Yin and Yang food
So what are Yin foods and what are Yang foods?
The Chinese believe that Yang foods increase the body’s heat thereby raising the rate of metabolism, while the Yin foods lower the body’s heat as well as the rate of metabolism. Generally, Yang foods have dense food energy while Yin foods have high water content. An ideal macrobiotic diet should have a proper balance of the Yin and the Yang for overall health and wellness. For instance, consuming too much Yang food items will cause acne and bad breath and too much Yin food items might render a person anemic or lethargic.
According to George Ohsawa, whenever there is too much yin or too much yang in the food we consume, there are imbalances in the body thus producing illnesses. For instance, too much salt in the diet is very yang. This is because there is unusually high Sodium in blood stream compared to the water inside the cells which has less Sodium and this stresses the body to release water from the cells to bring about a balance. (This is one reason you feel so thirsty when you are munching on a bag of potato chips). This process causes a strain on the kidneys and damages them in the long run since it has to flush out excess Sodium. If we look at it, we can easily diagnose our health problems with this simple thumb rule – balance the Yin and Yang. Do not over indulge in any one kind of food.
According to Macrobiotics principles there is really no complete Yang or complete Yin food, everything is relative, just like in real life where nobody is totally good or bad. So a dish prepared can be more Yin compared to another, but Yang compared to yet another dish. But really there are foods that are predominantly Yang or Yin. Some examples of Yang or contractive food are salt, sea vegetables, seeds. Notice how you can envision what this food will do when you eat it. Salt will remove water from the cells and make it contract, move towards the center thus it is yang. Seeds are tightly bound life force, and thus very contractive, again Yang. Some examples of yin or expansive foods are sugar, water, fruits and spices.
The other teaching in Macrobiotics is the rule of proportion of the type of food taken. The minerals, the proteins the carbohydrates must be in a ratio of 1:7 or seven times the previous type of food, for it to be balanced. Many a time, we have diet fads that come and go, which really throws our inner balance out of gear when we eat in extreme – like, only brown rice or only wheat, or only protein for a long time.
If we instead choose healthy organic food, cook it with love and understanding the dynamics of digestion, and do not go to extremes, we will maintain a very healthy body and mind right until the end.
A diet with brown rice, some beans, vegetables cooked with a little sesame oil and sea vegetables is considered as one aspect of the traditional macrobiotic diet you can follow.
Note, that the environment in which you cook, the feelings you have while cooking are all very important to get the right nourishment from the food. Food makes our flesh, blood and bones and sustains us and hence the highest importance should be given to it.
List of Yin and Yang Food
Yin foods
Sugar, oil, sweets like pastries, cookies, chocolate, honey, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, tropical and semi tropical fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, bananas, pine apple, mangoes, papayas, dairy products which are industrially processed and chemically treated, alcohol, spicy condiments such as mustard, pepper, red pepper etc.
Yang Foods
Eggs, Meat, Poultry, Sea Salt, Brown rice (cooked with some salt), sea vegetables like Wakame, Hijiki, Kombu (take a small amount only), Shoyu (Soy sauce) etc.
