too warm. If it does, you might come down with a "hot" illness. Too much heat, however, can also cause some colds, for example, marked by a dry or sore throat, fever, and sweating. The way to help correct the underlying imbalance that brought on that condition is to eat a healthy diet with more contrasting conditions - in this case, more cooling foods.

For example, to treat too much cold in your body requires “warming” remedies in a healthy diet:

· In a healthy diet, select your foods mostly from “hot,” “warm,” and “neutral” foods, such as garlic, ginger, green chive, pepper, pumpkin, apple, onion, and mutton (lamb).

· For a healthy diet, prepare soup from the following ingredients: two teaspoons of fresh ginger; two teaspoons of scallion stalk; and one tablespoon of organic molasses.

· Make a bowl of porridge from the following ingredients: a small fresh pumpkin; one cup of millet; three cups of water. This makes a healthy diet.

The first step toward remedying a condition - whether it is acute or chronic - is to add the proper balancing foods to your daily healthy diet.

     The three basic food types in the yin and yang diet

All foods may come into three basic categories in the healthy diet of yin and yang:

· cold (yin)
· hot (yang)
· neutral

The antidote will generally emphasize foods with the opposite “temperature” as the condition. For example, if your symptoms describe a warm or hot condition, then your healthy diet should emphasize cooling, cold, and neutral foods, with fewer warm and hot foods in order to attain balance and harmony for anti-aging health rejuvenation.

Even if you are not experiencing any symptoms of illness, you can still help avoiding illness by eating a varied healthy diet as much as possible. Eating a minimum of seven different types of fruits and vegetables each day is the best way to avoid a too cold or too hot imbalance - the optimum anti-aging healthy diet.

                               The yin foods (cold)

Characteristics of yin foods in a healthy diet:

· Grown in warm or hot climate
· Growing faster, bigger, taller, and softer
· Growing either straight up in the air, or sideways under the ground
· Having more watery texture
· Having bigger and smoother leaves
· Rich in potassium
· Requiring quicker cooking

Functions of yin foods in a healthy diet:

· Cooling your body
· Loosening your muscles
· Reducing your body tension
· Slowing down your body movement
· Making you sleepier
· Producing looser and paler bowels

Effects of excessive yin foods in a healthy diet:

· Anemia
· Anxiety
· Loss of appetite

Moderate yin fruits:

· Apple
· Apricot
· Blueberry
· Cantaloupe
· Cherry
· Grape
· Peach
· Pear
· Plum
· Raspberry
· Strawberry
· Watermelon

Moderate yin vegetable:

· Burdock
· Cabbage
· Carrot
· Cauliflower
· Celery
· Onion
· Parsley
· Parsnip
· Pea
· Scallion

Moderate yin sweeteners:

· Barley malt
· Fruit juice
· Maple syrup
· Fruit juice
· Maple syrup
· Rice syrup

Extreme yin foods:

· Most tropical fruits, including bananas, citrus fruits, coconut, figs, kiwi fruit, mangoes, and papayas
· Nuts, such as Brazil nuts, cashews, hazel nuts, and pistachios
· Dairy products, including butter, cheese, cream, milk, mayonnaise, and yogurt
· Stimulants, such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and spices
· Sweeteners, including corn syrup, chocolate, honey, and molasses
· Chemicals and drugs

                                The yang foods (hot)

Characteristics of yang foods in a healthy diet

· Grown in cool and cold climates
· Growing slower, smaller, shorter, and harder
· Growing either straight down into the ground, or sideways on top of the ground
· Having less watery texture
· Having smaller and coarser leaves
· Rich in sodium
· Requiring slower cooking

Functions of yang foods in a healthy diet:

· Warming your body
· Tightening your muscles
· Causing body tension
· Increasing your body movement
· Making you less sleepy
· Producing darker and harder bowels

Effects of excessive yang foods:

· Constipation
· Fever
· Restlessness

Moderate yang foods:

· Most whole grains, including pasta and rice
· Shell fish, and most fish

Extreme yang foods:

· Poultry
· Meat
· Eggs
· Salt

                        The philosophy of rejuvenation

When your body receives the necessary nutrients from pure, whole foods, it has the ability to bring itself back into balance, thereby attaining natural healing.(Read my web page Natural Healing For Longevity Health.)

When you give your body a drug that replaces a substance your body is capable of making itself, your body then becomes weaker, and begins not only to manufacture less of that substance but also to become more dependent on the outside source, which is usually the drug. No drug can give you insight into the circumstances that created your problems. At best, it can only temporarily assuage the physical pain created by your situation. Remember, there are no miracle drugs, only wholesome self-healing.

To illustrate, your reaction to stress may result in a headache, an allergy, or an angry outburst. All these responses epitomize your problems in the Wood Element. If you treat your headache with a drug, be it Advil or Tylenol, you deprive yourself the opportunity of bringing your Wood Element back into balance, and many undesirable symptoms would persist, if not repeat themselves

What you need, instead, is a real look at the source of your inability to attain the balance in your body, mind, and spirit. If you feed the gland or that part of your body that is weak with the right combination of foods or nutrients, you make it stronger. Your goal is to bring it back into balance so that it can begin to make the required substance in the desired amount. This is where yin and yang healthy diet plays a significant role.

Buddha once said, “There are nine causes for the premature, unexpected end to human life. The first five of these relate to one’s diet; and the rest to one’s improper conduct.” The five causes related to diet are:

· One should not eat what is forbidden to eat.
· One should not overeat.
· One should not eat contrary to custom.
· One should not eat when one has not digested one’s previous meal.
· One should not retain undigested food in one’s body.

Buddha’s wisdom underscores the rejuvenation of the yin and yang healthy diet through balance, harmony, and moderation. Interestigly, four out of five of Buddha's recommendations have to do with overeating, which many of us are guilty of. (Read my web page Longevity Wisdom for insight into calorie restriction for anti-aging living.)

500 Healthy Chinese Recipes Cookbook is based on the concept of yin and yang in the ingredients selected as well as in the method of preparation to create 500 dishes to achieve balance and contrast for optimum health. The dishes are easy to cook. This is highly recommended if you like healthy Oriental cuisine.

To eat healthy and stay healthy, follow the yin and yang healthy diet.

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Copyright© by Stephen Lau

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