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

In the last article, Align Five-Element Diet With Your Body, we learned about Five-Element Vegetable Soup and its foundation: Chinese Five Elements.  In fact, one of the most important components of this soup is the colors of the particular vegetables being used—they are based on the individual color essence of the five elements, namely white, green, black, red, and yellow.

In this article, we will elaborate more on this concept and introduce what Five-Color Diet is and how it works.

According to the theory of Five Elements in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the colors of foods do correspond with our internal organs, i.e., green corresponds with liver, red with heart, yellow with spleen, white with lungs, and black with kidneys.  “If any of our body function is inferior, we can eat more food in particular color to strengthen that function,” TCM Practitioner says.

Not only internal organs, in TCM, seasons also associate with “Five Colors.”  Take winter as an example: Winter corresponds with kidneys (internal organ) as well as black (color).  That means to nourish kidneys is our priority throughout the winter season.  How?  To eat more foods in black color, such as black mushrooms, woodear, sea cucumber, seaweed, black sesame, and black rice.

“During cold weather, the principle of keeping in good health is to preserve ‘Yang Qi’ (the energy being expended in order to create a manifest action),” says TCM Practitioner.  “Since ‘Yang Qi’ is stored in our kidneys, to improve the functions of kidneys therefore stands to reason.”

In fact, a color-rich diet also is recognized by western nutritionists as having tremendous benefits to health and well being.  From nutritional point of view, foods in white color like daikon/radish, onion, and winter melon not only contain allicin that can help lower blood sugar, but also have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.  They also have high level of antioxidants which are able to fight against heart disease and cancer.  As for the green group like broccoli, lettuce, and spinach, they contain high level of phytochemicals and are a good source of calcium; iron; and vitamins A, C, and K.

Foods in red color, such as carrot, tomato, and strawberry have been known containing an antioxidant called lycopene that is capable of controlling high blood pressure, as well as preventing cancer.  While rich in beta carotene, vitamin A and C, the yellow group provides plentiful antioxidants that counteract free radicals.  Examples of yellow foods include corn, pineapple, and pumpkin.

While the idea of color-rich diet is relatively new to the western culture, the Chinese have been practicing it over 3,000 years.  After all, in TCM theory, attaining harmony with the nature is as crucial as reaching a balance within oneself.  And the best part is?  It is simple and everyone can practice it.

Here is the association between Seasons / Colors / Internal organs:

• Spring / Green / Liver
• Early summer / Red / Heart
• Late summer / Yellow / Spleen
• Fall / White / Lungs
• Winter / Black / Kidneys

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