Flavour and Nature of Food and Herbs
Updated: 13 hours ago
Disclaimer: The information provided is for general educational purpose only and is not medical advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised care or if you have any health concerns.
Many of us are probably used to the idea that food is medicine and medicine is food.
This is not solely down to the nutritious content of the food we eat, it is also down to the flavour and nature it possess, which can influence our qi with the potential of restoring the health of our organs and our physiology.
Being conscious that what we consume can be helpful to manage a condition, along side bodywork and herbal treatments, is a good thing. Although, what we eat and drink on a daily bases may not have a dramatic affect when it comes to correcting our imbalance of yin and yang, the dosage may not be sufficient. So being guided by a practitioner to gain the benefits of the flavour and nature of food and herbs would be recommended.
(consuming regular, excess amounts without guidance can be harmful)
What is flavour and nature?
It is an incredibly important aspect of food and medicine in many cultures around the world. Each food/herb item has its own profile that enters different meridians and regulates and tonifies specific conditions such as joint pain, skin conditions, pregnancy issues, or your gastrointestinal system.
Flavour indicates how it will affect the qi in our body, while the nature refers to temperature at which the body perceives and reacts to it, not necessarily the temperature of the food/herb to the touch.
"Each herb: first differentiate its flavour an nature, form and colour; secondly the channel it enters. Only then can one expound upon its function, and the illness that it treats. After aligning these qualities, the reason why it is used to treat a given disease is already included in the aforementioned functions." - Ben Cao Bei Yao
Example: Banana
Flavour | Nature | Enters |
Sweet | Cold | Large intestine, Lungs, Stomach, Spleen |
Flavour and its function:
Sour can gather, can be stringent.
Bitter can drain, can dry, can make firm.
Sweet can build, can slow, can harmonise.
Acrid can disperse, can make things move.
Salty can descend, can soften.
Bland can leach, can benefit (create flow).
Nature:
Cold - mostly yin
Cool - more yin than yang
Neutral - balanced
Warm - more yang than yin
Hot - mostly yang
"Of these six flavours some contract, some disperse, some relax, some tighten, some dry, some moisten, some soften, some harden. Use that which is of benefit and apply it. Regulate the patient’s qi and cause its balance.” - Nei Jing
Used in the correct way, it can restore balance to yin and yang within our system.
Most types of food/herbs are more complex and are not only sour, bitter, sweet etc, they can contain a combination of sour and sweet or acrid and bitter and so on.
Seeing a herbalist that can prescribe the best quantity and combination that changes while tracking your progress is advisable.
In the lists that I provide in each category below, I have only listed the items that are classified as singularly being sour, bitter, sweet, acrid, salty, or bland.
If you would like to discover more about flavour and nature, I would recommend this book, Helping Ourselves by Daverick Leggett.
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"Herbs do not actually 'do' things in the body like turning on a light switch. A herb does not enter the body and 'turn' off a headache, or 'turn on' the immune system. Rather, herbs affect the qi. If the way they affect the qi is beneficial to the condition being treated, then the result will be the resolution of the symptom." - Julie Ann Nugent-Head
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