Strengthens Qi / Promotes Energy

Easily digestible, warm, cooked, moderate size meals
• Grains: millet, garbanzo beans, quinoa, rice, oats
• Nuts: pine nuts, sunflower seeds
• Fruits: figs, dates, chia seeds
• Vegetables: watercress, squash, carrots, cabbage, sweet potato, winter squash
• Small portions of meat, beef, chicken, herring, lamb
• Seafood: mussel, shrimp
• Soups and congees

Strengthens Blood (red cells): for childbirth, menstrual period, and trauma

Cook in a cast iron pan
• Vegetables: alfalfa sprout, artichoke, beetroot, button mushroom, cabbage, celery, dandelion leaf, dark leafy greens, kelp, shiitake mushroom, ,watercress, wheatgrass, kale, chard, seaweed, spirulina microalgae, sprouts, leafy greens, chlorophyll-rich foods, seaweed, spirulina, beets, lotus root • Legumes: aduki, black soya, kidney
• Grains: barley, corn, oats, rice, sweet rice, wheat, bran
• Fruits: apple, apricot, avocado, date, fig, grape, longan, mulberry, goji berries
• Spices: black sesame seeds, cayenne pepper, parsley
• Meat (small amounts): liver, chicken gizzards carp, muscles, oysters
• Fish: sardines, mussel, octopus, oyster, tuna
• Blackstrap molasses, royal jelly, gelatin

Strengthens Yin

Daily warm soups, stews, congees
• Grains: millet, barley, wheat germ, wheat, rice, quinoa, amaranth
• Legumes: tofu, black beans, kidney beans, mung beans
• Protein: cow’s or goat’s milk, yogurt, cheese, chicken, egg, clam, abalone, oyster, duck, beef, pork
• Fish: sardines, seaweed, micro-algae (especially chlorella and spirulina)
• Fruits: persimmon, grapes, blackberry, raspberry, mulberry, banana, watermelon
• Vegetables: beets, string beans, mung bean sprouts

Strengthens Yang

• Protein: anchovy, mussels, trout, chicken, beef, lamb
• Fruits: cherry, citrus, pear, dates
• Grains: oats, spelt, quinoa, sunflower seed, sesame seed, walnut, pine nut, chestnut, carob pod, sweet brown rice
• Spices: fennel, dill, anise, caraway, cinnamon, cumin
• Vegetables: parsnip, parsley, mustard greens, winter squash, cabbage, kale, onion, leek, chive, garlic, scallion
• Add ginger to black beans, lentils, or adzuki beans
• Spicy peppers are warming only in small pinches

Strengthens Essence / Fertility (Jing)

Growth and fertility
• Seafood: mussels, fish, microalgae (chlorella, spirulina, wild blue-green)
• Protein: lamb, beef, kidney, chicken, liver, kidney, brain, bone marrow, milk, ghee
• Grains: millet, wheat,cereal grasse
• Legumes: black sesame seed, black soybeans lentil
• Fruits: mulberries, raspberries, strawberries, walnuts
• Nettles, royal jelly, chestnuts
• For early postnatal care: human placenta

MOVES QI

• Vegetables: scallions, garlic and all types of onion, mustard greens, elder flowers, fresh ginger, radish and radish greens, taro, turnip
• Spices: spearmint, rosemary, peppermint, cinnamon bark and branches, dried ginger, black pepper, spicy peppers, cayenne, fennel, anise, dill, mustard, horseradish, basil, nutmeg, marjoram, cloves, white pepper

Moves Blood

• Spices: turmeric, nutmeg, garlic, basil, ginger, rosemary, cayenne, white pepper
• Vegetables: scallions, chives, eggplant
• Spearmint tea
• Chestnuts, adzuki beans, sweet rice
• Butter, rice vinegar

Lubricates the Bowel

• Grains: Barley, corn oats, rice, sweet rice, wheat, bran

• Vegetables: Spinach, beets, caulifower, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, okra, seaweed

• Fruits: banana, prunes, peaches, pears, apple, appricot,

• Nuts: Pine nuts, almonds, walnuts,sesame seeds, castor oil

•Soy products, honey

Promotes Bowel Movements

• Vegetables: Asparagus,cabbage, coconut, peas, potato, pumpkin

•Grain: bran,coconut, fig, papaya, peas, potato, pumpkin

• Fruit: coconut, fig, papaya, peas

• Castor oil

Drains Dampness (Warm and Cold)

Cold, raw foods, excessive dairy products or excessive amounts of rich or greasy foods, animal products including alcohol create damp!
• Vegetables: lettuce, celery, alfalfa, parsley, turnip, asparagus, mustard leaf, radish, daikon radish, pumpkin, horseradish, kohlrabi, mushroom (button)
• Grains/legumes: rye, amaranth, barley, aduki beans, kidney beans, buckwheat
• Spices: white pepper vinegar, basil, oregano, coriander, clove, marjoram, cardamom, caraway, garlic
• Fruits: umeboshi plums, papaya, lemon
• Protein: quail, anchovy, mackerel
• Jasmine and green tea
• Wild blue-green micro-algae

Resolves Mucus or body lumps

• Seafood: clams, shrimp, all seaweed
• Vegetables: radish, onion, celery, mustard leaf, watercress, button mushrooms, shitake mushroom
• Fruits: grapefruit, plantain, orange peel, pear, apple peel, olives
• Spices: mustard seed, thyme, marjoram, black pepper, licorice
• Peppermint tea
• Almond, walnut

Eliminates Wind (for cold or flu)

• Wind-cold: oats, pine nuts, shrimp, ginger, fennel, basil, anise
• Wind-heat: celery, kuzu, mulberry, strawberry, peppermint
• Neutral: black soybeans, black sesame seed, fresh flax oil
• Congee, ginger, bone broth, honey, garlic

Eliminates Dryness / Moistening

• Vegetables: spinach, asparagus, edamame/processed soy (tofu, tempeh, soy milk, miso), peanuts
• Grains: millet, barley
• Fruit: apple, tangerine, persimmon, pear
• Sweeteners: honey, barley malt, sugar cane, whole sugar
• Seafood and meat: oyster, clam, mussel, pork, pork kidney
• Salt, seaweed
• Pine nut

Five Elements / Flavors

Sweet – This earth element flavor, with its harmonizing properties, slows down acute reactions and neutralizes the toxic effects of other foods; also lubricates and nourishes the body. Goes to the stomach and spleen.

Sour – The astringent character of the wood element flavor is both drying and cooling. It helps to arrest abnormal discharge of fluids and other substances from the body, such as diarrhea, emission and heavy sweating. Goes to the liver and gallbladder.

Bitter – The fire element flavor clears heat, dries dampness, stimulates appetite, and promotes lowering effects like urination and bowel movements. Goes to the heart and small intestine.

Pungent/Acrid – With the metal element's rising and dispersing properties, the pungent flavor promotes distributions and circulations, and stimulates appetite. Goes to the lung and large intestine.

Salty – The water element's salty flavor consolidates and moves downward, dissipating accumulations, softens hardness, nourishes blood, and lubricates intestines to induce bowel movements. Goes to the kidney and bladder.

Helping Ourselves: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energetics by Daverick Leggett

Temperature / Energetic Properties

Did you know that foods and seasonings have specific properties and are considered the most basic form of Chinese herbs? The foods listed below can be used to enhance, harmonize and balance the body.