Chinese Food Health gives you the basic approaches on how to nourish and preserve health in the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The term of “pungent” may seem unfamiliar to many Westerners. Still, food in pungent taste can be found in certain common vegetables (such as chili pepper, garlic, onion, etc) and spices (like ginger, black pepper, cayenne, etc). Being the hottest among the “Five Tastes,” pungent taste is hot, spicy, and dry.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, pungent food can stimulate the production of stomach acid, saliva and its byproduct salivary amylase that helps facilitate peristaltic movement of gastro-intestine, dispel gas, and promote appetite.

Food in pungent taste also can remove stagnation in blood as well as dilate skin vessels, which ultimately improves circulation of blood.

Nonetheless, excessive pungent foods bring disadvantages to health, too. Since pungent food can stimulate the submucosal layer of gastrointestinal tract and increase the production of stomach acid, eating too much of them will cause abdominal pain. And for patients with liver disease, pungent foods will aggravate hyperemia and edema in the gastrointestinal tract, or even induce digestive tract bleeding.

In conclusion, there are benefits from eating pungent food and general people need have no concern for their health relative to their moderate pungent food consumption.

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