Changes

In order to keep the right ''yin-yang'' balance in your body, you need, naturally, to follow a well-balanced diet. We can classify all foodstuffs in two ways; first, there are some with a warming quality, which increase ''yang'', other are cooling and increasing ''yin'', while other still are neutral. From the point of view of humoral dietetics, this is nothing new. But, secondly, different foodstuffs affect various internal organs with different strength, so we can assign to each food the movement which corresponds to the organs it affects the most. Alright, but how can you tell, in everyday life, which food belongs to which movement? I suppose you already know that. That's right, by the taste! For example, sour foods, which tend to pull ''qi'' downwards and inwards, have the strongest effect on the liver and the gallbladder, so they belong to the tree movement (even though, as we remember, it channels ''qi'' upwards and outwards). Sour foods are typically cooling or, at most, slightly warming. Green herbs and veggies belong to the tree movement as well, even if theyaren're no t really sour. The bitter taste belongs to the fire movement and usually corresponds to the warming quality. Anything that is sweet or just mildly flavoured (such as dairy and eggs) belongs to earth; pungent, to metal; and anything that is salty or comes from water (including fresh water), to the water movement.