The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity: A Modern Practical Guide to the Ancient Way (Fireside Books (Fireside)) [Paperback]

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Born and educated within the United States, having a master's degree in Chinese language and civilization, Daniel P. Reid now lives in Taiwan, where he has studied with numerous Taoist masters. He will be the author of Chinese Herbal Medicine, which has been hailed by The Modern York Times as "highly readable...a marvelous introduction to the field of Chinese medicine."

Chapter 1
Diet and Nutrition

Food and drink are relied upon to nurture life. But if you do not know the natures of substances might be opposed to each and every other, the other consumes them altogether indiscriminately, the vital organs will be thrown out of harmony and disastrous consequences will soon arise. Therefore, people who desire to nurture their lives must carefully avoid doing such harm to themselves.
[Chia Ming, Essential Knowledge for Eating and Drinking, 1368]

One in the great features of learning Tao is that the same principles connect with everything in the macrocosmic on the microscopic. In the situation of diet, the overriding Taoist principle of balance between Yin and Yang is made by harmonizing the Four Energies and Five Flavors in foods.

The Four Energies in food are hot, warm, cool and cold. These categories define the nature and the intensity of one's released inside human system when meals are digested. Hot and warm foods are part of Yang; cool and cold foods belong to Yin. The former are stimulating and generate heat, while the latter are calming and cool the organs.

The Five Flavors will be more subtle distinctions based on the Five Elemental Activities: sweet (earth), bitter (fire), sour (wood), pungent (metal) and salty (water). Each from the Five Flavors has a 'natural affinity' (gui-jing) for starters of the five 'solid' Yin organs and its particular Yang counterpart: sweet influences pancreas/stomach; bitter moves on the heart/small intestine; sour has affinity for the liver/gallbladder; pungent affects the lungs/large intestine; and salty associates using the kidneys/bladder.

The therapeutic effects in the Four Energies and Five Flavors are as follows:

* Cool and cold Yin foods calm the vital organs and therefore are appropriate for summer menus, also as for combating 'hot' Yang diseases like fever and hypertension. Yin foods include soy beans, bamboo shoots, watermelon, white turnips, cabbage, pears, squash and lemons.

* Warm and hot Yang foods stimulate the vital organs, generate body heat and therefore are recommended for winter consumption, at exactly the same time as palliatives for 'cold' Yin diseases including anemia, chills and fatigue. Yang foods include beef, mutton, chicken, alcohol, mango and chilies.

* Sweet 'earth' foods disperse stagnant energy, promote circulation, nourish vital energy and harmonize the stomach. Corn, peas, dates, ginseng and licorice are examples of sweet foods.

* Bitter 'fire' foods for example rhubarb and bitter melon tend to dry the system, balance excess dampness, and purge the bowels.

* Sour 'wood' foods for example olives and pomegranate are astringent, have a propensity to solidify the contents with the digestive tract, stop diarrhea and remedy prolapse of the colon.

* Salty 'water' foods such as kelp soften and moisten tissues and facilitate bowel movements.

* Pungent 'metal' goods including ginger, garlic and chili neutralize and disperse accumulated toxins inside body.

Taoists balance their diets in accordance with favorable combinations of energies and flavors and strictly avoid combinations that conflict. In addition they avoid excessive consumption of the single selection of food-energy. For example, frequent excessive use of 'hot' fatty Yang foods can cause fevers, heartburn, congestion, chest stagnation and also other unpleasant effects of 'heat-energy excess'. As this excess 'evil heat' seeks escape from the body, carbuncles and absesses may develop. Too much pungent food may cause gastro-intestinal distress, upset the stomach and result in hemorrhoids. Even the freshest, most wholesome foods are rendered nutritionally useless if consumed in combinations that restrict digestion, cause putrefaction and fermentation, block assimilation and cause internal energy conflicts.

Mother Nature's Menu

When formulating personal dietary guidelines, it can be helpful first to discover your individual basic metabolic type, ones there are three: vegetarian, carnivore and balanced. The vegetarian and carnivorous types each represent about 25 per-cent from the general population, while using remaining 50 % falling in the balanced category. These human metabolic types stem in the prehistoric switch by some segments in the human species coming from a fruit and nut based diet to some meat diet.

Vegetarian metabolisms are 'slow oxidizers', this means they burn sugars and carbohydrates slowly. Because our bodies must burn sugar to be able to offer sufficient energy to digest meat and fat, slow oxidizers have trouble burning sugar fast enough to efficiently digest large quantities of meat, eggs, fish and other concentrated animal proteins. Consequently, large doses of primary protein tend to create vegetarian types feel tired and sluggish after meals. An easy test for metabolic type is to consume a large steak or even a whole chicken and see how you're feeling afterward. If it leaves you feeling 'wiped out', mentally depressed and lethargic, you then probably tend towards a slow-oxidizing vegetarian metabolism, by which case you should restrict protein and fat consumption and favor vegetables, fruits and carbohydrates within your diet. If a large intake of concentrated animal protein leaves you feeling strong, vital and mentally alert, you then probably lean towards a fast-oxidizing carnivorous metabolism.

Since carnivorous metabolisms burn sugar and carbohydrates very rapidly, excess use of sugar or starch tends to produce them excessively nervous and agitated due to overstimulation of the nervous system. Fast oxidizers derive energy by digesting large quantities of animal fats and proteins, that are sent towards the liver for conversion into glycogen. The liver then dispenses the glycogen into the bloodstream within the kind of glucose -- the only form of fuel our bodies can burn -- in gradual measured doses, as needed. That is why fast oxidizers demand a steady method of getting protein and fat within their diets and really should restrict intake of sugars and starches.

Fortunately, most people have balanced metabolisms that may handle both types of food when properly combined. Although our digestive tracts were originally designed by nature for any diet of fruit and vegetables, our digestive systems