In this article I want to talk about the Chinese nutrition system tested by me and my wife based on five elements - Chinese dietetics and, as an introduction, about the energy that surrounds us. Elemental nutrition cycle: wood feeds fire, heat of fire Each product corresponds to an element and is also divided according to the type of thermal effect on the body - hot, warm, neutral, refreshing and cold. Boiled shrimp:
Boiled chicken:
Here are some simple recipes. I hope someone will be interested in this system and my review will be useful for preliminary acquaintance.
It all started with my interest in a healthy and happy lifestyle. My wife supports me in everything, so when I speak on my own behalf, I will mean both of us. I get the main information from the Internet, because she doesn’t like to read from the monitor screen.
I can’t say that I experience health problems, except in minor ways, like the vast majority of young people of my age (26 years old), but I have an interest in a healthy lifestyle for the comfortable continuation of this very life. For me, the word “energy” is not an empty word and I know that it exists in our lives, in everything it is, and we depend on the energy around us. Every person unconsciously feels good or bad energy in one place or another or from objects. You won’t deny that you have ever experienced a feeling of discomfort, anxiety, even fear or a desire to leave some place (everyone has their own examples), or vice versa - it happens when you come to visit someone, or sit in a restaurant - and you are so comfortable that you don’t want to leave, it’s somehow nice inside... This is the same energy that everyone can feel. I have always been interested in the question of managing this energy, how to find out exactly where it is, and use it for the benefit of yourself and your loved ones. At first I thought that knowledge and management of energy is the responsibility of shamans, fortune tellers, psychics and similar comrades who have such abilities from birth, but then I learned about the Chinese science of Feng Shui as the most advertised (unfortunately) science of energy management the surrounding world. Previously, my knowledge of Feng Shui was limited only to what most people now know - it’s such a funny thing that if you put mandarin ducks, hang a bell or a breeze, put a money tree in the desired sector of the apartment, then a lot of money will immediately fall on you and happiness! Of course, such an interpretation and knowledge in this area takes place everywhere, and of course this only causes a smile, only this is the so-called. pop feng shui, which has nothing in common with the real ancient Chinese science of harmonious exchange of energy between man and nature - Feng Shui.
By the will of fate, I saw a TV program where they showed a story about Feng Shui with the participation of a professional consultant of Chinese metaphysics of international level. We just recently bought an apartment (by the way, we chose it based on how we felt and we were not mistaken), so we wanted to arrange it in accordance with the rules of Feng Shui in order to enhance the favorable energy in the apartment and prevent bad energy. A year later (as it turned out, the crisis delayed our plans) we contacted this consultant on Chinese metaphysics and expressed our desire to bring the energy of our apartment into harmony with nature. I’d rather write about the results of this consultation in another article, but I gave such a long introduction to lead to the fact that, thanks to a consultation on Feng Shui, we made a friendly acquaintance with a good professional in Chinese metaphysics, through whom we learned about the existence of a huge knowledge-heritage Chinese, where F-Sh is just the tip of the iceberg.
So, I became interested in studying sections of Chinese metaphysics, from where I learned about the most powerful (from the point of view of the possibility of forecasting) and accurate Chinese astrology, predicting the future, unique knowledge about the directions of energy in space for the possibility of correcting life events, Chinese medicine and its section - Chinese dietetics .
Of course, many will think that I am talking nonsense and this is just another hobby, a toy that will lose relevance over time, a sect, another fairy tale for suckers like pop feng shui, only I have tested a lot of Chinese metaphysics on myself and still use it and I receive completely different benefits from this, which I had never even imagined before. From my own experience I felt the wisdom of the Chinese in their teachings, which came to us through several thousand years of practice and experience of billions of people. Patriots are starting to talk about how the Chinese are nothing at all, yellow-skinned stupid people, what can they advise the Great Russian people? Only then for the New Year they run and buy pigs, tigers and other Chinese symbols of the year and other crap. I also love Russia (not to be confused with the state of the Russian Federation) and the Russian people and respect their traditions, but unfortunately, the rich, centuries-old experience of our great people could not be conveyed to us and there is simply nothing to study, so I am studying what they were able to convey to us.
Thus, I learned about the existence of Chinese dietetics - the science of nutrition according to the five element system. There is very little information on this teaching in Russian and the only source is books written with translation into Russian by only one author - Barbara Temeli. The first book of hers that I read was “Nutrition according to the Five Element System,” which is freely available online, but unfortunately is no longer on sale anywhere. This book tells you all about this system and gives some recipes at the end. I will not retell the contents; you can do this without any problems by reading the description of the book yourself. Let me just say that this book made me think about my health, gave me a direction in which to move, made me understand that our health (and as it later turned out, life) depends on what we eat. As a result, I understood how to make food energy-filled, at the same time tasty, relatively healthy, and what is best for a particular person to eat to improve health. A positive incentive for me was that the transition to this system did not require any special effort, did not require giving up any foods, it was even interesting - just change the principle of preparing foods and dishes that were familiar to me, and in the end get an energetically nourished , delicious food from which you will not only get taste pleasure, but will also benefit your body. In general, in life I love to cook and I am good at it, and this system has given me even greater opportunities to develop my abilities. First of all, I bought a lot of spices and completely avoided seasonings (spice mixtures), now I have 12 constantly used spices and still others that are rarely used. Thanks to spices, you can “go through energy stages” when preparing dishes with an initially small amount of ingredients (according to a traditional recipe), because by adding spices to a traditional recipe, you can get an energetically complete and healthy dish! If we talk about this system in a simplified way, the meaning is that, according to the theory of Chinese metaphysics, all spiritual, emotional, energetic and material
The phenomena of the universe can be classified according to the five elements.
In other words, this is a system of analogies in which everything material, every thing and
Each abstract concept finds its own place depending on
one's nature or qualities.The elements follow one after the other
others and enrich each other in a certain order, which is called the “cycle
nutrition."Every
process and every human life inevitably goes through the stages of the five elements in
according to the food cycle: wood, fire, earth, metal, water.
awakens the earth to life, metal is extracted from the earth, metal minerals are made
life-giving water, water nourishes plants (trees)
To obtain an energetically complete, “correct” dish, it is necessary that all 5 elements, all 5 tastes are present in it, and that during preparation the cycle of 5 elements is completed (necessarily in the sequence as in the picture), then the tongue will feel the full variety of tastes and the body will receive the full energy from food, which does not happen during normal cooking. Such nutrition, ideally and by design, should be prescribed individually and by an experienced Chinese medicine doctor, depending on the characteristics of your body, in which case it will have a positive effect, but even if you follow the recommendations of the above book according to the general criteria and follow the principle of nutrition according to the seasons, then it will be much healthier and more effective than regular cooking. The most important thing in the general version is to listen to your body, how it feels better, what element it accepts better at the moment. For example, if a person has an excess of the fire element in the body, and he begins to eat generously of dishes prepared with an emphasis on the fire element and wash it down with red wine (fire), then the person will have an even greater excess of fire and this will not lead to good things, although the body he himself will tell by his own state of health that he does not like this food (heaviness in the stomach, lethargy after eating, cloudy consciousness). Saying this, I urge you not to immediately rush to try to cook according to this system without at least reading the specified book to the end.
Why don't I use seasonings? This becomes clear when you see a table of products based on 5 elements, where the spices contained in seasonings belong to different elements and, as a result, by adding seasoning to food you break the cycle of the five elements and the whole meaning of this system is lost. Also, various spices have healing properties and using them wisely, you can achieve better results in preparing healthy food.
I’ll tell you about my experience of eating according to the five element system. The first thing I noticed was that the food became tastier, the taste was fuller and more varied, each component was felt individually. You don’t feel any heaviness in your stomach after eating this way, which means it is digested better. Conscious cooking has become a more interesting activity for me; I cook food with love, which means it also receives additional energy from me. The first simple dish in which I clearly felt the difference between conventional cooking and cooking according to 5 elements was soft-boiled eggs. I just accidentally mixed up the sequence of adding ingredients one time and felt that it was no longer the same. You can easily see for yourself how this system works by conducting a similar experiment - I will give the recipe for these scrambled eggs at the end (may raw foodists forgive me). The ingredients are the same, but by breaking the cycle, we lose all the benefits of this system.
Next, we began to focus on the Earth element and made “earth” dishes, i.e. completing the cooking cycle with this element. The earth element has the characteristic of sweet taste. The wife could not live without sweets and always bought sweets every day, which negatively affected her figure. Forcibly giving up sweets is difficult and the body still does not get what it asks for, and this is not good. The problem is that we do not know how to correctly interpret the requests of our body (this is written in detail in the book). For example, in our case, the body asks for sweets, but it does not need sugar, chocolates or cakes, but rather it asks for sweet products of the Earth element - corn, wheat, dairy products, butter, etc. (everything is in the table). So we gave the body “earth” products as often as possible. As a result, the wife herself stopped eating sweets, without any volitional effort or torment! She just didn't want sweets! This is just one small miracle that can be obtained by being an amateur in this system (which I am), and by using this system intelligently under the guidance of a good nutritionist, you can achieve good results in improving your health.
Later, I learned about the existence of another book by this author - “Nutrition according to the five element system for mother and child.” There is an emphasis on nutrition during pregnancy and after childbirth. This book can be purchased online. Also, quite recently, the book “The Five Elements Cookbook” by the same author was published, which contains 200 recipes for Western cuisine adapted to the five element system, and a third of the book is devoted to a summary of the system and the features of cooking. After reading these books, you can get a fairly complete understanding of the system of five elements and learn how to apply it in your life, take the first, very simple step towards conscious nutrition and improving the quality of life, as I did not so long ago.
Also, I stopped using microwaves for cooking and heating food. The book contains a scientific basis for why this is harmful. I want to conduct my own experiment on the effects of microwaves on living organisms and I will post the results here (in fact, I don’t know what the results will be). I purchased an excellent device for heating food - an air fryer, because... It is inconvenient to heat in a frying pan. The grilled chicken it turns out is simply excellent, and you can cook a lot of other things there, and by the way, without oil, which is also another step towards a healthy diet.
I ask you not to judge strictly those people who are in the subject with regard to such a simplified presentation of the material, because I tried to convey to people in simple language an effective nutrition system.
I also want to note that this is not a diet or a means of instant weight loss, this is a nutritional system that you need to follow throughout your life, then you will benefit from it.
Next I will write a few simple recipes that I have made many times and that have been adapted to this system from ordinary recipes.
Scrambled eggs:
Heat the frying pan (fire element), pour in olive or any other oil to lubricate the frying pan (earth). Next, you need to get an egg mixture with the final element Earth: shake eggs (earth) in a glass, add spices from the Metal element (you can choose one or all, I usually add about 4 different ones) - ground pepper (whatever you like) , ground ginger, dill, coriander, marjoram, nutmeg, cardamom. After each element we mix everything. Next is the element Water - salt or I prefer soy sauce, mix. Next Tree - add parsley or vinegar as a last resort (sour taste). Next Fire - add turmeric (very useful, cleanses the body). Finally, I usually add saffron, but you can also add a drop of olive or sunflower oil, or for those who like it, milk (it will be more tender). So, we got the “earthen” mixture, pour it into the “earthen” frying pan and fry until done.
As a result, we get “earthen” scrambled eggs.
For myself, I usually use the following proportions of ingredients: 3 medium eggs, about a pinch of spices - two, soy sauce "by eye".
As you can see, you can always find from this set what you have in the kitchen (except that not everyone has turmeric, but I recommend buying it and adding it wherever you can). Try using the same ingredients, but not in order, compare.
We buy frozen boiled shrimp (others are simply not sold). You can defrost it, or you can throw it straight into the water. Any quantity, spices to taste, I usually buy 1.5-2 kg of shrimp for two people so that two people can eat with beer so that there is enough.
Shrimp are the element Water, and you need to add them to boiling water (element Fire), between them there is an intermediate element - Metal, so first we will go along the chain until the moment the shrimp are dumped.
So - there is boiling water in a pan. For the Earth, add saffron (it gives a pleasant taste) or if not, then olive oil or any other. Add the spices of the Metal element (a similar set is usually used in seasonings for shrimp, but the elements often interfere, so for our purposes using it is not an option): dried garlic, hot pepper (white, black, red, allspice, or a mixture of five peppers, and you can use just one), ground ginger, coriander, dried dill, marjoram, cardamom. Next, add salt (about a tablespoon per liter of water, but whoever likes salt) and then the shrimp. Next, add dry parsley or lemon juice, or vinegar (wood element). Next is turmeric, or if there is none, then add boiling water so as not to miss the fire element, this is usually if there is not enough water to go to the Earth, but if there is enough of everything, then we can stop at the Tree, because we have already completed the full cycle and then there will be "wooden" shrimp. But if you have tried it and something is missing from your taste (you want something saltier or spicier), then you need to go through the whole cycle again and finish on the desired element. You can go back one element, add it, and then again add the element you stopped at. For example, you forgot to add (or not enough) salt, and you are already on Fire, then you need to add earth, metal, and then only salt, and then if you need to continue to the selected element (for me it was usually earth). Don't forget to stir after each element.
And here is such an energetically full and tasty snack with live beer! Much healthier than bottled powdered beer with chips!
The chicken turns out amazing, the broth can also be drunk separately later - very healthy and full of energy, it can also be used as a base for soup. The longer you cook, the more energy the chicken becomes saturated with. The Chinese give women this broth after childbirth (I don’t know about the spices), boiled for several days, to replenish lost energy.
So, take water boiling in a saucepan (Fire), add saffron or oil (Earth). Add cardamom, fresh ginger slices, ground pepper. We interfere. Add salt. Next, add the chicken (I usually used kits for chicken kebab, there are thighs and drumsticks, I like it better, but if I continued cooking, I would buy homemade chicken, otherwise it’s not clear what they stuff broiler chicken with). We add turmeric if we want to continue the cycle, or we stop at Wood. The concentration of spices should not be too strong - the chicken will give its own taste anyway. Ginger is very useful, especially fresh - I add about 50-80 grams of it to the pan.
— article from Maxim Kopylov. Maxim is an astrologer, a master of the ancient and mysterious ancient Chinese art of Ba-Tzu, he himself lives by it and advises. A year ago Maxim introduced me to this knowledge. I was very surprised then how accurately astrology reflected my life. Since then, Maxim and I have already made a dozen joint projects - based on talents, purpose, relationships, business. And in each of them, the knowledge of Ba Tzu is organically integrated and complements the awareness of the participants.
I became interested in how Ba-Tzu works with figure and excess weight, and I asked Maxim to write an article for you. Enjoy!
Yours, Andrey Ryskov
Power supply according to the 5-element system
During personal consultations, I am often asked about the topic of health in the art of the Destiny Code. To which I honestly and directly answer - the Code of a person’s Destiny contains all the information about his health. All thin spots and gaps in health, potentially weakened organs, susceptibility to fractures, injuries, and diseases. Even the possibility of car accidents - all this information is in the Human Fate Code.
But more importantly, the second part of a person’s Fate Code - his Pillars of Luck also contains information about when a particular disease can break free and when it is reliably covered. After all, a defect in a part, for example, a “shell” (cavity) in a cast part, does not reveal itself immediately, but when the load on a certain place increases.
People say “where it’s thin, it breaks.” If there is a gun hanging on the wall, then in the second act it must fire. Although, on the other hand, having the potential for some serious illness, a person can live his whole life and never get sick. Many factors play a role in this.
And today I want to tell you about one of them - the proper nutrition system. Power supply according to the 5-element system.
From the open course “Discover your Destiny” you already know about the five elements of Chinese metaphysics: Fire, Soil, metal, Water And Tree. And that everything around us, including material objects and immaterial energies, can be attributed to one or another element. Of course, very rarely they are pure (usually a combination of several elements). And thus, food products can also be attributed to one or another element.
Signs of spontaneous products
There are several signs by which these products can be attributed to one or another element. Let's try to figure out what these signs are.
1. Of course, the taste of food comes first. I'm not talking about the taste that food acquires after exposure to seasonings and heat treatment, but about what the original product has. If you remember, the five elements correspond to five tastes: wood - sour, fire - bitter, soil - sweet, metal - pungent and water - salty. If you know this, you can easily guess what element you are currently missing. And to be more correct, what element is currently unbalanced in your body. How? Guess for yourself and write in the comments about your guess. And most importantly, this guess can lead you to which organ now requires your attention. After all, our organs also belong to the five elements. 5 points to the one who remembers and writes below which organ belongs to which element.
2. The next point is... product processing. We are familiar with many ways of preparing food - from simple cutting into slices and slices, to stewing in the oven for many hours. Everything here is more or less clear. If food is exposed to fire, the fire element intensifies. If food is boiled, the element of water is strengthened (and a little fire - always when there is heat treatment at high temperatures, fire will be present). The use of hot seasonings in cooking enhances the metal in food; vinegar and fermented milk environment enhances wood. If we cook in a sweet sauce, then the soil element gets a bonus.
3. In third place I will put the temperature of the dish. Be that as it may, too hot food increases the fire, and cold food increases the water. This is of course not entirely correct in relation to the elements, but in general it is correct. Although here you need to take into account that too hot and cold food is unfavorable for the body. It does not support, but destroys and harms. Thus, cold (ice or refrigerator) water or juices in summer can harm the stomach and create an imbalance in the flow of qi in the middle heater. Which can lead to obesity (many people in the US suffer from this due to their addiction to very cold drinks).
4. Fourth factor is not directly related to the elements, but it is very important. Its essence is that all of our food contains yin and yang energy. Do you remember what properties these energies have? Yin energy is the energy of the Moon, absorption, absorption, peace, immobility, this is stagnant water - a lake or a swamp. Yang energy is the energy of the Sun, movement, pushing, action and the energy of running water - a waterfall, a river. The more we consume foods containing yang energy, the more active and energetic we become. If we eat Yin food, then we become lethargic, apathetic, and lazy. Fat and water begin to accumulate in the tissues, leading to obesity and excess weight. We begin to enjoy lying in front of the TV while eating tons of food.
It is very important to understand here that any food that is processed loses yang energy. If food can be stored for a month or more, then there is no yang energy there at all. Now you understand that, in principle, eating the food that we buy in supermarkets and being healthy and slim is a really difficult question.
In addition, there are few yang products in nature, but they exist and you need to know them. Interesting? Write below and in the next article I will tell you more about foods that contain a lot of yang energy.
Weight correction
If we talk about the problem of excess weight, then of course many factors can lead to it.
Example: A young woman with a sedentary job has been overweight for several years. Numerous diets, while bringing a short-term effect, ultimately only worsened the condition. The main symptoms are fatigue, especially after eating, a feeling of fullness, gas, strong cravings for sweets and coffee. There is no thirst, the hands and feet are cold even in summer; in winter they are very cold. In the morning - swelling of the face and depression.
It turns out that since childhood, the mother, who was a supporter of dairy products, taught her daughter to eat them. The moisturizing and cooling effect of dairy products led to a lack of qi in the spleen. In this situation, there is a lack of qi and heat in the body, which leads to the accumulation of fat and water in the body tissues. Diets that relied heavily on tropical fruits (which cool the body) only made this situation worse. Since the spleen is responsible for distributing fluid in the body, the lack of qi and strength in the spleen has led to its disruption. The result is swelling of the face in the morning.
This is how excessive cooling of the body leads to a slowdown in metabolism and excess weight, as a result of an excess of yin energy. Of course, there are many of these factors and in each specific case the situation must be considered individually.
If the topic of nutrition and losing excess weight is relevant, then write in the comments. I can then post a list of products by element in the next article. And also tell us more about the 5-element power supply system.
Continuing the topic of body correction, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the well-known methods of combating excess weight remind me of how many of us struggle with weeds in the country. Do you have a dacha or vegetable garden? If you have ever worked on your plot, then you know that there is such a weed - “wheatgrass”. It is very difficult to get rid of it, because in the process of evolution it has become practically invulnerable. You pull out the stem, but the root breaks off easily. However, dozens of roots remain underground, diverging in different directions and to great depths. You arrive a week later and the garden is again full of thickets, as if you hadn’t worked all day tearing them out.
The only way to combat it is to painstakingly dig out all the roots that are located underground. “Look at the root,” said Kozma Prutkov. We very often try to get rid of consequences without understanding the reasons for what is happening. As a result, very often we only make the situation worse. Likewise, in the fight against excess weight and signs of old age - wrinkles, stretch marks, cellulite, women intensively rub creams, inject various rubbish under the skin, and do multiple procedures. They help, but not for long.
So what is the big question here?
I am very interested to know your opinion, dear women - write below, and I will tell you about it in the next letter.
Body correction using Revita Institute technologies
A small digression from the topic of the article. Andrey, lately, has been writing to you about a figurative approach to the body and working with energy. The topic of figure correction, body rejuvenation, getting rid of cellulite and stretch marks occupies an important place in the work of the Revita rejuvenation institute of Master Ali, with whom we both study. This is where they work and change you at a deep level. I would like to talk about my experience of weight correction using these technologies.
Last year I attended one of the seminars where I worked with masters Quddus and Ali. Of course I don't need to lose weight. For me, the other side of the coin is more relevant - gaining a couple of kilograms. With my accelerated metabolism over the past 10 years, I have maintained a constant weight and it is not possible to increase weight without using various supplements.
However, while undergoing training, I received several practices on working with an ideal figure through energy practices and working with the primary elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether (not to be confused with the five elements of Chinese metaphysics). By nature, I belong to the tribe of Thinkers and therefore I have always wanted to have practices at my disposal in which I do not have to sweat a lot on the machines and in the gym. But at the same time have a beautiful and sculpted figure. To be honest, I didn’t practice them much - I just did them a few times and forgot about them. Imagine my surprise when a couple of weeks later my girlfriend noted my muscles and toned shoulders. I was surprised, but practicing just a few exercises led to quick results with almost no effort on my part!
The effect, of course, wore off after a month or two, because I didn’t pay much attention to it, and summer was over. But the memory remains - the techniques work! So, anyone who has a desire to work on their figure is invited to trainings and retreats with Master Ali. In his presence, all practices come naturally and easily. And the weight melts before our eyes. Master Ali promises that in 10 days you can easily lose from 5 to 7 kg without exhausting diets and physical abuse of yourself. But the Master does not throw words to the wind. As they say - the master of brooms does not knit, and if he knits, then only branded ones!
The next retreat starts today. I will be glad to see those who decided to go with us there (yes, Andrey and I will be there too). And for those who didn’t make it, watch the announcements. Is it time to take care of your body?
Maxim Kopylov,
especially for the flash mob “Body correction for August”
Food, like everything in our world, can be described by a system of 5 elements. To determine which of the 5 elements a particular food product belongs to, taste and smell are primarily important. Shape and color influence the definition of the element only in a secondary way. For food, what is much more important is how it affects the body.
Food with a pronounced sour taste belongs to the Wood element. Bitter - to the element of Fire. Earth is sweet and Metal is pungent. Well, foods with a salty taste are the element of Water.
5 Element Food Chart
| Tree | Fire | Earth | Metal | Water | |
| Fruits and berries | Orange, lemon, tangerine, pomegranate, kiwi, sour apples, cherry plum, currants, raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, lingonberries | Grapefruit, quince, viburnum, rowan | Apricot, peach, banana, dates, grapes, raisins, sweet apples, watermelon, melon, coconut | ||
| Vegetables | Sour cabbage, bean sprouts, sorrel, pickled vegetables | Brussels sprouts, beets, arugula, artichoke | Potatoes, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkin, cabbage, bell peppers | Garlic, green onions, horseradish, radish, radish | Soy, olives |
| Meat | Chicken, duck | Lamb, goat meat | Beef | Rabbit, venison, pheasant | Pork, ham, sausages, fish, seafood |
| Cereals | Millet groats, wheat bran, sprouts | Buckwheat, rye, amaranth | Corn, millet, pearl barley | Oats, rice | Legumes |
| Herbs and spices | Vinegar, parsley | Red paprika, basil, turmeric, poppy, oregano, thyme | Sugar, honey | Hot pepper, cinnamon, ginger, coriander, dill, bay leaf, nutmeg | Salt, soy sauce |
| Beverages | Yogurt, kefir, fermented baked milk, white wine, cider, kvass, rosehip tea, hibiscus | Coffee, cocoa, chicory, tea, pu-erh, beer, cognac, red wine | Milk, apple juice, grape juice, liqueur, mead | Vodka, tequila, sake, schnapps | Water, mineral water |
From the book “Five Element Nutrition” by Barbara Temeli.
Diseases caused by poor diet and industrially processed foods
Here are foods that, due to an unconscious attitude to nutrition, to one degree or another lead to a lack of qi in the spleen:
factory sugar and all products in which it is present: sweets, chocolate, confectionery, ketchup, lemonade, cola, etc.; products containing a large amount of phosphates: cola, juices, processed cheeses, sausages, smoked meats; food that does not contain qi, has been subjected to industrial processing canned food ready-to-eat, prepared foods including sauces soups and spice mixtures semi-finished products for baking, bread, buns, puffed products, etc.
Humidity suppresses qi in the spleen (excess yin). Lack of qi in the spleen is always combined with improper distribution of fluids in the body and the appearance of dampness, especially with excessive consumption of dairy products (except butter) and sweets. Unlike margarine, butter from a specialty health food store restores qi, does not cause mucus, and is therefore a high-quality food product. Dairy products, chocolate, even honey and all natural sweets moisturize the body. In this case, the moisture may have a different consistency. Over time, the moisture thickens, forming mucus. In particular, chocolate forms “hot” mucus, which is persistent and toxic, because cocoa, which has a warm effect, dries out the moisture of the remaining components - milk and sugar. This interferes with the flow of qi and leads to the formation of waste. Dairy products create moisture, which, figuratively speaking, suffocates the spleen. This also stops the flow of qi, resulting in accumulations of water in organs and tissues. They are always the cause of excess weight, and often also chronic runny nose, colds, especially in children, bronchitis, inflammation of the frontal and maxillary sinuses, as well as allergies. The consequences of fluid accumulation in the tissues are cellulite on the thighs and buttocks, swelling in the face, especially in the morning, and swollen hands. With further development, the excess of yin in the spleen described here gives the following symptoms: a feeling of heaviness in the arms and legs, fog in the head, lack of thirst, depression, gas, mushy stool, and sometimes lightheadedness. If the fire in the kidneys is weakened by humidity, severe fatigue and swelling of the lower extremities up to the knees and all other signs of yang deficiency occur. Humidity combined with heat can attack the gallbladder, resulting in colic and stones. In general, we can say that any poorly digestible food contributes to the formation of moisture, and then mucus.
The stomach is the strongest organ
The stomach can endure a lot, and it will take a long time before signs of illness make themselves felt. Together with the large intestine, the stomach forms an internal barrier against disease. External defense is carried out by wei qi - protective energy controlled by the lungs, which, as it were, envelops the body in an invisible shell. When this defense fails, a superficial illness such as a cold occurs.
In order for a child to grow and develop well, he needs a reliable, protected place. Creating and maintaining a family home is a task that coincides with the basic instinct of a woman and mother. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that women are often more careful with money and strive for stability more than men.
The organs of the spleen and stomach, yellow color, bioclimatic factor, humidity, and sweet taste are subject to this element.
Organ spleen
When we talk about the spleen, as a rule, we mean both organs: the spleen and the pancreas, as well as their common meridian. The overall function of these organs and the meridian represents what in Chinese medicine today is correctly called the “spleen-pancreas functional cycle.” In ancient China, corpses were not allowed to be opened, so Chinese medicine did not have the systematic anatomical information that formed the basis of Western medicine.
As already mentioned, the organs of the earth - the spleen and stomach - perform an important function: they extract qi from food in order to receive their own, acquired qi from it.
The spleen is called the queen of juices. It is responsible for nutrition and hydration of tissues and muscles and for the distribution of fluids in the body. Hence its function is to control muscles and tissues. The liver controls muscle tone, that is, their tension, and the spleen nourishes them, which means it determines their strength.
If the skin bruises easily or there is cellulite, the cause lies in weak spleen qi. Then fatigue and lack of concentration arise because the weak spleen produces insufficient qi from food, which leads to a weakening of the entire body. Excessive cravings for sweets occur because the sweet taste nourishes the spleen, and also because the spleen controls the sense of taste. Thus, the body is able to notify about its needs and demand the taste it needs. Another question is whether we know how to correctly interpret and satisfy this need.
Other signs are cold hands and a pale face, and the reason is that the lack of qi slows down the blood flow and the periphery no longer receives enough nutrition. For the same reason, fat pads appear on the buttocks, hips and thighs, as well as general excess weight - because with weak qi in the spleen, metabolism slows down and water accumulates in the body. Mushy stool, sometimes with undigested food particles, is an indicator that food is not digested and the body is not receiving enough nutrients and qi. The digestive tract is weakened and cooled, so the consequences are lack of appetite, gas and a feeling of fullness. If the lack of qi has spread and moved from the spleen to the upper heater - the lungs - weakening it, then bouts of sweating may occur during the day even in the absence of physical stress. The lungs lose the ability to control the skin and it lacks the strength to keep the pores closed, which leads to sweat.
If the cooling process continues to spread, the lack of qi in the spleen turns into a lack of yang - a state of cold. The stool becomes liquid, its frequency increases, and general fatigue increases because the lack of qi affects other organs. Abdominal pain may occur, and weakening of connective tissues can lead, for example, to uterine prolapse.
The consequence of a chronic lack of qi in the spleen is often a lack of blood, which is accompanied by night blindness, increased sensitivity to light, numbness of the limbs, and emotional vulnerability. Flickering in the eyes and sleep disturbances may occur because the basis of hematopoiesis is acquired qi. When consuming raw plant foods, cold fruits and white sugar, the process develops further - all this leads to a weakening of the yang of the lower heater, that is, to a lack of yang in the kidneys. Cold hands are accompanied by cold feet, knees, thighs and buttocks. After lying for a long time, back pain occurs early in the morning, which goes away with movement. There is a need to urinate at night, and libido decreases. The general condition is characterized by exhaustion and joylessness.
One-sided diets and poor eating habits
Causes of qi deficiency: consumption of qi-free, cooling, overly moisturizing and difficult-to-digest foods; decreased sensitivity to digestive disorders; eating habits aimed at obtaining immediate pleasure; taken for granted deceptively convincing and at the same time one-sided nutritional systems; diets aimed at losing weight and fasting in pursuit of slimness; and often well-intentioned advice from doctors and consultants, based on the latest research in nutritional science.
These days, many people are seriously trying to eat healthy. But with so much conflicting information, often containing half-truths and exaggerations, many nutrition-conscious people are headed in the completely wrong direction. The arguments on which modern nutrition systems base their recommendations are one-sided, because they ignore the energy effect of food, its thermal properties and digestibility. Blind faith in science and the gullibility of those who seek help lead to the fact that people, even after noticing that a particular nutritional system does not suit them, continue to persist. And the reason is that the author of the next healthy diet warned at the very beginning: a change will lead to illness. How long these ailments will last, whether they are a consequence of poor digestibility of new food and whether the body suffers from this is difficult for victims of the diet to judge.
The main problem of all modern nutrition systems and diets is that they neglect the energy aspect, the thermal effect of foods. All methods based on Western nutritional physiology recommend too much raw plant foods, dairy products and fruits, which sets the stage for the development of yang weakness and moisture. The middle heater - the spleen - is weakened, and the production of acquired qi decreases.
Diseases caused by “healthy” food
The following are foods and eating habits that are recommended by various nutritional systems and, when used over a long period of time or in excess, cause a lack of spleen qi in many people:
cheese, milk, yogurt, other fermented milk products;
raw vegetables; raw cereals in the form of fresh grain puree, flakes or so-called muesli;
large quantities of fruits and southern fruits, including bananas, oranges and kiwis, as well as fruit salads;
large quantities of drinks even in the absence of thirst;
fasting, refusal of breakfast;
sandwiches with cheese or jam, cereals with dairy products, raw fruit for breakfast.
The most stupid (excuse the expression) recommendation is that it is best to eat only fruits in the morning. As has already been said, only a tiny percentage of people can tolerate such a breakfast. The majority of those who were and are still guided by this nonsense, which is propagated by a book that has sold millions of copies, cause damage to the qi of the spleen and yang of the kidneys, their vital energy, efficiency, cheerfulness, quality of life in general, especially in old age, and, in addition, sexual attraction. Weakness of the spleen and kidneys creates favorable conditions for childhood allergies - this happens if the mother followed such a diet before or during pregnancy or in some other way weakened the spleen. This promotes the development of fungus in the intestines and weakens the immune system. I call this advice stupid because it is based on this argument: in the morning, digestive energy is so weak that fruit is most easily digested. You can easily see for yourself how much this argument contradicts the truth, because it is based on erroneous assumptions. It goes without saying that fruits are not easily digestible, and digestive energy is strongest in the morning. According to the Chinese clock, which describes the cyclical strengthening and weakening of qi in individual organs over a period of twenty-four hours, in the functional cycles of the spleen and stomach, that is, in the digestive tract, qi reaches its peak between seven and eleven o'clock in the morning. This is the best time to extract from food the maximum amount of qi needed for an active day. It can be obtained from a healthy warm breakfast: cooked cereals with savory or sweet seasonings, semolina, cereal or soup.
Compiled by Lyubov Ilyenko
One of the patterns of the five elements is that each element always controls the one that comes one after it. The task of the ruler element is to ensure that the organ subordinate to it does not feel an excess of the yang or yin root. What does he do for this? Either uses its yang energy, its heat, to reduce excess yin, or uses its yin energy to reduce excess chi. One can easily assume that, on the one hand, an organ can perform these functions only if it itself has sufficient yin or yang. On the other hand, its yin or yang will be exhausted over time if it is constantly spent only on harmonizing the subordinate organ.
Here's one example: the task of the yang of the heart within the control cycle is to reduce yin in the lungs if its excess occurs there. Excess yin in the lungs is present when there is mucus there, as with a runny nose. Often, excess yin in the lungs occurs due to excessive consumption of sweets and dairy products, or both - having a moisturizing effect, they first strengthen the yin in the spleen. In the nutritional cycle, the spleen precedes the lungs and involuntarily transfers its excess yin to the lungs, since its own yang is not enough to convert moisture. The result is moisture in the lungs with a tendency to catch colds accompanied by a lot of mucus. If the consumption of moisturizing foods becomes habitual, as with “normal” baby food, this will eventually lead to a decrease in yang in the heart. After all, the heart must, on the one hand, give yang to the spleen in order to increase its level there (nutrition cycle), and on the other hand, it spends its yang to reduce excess yin in the lungs (control cycle).
A decrease in yang in the heart with a simultaneous excess of yin in the spleen and lungs means weakened digestion, mental alertness and ability to concentrate, as well as susceptibility to colds or chronic runny nose. Try to find a kindergarten where this syndrome is not observed in at least a few children! And the reason is citrus fruits, bananas, raw plant foods, cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese and sweets, including refined sugar and honey. Isn’t it a fact that all of the listed products, except sugar, are considered healthy?
Control cycle for elements: wood penetrates the earth, fire melts metal, earth blocks the path of water, metal cuts wood, water extinguishes fire
Briefly, the treatment is as follows: for breakfast - boiled cereals, including millet, polenta or oatmeal, with compote and cinnamon; for lunch and dinner - meat broth with vegetables or other warming boiled dishes. In two weeks, excessive cravings for sweets will decrease and chronic runny nose will disappear. The child will become more receptive, focused, active and cheerful. Instead of sitting in front of the TV, he will be more willing to run outside to play. The control cycle describes one of many patterns, following which, the disease spreads from organ to organ. It is important to stop this process because the longer it goes on, the more organs it affects and the more difficult it will be to heal. Here the best defense will be a balanced diet: combining several tastes and matching the thermal properties of foods with the seasons will balance the body before diseases spread, following the path described above. Unfortunately, in life the opposite is more often the case. Heart disease is combined with kidney disorders, and gallbladder disease with stomach problems, etc., and these relationships, as a rule, go unnoticed.
The influence of different tastes in the control cycle
Just as the organs control each other, the taste of foods affects the yin or yang of the organs. A balanced ratio of different tastes keeps yin and yang in balance. An excess of any of the tastes sooner or later leads to a violation of this balance. The exception is sweet taste, because it has a harmonizing effect by nature. Mildly sweet foods, including grains, vegetables, legumes and meat, make up the majority of our diet.
The tree penetrates the ground
Sour taste corresponds to the element wood, and earth follows one element after wood. In terms of taste, this means that in the nutrition cycle, an excess of cold, sour foods increases yin in the heart, and in the control cycle, it decreases yang in the earth organs - the spleen and stomach. This is precisely the effect that yogurt and southern fruits, which are sour and cold in their properties - components of a typical diet for weight loss, have.
The organs of the earth are cooling and no longer produce the acquired qi energy in sufficient quantities. Over time, this leads to a general lack of qi in the body, and in the control cycle can lead to weakening of yang in the kidneys. It goes without saying that a body with weakened qi is unable to produce heat to burn fat. Therefore, weight loss is zero. After thirty years of experience in counting calories, I have accumulated enough examples that confirm the correctness of the mechanism described above: when reducing the number of calories consumed, weight loss is always short-term.
Of course, such a diet gives better results in young people, since they still have enough innate qi to replenish the deficiency resulting from fasting and eating cooling foods. The same applies to men who naturally have more yang. But women after thirty years have serious problems that get worse after thirty-five. At this age, innate qi is no longer as strong as in youth. The diet is no longer successful, and chronic diseases begin to develop as a result of a lack of qi. It has been proven that osteoporosis most often occurs in women who have restricted their calorie intake for years.
Metal cuts wood
Here are some examples of how the control loop can be applied to a variety of elemental analogies: scissors (metal) cuts paper (wood), and an ax cuts wood. A friend (wood) is not given a knife (metal), but is sold, as it were, taking a symbolic payment in return, and a needle is never borrowed from a neighbor, because this can destroy the friendship. Maintaining friendly relations is a quality that is subject to the wood element. An old belief says that friends never give or lend each other metal objects that can cause injury. It is interesting that in European culture one can find many parallels that are akin to the system of analogies developed for the five elements.
The pungent taste (metal), which governs the organs of the element wood, is often abused without understanding the relationships and thus without considering the harmful consequences.
Spicy-cold and spicy-refreshing foods, including rice, radish, and radish, refresh and relax the liver, thereby preventing excess yang. But the abuse of spicy-warm and spicy-hot foods, which include hot seasonings, strong alcoholic drinks, chili peppers, curry, garlic and raw onions, leads to an excess of yang in the organs of the wood element, which is further aggravated by emotional stress and lack of time and troubles at work. As a result, conditions such as attacks of anger and rage, irritability, tension in the muscles of the neck and shoulder girdle, burning in the eyes, inflammation of the liver, colic in the gallbladder, increased blood pressure and even bleeding in the brain can occur.
The list of these ailments, most of them serious, is intended to draw your attention to the fact that excessive consumption of hot and spicy foods for a long time can have extremely harmful consequences. And for people who already suffer from such disorders, it should help them decide to give up spicy seasonings, strong alcoholic drinks and, especially, garlic.
Garlic is widely known as a cure for all diseases. I must say that this is an exaggeration. It is useful for arteriosclerosis and colds. For people with a hot constitution or with existing disorders in the organs of the wood element, it is definitely harmful, especially in its raw form.
Many people believe that it is impossible to cook without garlic. Don't let this idea limit you. Having parted with it, you will immediately notice what variety of tastes you have so far denied yourself. When you start using garlic only occasionally, it will become a real delight for you.
FIRE
The fire element is the big yang of summer. Youth has the nature of fire, which strives for new things, absorbs knowledge and explores everything. Fire is responsible for spiritual development, inspiration, intuition, curiosity, interest and learning. From the Chinese point of view, the earth is yin and the sky is yang. Being between them, a person, with the help of his mind, combines the bottom and the top into a unity full of meaning.
At the bottom he stands firmly on the ground with both feet, and at the top he is able to reach the stars - this is how a person lives his life. This element controls the organs heart and small intestine, red color, bioclimatic heat factor, bitter taste.
Organs: heart and small intestine
So, the organs belonging to fire are the heart and small intestine, as well as the functional cycles of the three heaters and the blood circulation; However, for understanding the doctrine of nutrition, the last two do not play a special role. The heart controls the blood vessels, personal charm which is reflected in the face and eyes, the ability to express oneself, language, facial expressions and speech. The heart is called the emperor of organs. All disturbances and beneficial effects occurring in other organs are registered in the heart and manifested in the tongue. This is why tongue diagnosis plays such an important role in TCM. It is especially important for the early detection of heart disease. The light shining on the face and eyes reflects the state of the heart. In those moments when you looked especially good, you were probably asked at least once if you were in love. Conversely, when you are in love, you are showered with compliments about your appearance.
The ability to express oneself, charm people, and make oneself listen also depends on the strength of the heart. To give weight to what was said or to swear love and sincerity, again, they put their hand on their heart.
If the yang of the heart is weakened, a person speaks very slowly or prefers not to speak at all. If there is an excess of heat in the heart or a lack of juices, if a person speaks very quickly, a lot, and most often confusedly. Heart energy disturbances affect sleep. Difficulty falling asleep and poor sleep are indicators of lack of blood, lack of yin, or heat in the heart.
When diseases caused by poor nutrition occur, the small intestine, as a partner of the heart, plays a subordinate role, because these disorders are associated with the pathology of the entire digestive tract, and in diet therapy they are always treated together with disorders of the spleen. From the TCM point of view, the small intestine has a special function, the disruption of which can explain all recurrent bladder disorders that are not caused by bacteria. A constant lack of time is a stress factor that causes excess heat in the heart. The small intestine's job is to remove this heat through the bladder to protect the heart. This process causes burning and pain when urinating and can lead to bladder inflammation. In this case, nutritional therapy aims to cool the heart with refreshing foods and eliminate coffee consumption. In addition, it is advisable to avoid overexertion and situations that threaten time pressure for a long time.
Emotions and Spiritual Correspondences
The fire element controls joy and laughter. Supreme joy arises regardless of external conditions, so that neither rainy weather nor other unfavorable circumstances can destroy it. Cheerfulness and inner smile in any life circumstances are the result of both Taoist and Buddhist spiritual practices.
Here's one simple exercise: pay more attention to those phenomena and human traits that we like, and less to what you don't like. In this way, you can discover a lot of beauty in the world and gain the ability to enhance precisely this. Probably, from time to time everyone has to deal with a person in whom nothing worthy can be found. Don't let this bother you: something will still be found. And if one day, when he ties a nice tie or she puts on a nice blouse, you manage to overcome yourself and give a compliment, the situation may change. Unexpectedly, you will see a friendly response where previously you only encountered hostility. Buddhist practice manifests itself in everyday life so simply, effectively and freshly, Because in reality, every person carries love and wisdom within himself and feels gratitude when he is helped to discover them.
And the one who meticulously looks for mistakes will always and everywhere find shortcomings and weak points and will encounter little pleasant things in life. By changing your mindset, you can eventually come to the understanding that objects do not exist separately from the one who perceives them, that it is our vision of the world that determines what we consider correct. A difficult situation can always be perceived as a challenge: it makes us stronger and gives us the opportunity to develop. And bright, spontaneous, happy and touching experiences show us the hidden capabilities of our spirit.
In China, both spiritual paths were and are practiced - Taoism and Buddhism. However, the philosophy of medicine and a conscious attitude to health arose earlier than the Taoist worldview, and when Buddhism came to China in the first centuries of our era, Chinese medicine had already accumulated thousands of years of development experience. Taoist spiritual practices contain many components and are aimed at strengthening health, prolonging life and improving its quality. Taoist health exercises such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong, which have survived to this day as a living tradition, have incomparable effects when taught and performed correctly.
The Buddhist path, unlike the Taoist one, focuses exclusively and directly on the mind and uses methods that should retain their effectiveness after death. The fruits of Buddhist practice depend primarily on the strength of the unbroken lineage of the teacher who transmits the spiritual methods, therefore in Buddhism the teacher-disciple relationship is given exceptional importance. Taoism must be given its due in that its practices aimed at spiritual development allow one to obtain outstanding results in the field of health, and even today in China one can easily find practitioners of Taoism who will confirm that Buddhism allows one to obtain outstanding results in the field of direct work wisely.
Spiritual knowledge, as well as curiosity, openness to new things and a love of learning are the best guarantee of a long life and youthful freshness, in other words, a guarantee of a healthy heart. There are many older people who retain spiritual interests and openness to new things and lead active and joyful lives in their declining years. And something else is necessary for the heart: you need to give yourself time. Time for leisure, to think, reflect: do you really want to do what you are doing; time to take a look
into yourself, in order to enjoy, in order to have time to see the small things, because the small things are just as important as the big things, and the hidden things are just as important as the obvious ones - you need to give yourself time for all this.
Time is subject to the element fire. Most often, the heart suffers from lack of time. Along with intellectual overstrain and other mental stress, stress most often leads to excess heat or lack of juices in the heart. In addition, the already existing lack of blood in the liver, combined with mental stress, can eventually develop into a lack of blood in the heart. The results will be nervousness, fearfulness, sleep disturbances, bladder inflammation, heart disease and ulcers in the small intestine. And lack of sleep is fraught with a loss of juice in the heart.
The feeling of being misunderstood most often coexists with the inability to express one’s thoughts. These and other difficulties with self-expression, such as stuttering, as well as confusion and mental illness, are the result of a heart-small intestine disorder.
Bioclimatic heat factor
Heat is a bioclimatic factor that is most harmful to the heart. When in the sun, it is important to cover your head, because heat penetrates the body most quickly through it. Don't get too carried away with tanning: it is harmful to the skin and contributes to the development of cancer. But heat affects not only the surface of the body - penetrating deep into the body, it can cause disorders, the signs of which will appear only several months later. A sudden rise in temperature and flu-like symptoms or skin problems occur. If you remove only the symptoms without moderating the heat in the body, chronic diseases may develop.
Bitter taste
The fire element includes foods with a bitter taste, as well as buckwheat, rye, lamb, goat meat and all products made from them. Red foods, including sweet cherries, red grapes and sweet red peppers, taste of the earth element and, in addition, due to their color, have an energetic effect on the organs of the fire element. Bitter taste promotes the downward movement of qi.
Bitter herbs, which are included, for example, in choleretic teas, have a cooling effect and accelerate the downward movement of the contents of the stomach and intestines. In addition, this movement stimulates the outflow of bile, which is especially beneficial for the gallbladder, which is prone to heat and stagnation. This effect is also beneficial for the digestion of fats, which worsens with gallbladder diseases. The downward movement is important to maintain for all digestive disorders. Aperitifs, like many edible herbs, have a bitter taste because their job is to stimulate the digestive tract. After meals, they drink bitter liqueurs and coffee - primarily in order to mobilize the body to digest fatty foods.
During intense mental work and stress, cold-bitter salad herbs, including chicory, regular and lettuce, endive and other fruitful and refreshing products related to the elements of fire and wood, such as red grape, will help cool the heat in the heart and replenish the juices. juice diluted with hot water. Drinks and herbs with bitter-warm properties: coffee, cocoa, red wine, thyme and basil have a drying effect. They are great for keeping your body hydrated in wet weather.
In the nutrition cycle, the fire element is followed by the earth element with its subordinate organs - the spleen and stomach. The spleen most often suffers from moisture. The bitter-warm taste, used in the right amount, strengthens the spleen qi and prevents the accumulation of moisture.
In excess, bitter-warm foods, such as coffee and red wine, cause a lack of juices and heat in the heart. This, in turn, supports a similar process in the stomach, which can serve as the basis for the formation of ulcers there. As a rule, for any diseases caused by a lack of substance (hair loss, osteoporosis), as well as for lack of blood and poor circulation, it is necessary to avoid bitter-warm tastes and roasted foods such as coffee and cocoa, because they further aggravate destruction of the substance and make the walls of blood vessels less elastic.
Coffee is a drug that in small doses has a healing effect, but in large doses it has a destructive effect. For most people, the strong need for coffee is due to a lack of qi in the spleen and a lack of yang in the kidneys. Coffee warms these organs for a short time, driving away fatigue, lack of concentration and internal cold. But this, of course, does not eliminate the underlying deficiency of qi and yang. You only relieve the symptoms by driving deeper into the root cause.
Control cycle
Fire controls metal. The organs of the lungs and large intestine are subject to metal. In the control cycle, excessive consumption of coffee and cigarettes, which have a drying effect, causes a lack of yin in the lungs and large intestine. The lungs are responsible for the activities of the skin. Lack of yin in the lungs dries out the skin and causes premature aging. Anyone who wants to maintain elasticity and freshness of the skin for a long time should reduce the consumption of tobacco and coffee to a minimum. Many people know from their own experience that coffee stimulates digestion. This, again, is due to the laxative effect of the bitter taste. Large amounts of coffee dry out the colon over time, which can lead to constipation.
Black and green tea are also drying, especially the yin in the heart. This is precisely the reason for their tonic effect. When the yin in the heart decreases, the yang automatically increases, which is why we feel uplifted.
Green tea has cooler properties than black tea. The fact that the Chinese drink green tea almost continuously and tolerate it well is explained simply: they eat almost exclusively boiled food, which they select each time in accordance with their constitution, and this balances the cooling effect of tea, which especially affects the yang of the kidneys. If you already feel cold often, you should give up green tea. In addition, the way we consume green tea further exacerbates its drying effects. The Chinese will put one incomplete spoon of tea into a cup, and then drink it for hours, adding hot water each time. Due to the fact that the drink becomes weaker, the juices dried up in the first strong portions return to the body.
Green tea is a reliable remedy for humid heat: moisture that stagnates in the body and creates heat. For people who tend to accumulate water in the body and at the same time exhibit symptoms of heat (excess yang), it perfectly helps remove toxins and moisture from the body. Signs of wet heat in the body are excess weight, accompanied by a constant feeling of hunger, and dark yellow urine. With a reasonable dosage (one or two cups per day), the drying effect of black tea may benefit the spleen if the cause of its disorder is excess moisture. On the contrary, if you have flickering eyes, increased sensitivity to light and a tendency to muscle cramps, you should avoid drinking black tea, because it will further worsen the underlying blood deficiency.
EARTH
The earth is the middle, the nourishing, balancing element that runs through the entire year and ensures the harmonious alternation of seasons. He owns moisture - the source of nourishing yin energy, which, together with qi, gives rise to substance, and therefore life. If we consider the five elements in the nutrition cycle, then the earth element is subject to the end of summer - harvest time
The earth corresponds to middle age. Maturity, stability and the desire to develop lay the foundation for professional activity and family. In order for a child to grow and develop well, he needs a reliable, protected place. Creating and maintaining a family home is a task that coincides with the basic instinct of a woman and mother. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that women are often more careful with money and strive for stability more than men.
The organs of the spleen and stomach, yellow color, bioclimatic factor, humidity, and sweet taste are subject to this element.
Organ spleen
When we talk about the spleen, as a rule, we mean both organs: the spleen and the pancreas, as well as their common meridian. The overall function of these organs and this meridian represents what in Chinese medicine today is correctly called the “spleen-pancreas functional cycle.” In ancient China, corpses were not allowed to be opened, so Chinese medicine did not have the systematic anatomical information that formed the basis of Western medicine.
As already mentioned, the organs of the earth - the spleen and stomach - perform an important function: they extract qi from food in order to receive their own, acquired qi from it.
The spleen is called the queen of juices. It is responsible for nutrition and hydration of tissues and muscles and for the distribution of fluids in the body. Hence its function is to control muscles and tissues. The liver controls muscle tone, that is, their tension, and the spleen nourishes them, which means it determines their strength.
If the skin bruises easily or there is cellulite, the cause lies in weak spleen qi. Then fatigue and lack of concentration arise because the weak spleen produces insufficient qi from food, which leads to a weakening of the entire body. Excessive cravings for sweets occur because the sweet taste nourishes the spleen, and also because the spleen controls the sense of taste. Thus, the body is able to notify about its needs and demand the taste it needs. Another question is whether we know how to correctly interpret and satisfy this need.
Other signs are cold hands and a pale face, and the reason is that the lack of qi slows down the blood flow and the periphery no longer receives enough nutrition. For the same reason, fat pads appear on the buttocks, hips and thighs, as well as general excess weight - because with weak qi in the spleen, metabolism slows down and water accumulates in the body. Mushy stool, sometimes with undigested food particles, is an indicator that food is not digested and the body is not receiving enough nutrients and qi. The digestive tract is weakened and cooled, so the consequences are lack of appetite, gas and a feeling of fullness. If the lack of qi has spread and moved from the spleen to the upper heater - the lungs - weakening it, then bouts of sweating may occur during the day even in the absence of physical stress.
The lungs lose the ability to control the skin and it lacks the strength to keep the pores closed, which leads to sweat.
If the cooling process continues to spread, the lack of qi in the spleen turns into a lack of yang - a state of cold. The stool becomes liquid, its frequency increases, and general fatigue increases because the lack of qi affects other organs. Abdominal pain may occur, and weakening of connective tissues can lead, for example, to uterine prolapse.
The consequence of a chronic lack of qi in the spleen is often a lack of blood, which is accompanied by night blindness, increased sensitivity to light, numbness of the limbs, and emotional vulnerability. Flickering in the eyes and sleep disturbances may occur because the basis of hematopoiesis is acquired qi. When consuming raw plant foods, cold fruits and white sugar, the process develops further - all this leads to a weakening of the yang of the lower heater, that is, to a lack of yang in the kidneys. Cold hands are accompanied by cold feet, knees, thighs and buttocks. After lying for a long time, back pain occurs early in the morning, which goes away with movement. There is a need to urinate at night, and libido decreases. The general condition is characterized by exhaustion and joylessness.
One-sided diets and poor eating habits
Causes of Qi Deficiency
Eating foods that do not contain qi, are cooling, too moisturizing, and are difficult to digest; decreased sensitivity to digestive disorders; eating habits aimed at obtaining immediate pleasure; taken for granted deceptively convincing and at the same time one-sided nutritional systems; diets aimed at losing weight and fasting in pursuit of slimness; and often well-intentioned advice from doctors and consultants, based on the latest research in nutritional science.
These days, many people are seriously trying to eat healthy. But with so much conflicting information, often containing half-truths and exaggerations, many nutrition-conscious people are headed in the completely wrong direction.
The reasons on which modern nutrition systems base their recommendations are one-sided, because they ignore the energy effect of food, its thermal properties and digestibility. Blind faith in science and the gullibility of those who seek help leads to the fact that people, even after noticing that a particular nutritional system does not suit them, continue to persist. And the reason is that the author of the next healthy diet warned at the very beginning: a change will lead to illness. How long these ailments will last, whether they are a consequence of poor digestibility of new food and whether the body suffers from this is difficult for victims of the diet to judge.
The main problem of all modern nutrition systems and diets is that they neglect the energy aspect, the thermal effect of foods. All methods based on Western nutritional physiology recommend too much raw plant foods, dairy products and fruits, which sets the stage for the development of yang weakness and wetness. The middle heater - the spleen - is weakened, and the production of acquired qi energy decreases.
Diseases caused by “healthy” food
The following are foods and eating habits that are recommended by various nutritional systems and, when used over a long period of time or in excess, cause a lack of spleen qi in many people:
Cheese, milk, yogurt, other fermented milk products;
Raw vegetables; raw cereals in the form of fresh grain puree, flakes or so-called muesli;
Large quantities of fruits and southern fruits, including bananas, oranges and kiwis, as well as fruit salads;
Large quantities of drinks even in the absence of thirst;
Fasting, refusing breakfast;
Sandwiches with cheese or jam, cereal with dairy products, raw fruit for breakfast.
The most stupid (excuse the expression) recommendation is that it is best to eat only fruits in the morning. As has already been said, only a tiny percentage of people can tolerate such a breakfast. The majority of those who were and are still guided by this nonsense, which is propagated by a book that has sold millions of copies, cause damage to the qi of the spleen and yang of the kidneys, their vital energy, efficiency, cheerfulness, quality of life in general, especially in old age, and, in addition, sexual attraction.
Weakness of the spleen and kidneys creates favorable conditions for childhood and adult allergies - this happens if the mother followed such a diet before or during pregnancy or in some other way weakened the spleen. This promotes the development of fungus in the intestines and weakens the immune system. I call this advice stupid because it is based on this argument: in the morning, digestive energy is so weak that fruit is most easily digested. You can easily see for yourself how much this argument contradicts the truth, because it is based on erroneous assumptions. It goes without saying that fruits are not easy to digest, and digestive energy is strongest in the morning.
According to the Chinese clock, which describes the cyclical strengthening and weakening of qi in individual organs over a period of twenty-four hours, in the functional cycles of the spleen and stomach, that is, in the digestive tract, qi reaches its peak between seven and eleven o'clock in the morning. This is the best time to extract from food the maximum amount of qi needed for an active day. It can be obtained from a healthy warm breakfast: cooked cereals with savory or sweet seasonings, semolina, cereal or soup, especially porridge.
continuation