The Concept of Yin and Yang in Chinese Medicine
Posted by Peter James | Posted in Balanced Life, Healthy Living | Posted on 11-11-2008
Tagged Under : balance, balance my diet, billionaire woman, body, chinese medicine, eat heathlier, feel better, get balanced, Healthy Living, imbalance, lose weight., nathalie lussier, perfect health, traditional medicine, travel to china, yin and yang
This is a guest post written by Nathalie Lussier from Billionaire Woman.
I am currently traveling throughout China, and I decided that I would take a closer look at Chinese medicine. While in Beijing, I had my pulse checked by a traditional Chinese doctor.
What the doctor told me after 30 seconds of feeling my pulse was a revelation!
She could tell from the beating of my heart, whether I was healthy or not. However, she never told me that I needed to undergo more tests, because all she needed to know was whether my body was in balance or out of balance.
Balance
In traditional Chinese medicine, balance is the key to perfect health. Rather than a cold being caused by a virus, as in western thinking, a cold is caused by an imbalance in your body. For instance, you may have slept too little, or eaten too much unhealthy food. All of these things can be solved through the application of different herbs, and every plant has either a yin quality or a yang quality.
Hot and Cold
In traditional Chinese medicine, every food has a temperature: hot or cold. When I first went to visit a Chinese doctor, I was told that my body was too cold and that I should eat only hot things.
Food that is hot includes: meet, nuts, seeds, durian, bananas, garlic, ginger, onions, and other spices.
Cold foods include cucumbers, oranges, watermelon, lettuce, and other fruits and vegetables that are high in water content.
What you eat impacts your balance, such that medicine and food are one and the same. Different people need different amounts of each type of food group in order to keep their own balance in check.
Men and Women
Using the Yin and Yang concept, men are hot and women are cold. This may or may not stem from the fact that men tend to eat more hot things such as meat, and women historically eat more fruits and vegetables. Whatever the case may be, the way that women act and then act also reflects this hot and cold reality. Men tend to be fiery, aggressive, and on the ball. Whereas women tend to be like the waves of the ocean, cold, cyclic, and more emotional.
Neither of these is wrong, or better than the other, we just happen to need a bit of each to make the world work. It’s another piece of the balance puzzle.
Yin and Yang Working Together
Although we have yet to achieve balance on a world scale, I believe that true balance begins within. Once you start eating a more balanced diet in terms of hot and cold foods, your body will return to its optimum state. Once you are a healthy individual, you will begin to look towards the outside and try to balance this reality. Once we have more balanced individuals vying for global balance between men and women, humans and animals, nature and humanity, we will make great strides.
I challenge you to learn more about traditional Chinese medicine, or at least try to balance your intake of cold vegetables with hot foods.
This is a guest post written by Nathalie Lussier from Billionaire Woman.
Once you start eating a more balanced diet in terms of hot and cold foods, your body will return to its optimum state. Once you are a healthy individual, you will begin to look towards the outside and try to balance this reality. Once we have more balanced individuals vying for global balance between men and women, humans and animals, nature and humanity, we will make great strides.
Amazing writing.
I agree with you. Eating healthy makes me feel alive! I guess it all starts at home. If each person then becomes a beacon of hope and a bearer of light, he/she shines bright. If you have tiny points of light strategically across the globe you can light the world.
Great Post and Welcome…
Thank you Christopher. At first I was just planning to write about the mechanics of hot/cold foods… but once we become healthy, we automatically begin making great changes within and without.
I love the idea of lighting the world based on smaller lights spread across the globe.
TCM is absolutely fantastic. I took a few college courses in holistic eastern medicine and fell madly in love with their philosophy on the mind,body and spirit. There was a point where I ate based on many of the TCM ideas, and found I felt amazing. Acupuncture, herbal remedies, and the food we eat are profound ways to maintain health. Thanks for breaking down the yin/yang thing. It’s actually pretty hard to simplify while getting the point across.
@amber
I agree. I learned about the importance of balance in your diet when I was sick with crohn’s disease. The minute I got away from white flour, refined sugar, and trans fats, my body began to feel stronger and filled with energy. Because of my disease I have trouble balancing my cold and hot b/c many of the cold foods are not healthy for me.
I think this article is the final straw for me. I am going to start juicing more and more to try and find that proper balance.
I was enamored when I read this guest post. Incredible insight that can only come from someone right in the middle of the action!
@Amber: thanks for sharing your experiences. I would love to take a course or learn more formally the different TCM concepts. I heard that acupuncture needles bend easily, and that without the proper technique they don’t go in. Talk about requiring practice!
@Peter: I didn’t know that you dealt with Chron’s. Way to go on cutting out the harmful foods. I have a hard time balancing my foods also, but mainly because my body is too cold and I’m vegetarian – so hot foods without meat does not leave me a lot of choices. Plus I love cucumbers!
I can definitely vouch for the power of juicing though, way to go! 
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