Yin Yang For Balanced Health
June 5, 2010 by Akemi
I studied traditional Chinese medicine and do-in (ancient form of qi gong) a little when I was back in Japan. The whole idea is based on their philosophy of yin yang and the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.
The yin yang is still a foreign idea for many Americans. I think the idea can help develop our understanding of non-polarity, so in this article, I will explain it in a way that relates to everyone — foods. (Photo credit)
Yin yang basics
Yin is the energy that loosens up, the energy of the moon and female, that is soft, moist, and cooling. Yang is the energy that tightens up, the energy of the sun and male, that is hard, dry, and warming.
Yang is the potential of things and it moves around seeking manifestation (yin). Yin attracts and pulls in the yang energy, manifesting the potential. Men may have the seeds, but it’s the women who conceive and give birth to new lives
Yin Yang and health
Men inherently have more yang energy than women. Women, with more inherent yin energy, tend to get stuck in yin, which may manifest as overweight problem, coldness (especially in lower abdomen and feet) and depression. Men, on the other hand, tend to “burn up”, which may manifest as boldness, hyper tension, and difficulty in anger management.
We tend to lose life energy as we age, especially yang energy. So men start to have more yin related issues around their 40s, while women get stuck even deeper in their yin issues.
Of course, there are individual variations. Some men are heavy on yang. Think of the red faced mascot outside the bar. With that much of yang, he craves to be cooled down with beer. But some men are more balanced. Similarly, some women are very yin. They have so much manifestation energy they hardly “do” anything. (Kind of a modern “witch”, I guess.)
The yin yang in a person changes depending on the seasons, their life situations, and . . . their foods.
(Also, there seems to be differences between the races, too. This is not something ancient Chinese figured out — they never met white nor black people. But I really think Asians tend to be more yin. Black people are very yang. The question is white people — thinking of their fair coloring, you would think they are yin, but I find many white people to be quite yang.)
Yin yang is not the opposite
At first glance, yin yang appears to be yet another pair of polarities. But it is best understood to be two directions on one spectrum. There are very few 100% yin nor 100% yang. The ancient Chinese sage says, “The full moon is the beginning of the waning of the moon, and the new moon has the potential of waxing to be the full moon. Likewise, there is yang in yin and yin in yang.” The tai chi symbol visually shows this concept.
My friend Lisa, the Mommy Mystic, wrote an excellent article that there are no opposites. Everything is on the spectrum and is various aspect of one unity.
Yin Yang food
So when we apply the yin yang philosophy to healthy eating, we want to seek balance of the yin yang. Not that any food on the spectrum is bad. We want to assess our own yin yang status and choose foods that balance us.
There are yin yang food list on the internet, but I think it’s better to understand the principles so that you can apply them to any foods, that may not be on the list.
More Yin
Produce that comes from the tropical and sub-tropical regions are yin. This includes bananas, mangos, papayas, pineapples, coconuts and avocados. Also sugar (sugar cane), chocolate (cacao) and coffee.
Produce that grows in the summer sun are yin. This includes many “fruit” vegetables such as tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, eggplants.
Icy cold foods are high yin.
More yang
Most animal foods are yang, especially red meat. Exceptions are shell fish such as crabs and shrimps.
Produce that grows in the ground are yang. This includes root vegetables such as carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, parsnips, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.
Cooking heat increases yang. So does sun drying.
Spices increases yang. Spicy produce such as ginger roots, onions, and peppers are very yang.
Salt decreases yin by pulling out the foods’ water. (Himalayan salt, the ancient sea salt that has been “heated” by the earth is very yang.)
Also, lighter color fools are more yin. For example, white daikon radish is more yin even though they grow in the ground. Poultry is more yin than red meat, making them neutral. Milk is white but when they are cultured to be yellowish cheese (naturally, of course), they become more yang. Tofu is very yin. Tempe is more yang.
Greens are neutral (slightly yin). Most grains are neutral.
Raw food diet problems and yin yang
I started to eat high raw vegetarian early last year. I did fine in spring and summer, when the yang energy was abundant in the atmosphere. Things got difficult in fall, however. I felt unstable. On some days, I just felt weak. With the many rainy days in the Northwest, I felt depressed.
Too much yin!
I think this is the major issue with raw food diet. It tends to be very yin. It works wonders to people who are high yang, but not to everyone all the time, I guess.
So this year, I am decreasing my raw rate, eating more cooked grains, beans, and root vegetables.
More about how I am applying yin yang to my healthy eating
Also, I am incorporating more local produce. I choose berries, apples, and pears over tropical fruits. (It doesn’t mean I will never eat a banana. It’s about balance.)
I am also considering to get dark maple syrup as the primary sweetener. It’s definitely more yang than sugar and agave (another tropical plants). Or maybe inulin from chicory root works as a sweetener. (Note: Inulin is a highly refined product, so you wouldn’t want to take too much amount of it.)
When the summer sun comes out, I might dry some vegs on the deck. This might make wonderful preserved foods for the winter.
And, it’s not about eating, but I am very mindful to get out to have some sunshine. The sun is the ultimate yang. (For those of you suffering with too much yang, you might want to cool down by semi burying yourself in the cool soil, or at least sitting or lying on the ground. The Mother Earth is yin.)
Does this yin yang info help you? Do you have any questions?
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I need some yin!
Of course this was fascinating to me, both because of my interest in the differences between men’s and women’s energy bodies, and my interest in the chakras. I had read some in a book on macrobiotics, and once got a ‘food’ reading by a taoist healer, that seemed to be very in line with this. This triggered lots of thoughts…I am wondering about the yin/yang racial differences you’ve observed – I wonder what is actually racial and what is cultural/social conditioning?
Yang,
Well, it’s easy to get more yin. Hope this article helped.
Lisa,
Macrobiotics is based on the idea of yin yang and so is taoism and other Chinese philosophies.
Regarding the racial / cultural issues. I guess it’s both. As much as we are apprehensive of discussing racial differences, the differences do exist. For instance, doctors are now discussing the different risk factors for diseases like diabetes and heart attacks among races.
Cultural differences can influence our lifestyle and so our yin yang balance. The “do” more modern culture put too much emphasis on the yang and may leave people depleted and unbalanced.
I think many of us intuitively try to balance yin yang. The problem is they often do it in extreme ways, leaving them in the roller coaster ride of yin yang. For example, eat lots of meat (very yang — so they feel energized to do even more, but feeling burned) then lots of ice cream for dessert (oops, very yin).
[...] the end of my post Yin Yang For Balanced Health, I mentioned the benefits of eating local foods. You are one with your environment. Asians (and [...]
Thanks for this.
I knew about these things though I don’t know too much what to think of them. I believe there is something in this but I also feel strongly that raw is the only more or less natural diet… low fat raw is the only diet I can really stay healthy on in my experience so far (had long term health issues).
I stay yang by exercising a lot, and yeah I guess sunshine. I also hug trees which seems to “bring me together”.
Humans evolved in the rainforest so I expect what is really natural is to live there, where it is hot all year round…
Love
Andrew
Andrew,
Men naturally have more yang, so you don’t have to worry about it too much.
I think a lot about human evolution. All humans came from the tropical Africa. But then, there were ice ages, and after we spread out on Earth, people have been eating different diet depending on where they are and their culture. So just how long does it take for our body to adjust to these changes? We still haven’t adjusted really and the original diet of the warm climate is good for everyone? Or do different ethnic groups, races, etc have different best diets?
@Akemi
Well, a lot of raw foodists think it’s impossible for us to have changed that much in 50,000 years. I suppose we have changed some (my father is a geneticist, he tells me about how in Europe people have evolved to have the enzyme to digest milk already which is why europeans can eat milk but asians usually can’t). But it’s true that a carnivore is more different compared to a herbivore than we are compared to our primate cousins (all fruit and leaf eating, eating meat very rarely out of necessity).
I think we CAN say that cooked food will never be as healthy as raw. Even if we develop into a creature that can deal with all the toxins (such an evolutionary change has never been done, I guess it would take millions of years), the nutrients destroyed by heat are gone for ever, and metaphysically most of the life energy is lost too.
So our healthiest diet kind of has to be something we can eat raw. And we are not giving very strong teeth pandas to eat lots of bamboo, or the pouches in their necks birds have to sprout grains in to make them digestible, or the cutting teeth and powerful jaws of a carnivore. So we basically have to be fruit eaters when you take away those things which cooking makes edible to us.
That’s what I’m thinking these days anyway………….
Andrew
Sorry, “we are not given…”
Andrew Gubb´s last blog ..Translation of Como Las Flores by Shimshai
Andrew,
Interesting! I love this discussion.
I guess we evolved to be different to some degree but fundamentally the same. These days, we don’t talk about racial differences in fear of being taken as discrimination, but obviously white people evolved enough to lose much of their color to live in the northern area. And that lactose intolerance issue among Asians. I also heard Asians have longer intestines (therefor longer torso) to digest whole grains, which come with plenty of fiber.
I really like raw foods. It’s naturally tasty. I still have a mixed feeling about fruits, especially tropical fruits, however. It seems to mess with my blood sugar stability and drives me to sugar cravings. I wonder how our ancestors dealt with this … Maybe it wasn’t an issue because they were never duped with sugar? (Sugar is definitely a new food… most of us never had it until about 200 years ago.)
Yeah, blood sugar issues are a new problem I think……. you might want to read “The 80/10/10 Diet” by Douglas Graham. Here’s the aff link from my blog hehe http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1893831248?ie=UTF8&tag=lifrinacrwo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1893831248
In that book Douglas explains that blood sugar issues are actually caused in part by high fat diets. The fat stops sugar moving from the bloodstream to the cells.
I definitely noticed I was very light headed when I was on a high fat raw vegan diet. I couldn’t keep it up. But now I eat low fat, it all seems to work.
Love
Andrew Gubb´s last blog ..Translation of Como Las Flores by Shimshai
Andrew,
Oh, so that is why you were specific in saying low fat raw.
I thought about the original humans more. I think they spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun, which is the ultimate source of yang. So if you live like that, raw foods — even lots of fruits — shouldn’t cause yin-yang imbalance. I did fine in the summer with raw foods.
In other words, I think cooking may have been one of the coping method we adopted as we spread out to the relatively sun-less areas.
80-10-10? That theory of fat interfering sugar metabolism is interesting, but overall, I think 80-10-10 is a defective diet UNLESS you are an athlete. (Another thing about the original humans — they had a lot of physical activities) Although no scientist is sure about the exact amount of protein we need, the current consensus is about 0.8 to 1 gram per body weight in kilograms. Let’s say a person is 150lb (68 kg). Their protein requirement would be 54 to 68 g. If this person leads sedentary lifestyle, their calorie requirement would be about 2000 kcal. (I used the calculator at Nutrition Data.) 10% of that is 200 kcal, which means 50 g of protein. (Protein provides 4 kcal per gram) See, it doesn’t provide enough protein.
If the person is active, however, their overall calorie requirement would be higher, and then, 10% of that would provide sufficient protein.
I think lack of protein was another culprit for me last year when I was high raw. . . it lead me to sugar cravings.
Interesting ideas… I have no way to say if you’re right or not. Dr. Graham says that protein requirements are lower than that (he does give recommendations for 2000 calorie diets as well as athletic diets), and I trust him just because he seems so lucid in what he says. But in the end, the only thing we know is if a diet worked or not… all theory aside.
I mean, they say that only 10% of the vitamins have been discovered! With that in mind, I am very wary of using science to find out what to eat.
No idea what caused your sugar cravings, but for me my cravings go when I eat a large enough volume of fruit… sometimes 2000 calories in a day is tricky with fruit, you have to count calories for a while until you get it right. A meal for me is 1 entire large melon, 1 entire small watermelon, the juice from 4 kg of oranges, etc. When I’m hungry my body gives me the impulse to consume what worked to remove hunger in the past… so I think of non raw foods.
Today when I got hungry the first thing I felt was an intense craving for strawberries… so I think I’m making progress
andrewgubb´s last blog ..Translation of Como Las Flores by Shimshai
Andrew,
Right, theory is only theory. And it is very possible that the best diet is different for each person, and even in one person, it may change from season to season or depending on other conditions. For me, yin yang is one way to check these fluid balances.
Also, because theory is only theory, there is a point in getting blood work and other physical checkups, I think. When I had my blood checked this January, my protein was kinda low — you know, not the red zone dangerously low, but within the normal range it was around the bottom. Borderline low.
I didn’t know you could test for protein!
From what I heard protein deficiency actually doesn’t exist; our needs for protein are so low that it’s actually impossible to get too little.
I don’t want to sound dogmatic though. I just chose to listen to certain people over others. I am rather suspicious of blood tests though! If a doctor (who I disagree with on almost anything) told me that a certain test told me that I had a level of protein that he personally considered low, I’m not sure I would listen. I don’t know if I’m throwing the baby out with the bathwater but I really don’t ever want to see a traditional medicine hospital again in my life.
B12 is something I want to test for as I know that it can cause serious damage. But apart from that… blood tests seem pointless to me unless I know how to interpret them within my own understanding.
andrewgubb´s last blog ..Translation of Como Las Flores by Shimshai
Andrew,
Right, number is number and how we interpret depends on our viewpoint.
Any diet and other healthy lifestyle approach is ultimately evaluated how YOU feel with it. Do you feel well and strong while you eat in that way? Is your energy level, mental clarity, and emotions stable and well? Do you wake up refreshed? As for proteins, we can also check our hair, nails, and skin.
Yup, it’s the results you experience that matter……….
On this diet I feel for the first time fully healthy. So I feel quite sure it’s the right diet for me
Andrew Gubb´s last blog ..Translation of Como Las Flores by Shimshai
Check out Yin Yang For Balanced Health http://goo.gl/fb/YArxd
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Yin Yang For Balanced Health http://ff.im/-lyfC7
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How to tell if a food is yin or yang http://goo.gl/fb/YArxd Not a food list but a set of principles you can apply to any food
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Yin Yang For Balanced Health http://bit.ly/bPWhvD via @akemigaines
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