Last week I told you about my Traditional Chinese Medicine experience, my excess ‘Yang’ condition and findings on my TCM journey. So as promised, this week I’ll cover the other side, Yin – or it just wouldn’t be whole would it? 😉
Yin represents the energy that cools and moisturisers the body. When this Yin energy is depleted, your bod begins to show signs of “heating up” (which we spoke about last week). When your Yin is outweighing your Yang you could experience symptoms similar to a cold or flu. You can deplete your fire (or Yang) with stress, excessive exercise, being ill and not eating or resting properly.
Foods which increase Yin are cold fruits and drinks on an empty stomach, ice cream, greasy food, and other cooling foods like salad, soups, cheese, grapefruit, green tea, millet, barley, rice, quinoa, amaranth, seaweeds, tofu, black beans, kidney beans, mung beans, beets, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, banana, and watermelon.
If there’s too much cold is present in the bod, and you’re experiencing any of the symptoms below you can try eating a more ‘warming’ diet and see if it improves.
Symptoms of a Yin excess include stiffness, aching joints, stomach ache, diarrhoea, fatigue, runny nose and poor circulation.
Cures & Foods that will bring heat to the bod include ginger, chicken broth, garlic, vegetables, yoghurt, fried foods, coffee, hot chillies and most animal products such as butter, bone stocks and broths, meat, dairy, and eggs help to rebuild deficient yin.
*Though please note that meats should be used more as a garnish (if any) rather than the main of a meal and if you tend to have a lot of mucus or allergies, then limit actual meat, eggs, and dairy.
In traditional Chinese medicine, they say that every food is nutritious and as long as a healthy person doesn’t eat too much of any one food, nothing is unhealthy.
Have a great week and happy balancing!