I always enjoyed cooking (and eating) and I am now experimenting with TCM recipes, both for myself and to help others.
Whatever you read on my Substack are my experiences, which can offer inspiration but are not necessarily appropriate for your condition.
Just to mention an example: a common cold can be caused by Cold Wind, Warm Wind, by Phlegm or Qi deficiency. Let’s focus on the first two. If your cold is caused by Cold-Wind, you would rather need pungent and hot food to expel the pathogen and warm your body. If on the other hand your body has been attacked by Warm Wind, then you need food to cool your body. Thus, be aware that similar issues might have different roots and require different food. Having said that, as long as you don’t exceed in one direction or the other, eating a cucumber when you have Cold Wind won’t kill you.
I tend to experience more hot symptoms than cold, and very often my Liver-Qi is blocked (Liver is easily, easily affected by stress, frustration, anger). I think that stress is my number one issue. The Liver is associated with the green colour, so as silly as it sounds, naturally green food is beneficial to the Liver.
Here is a sample of a simple meal, which can benefit the Liver:
· White rice
· Cold cucumber with soja sauce, rice vinegar and a little garlic
· Cooked green salad with garlic and ginger
· Maki sushi with seaweed, white rice, daikon
· Celery tea
Lots of rice, to support the Middle Jiao (more about that in a following post), the cucumber is not only green it also cools the Liver-Fire, so does the seaweed, garlic and ginger are on the other hand warm, which balance the coldness of the other ingredients, the pickled daikon (radish) is cool and good for the Stomach and the Lungs, especially when there is Phlegm and the salad is good for the Liver.
Cooked salad?! You are probably wondering. Well, in China cooked salad is very common. I used to think that it was for hygienical reason. When I moved to China in 1996, tap water was not drinkable, and I thought that for this reason Chinese cooked 95% of their veggies. The 5% was represented by the cucumber, which was indeed served as a cold appetizer in many restaurants.
Now I understand that the reason behind cooking almost everything might have its root in TCM. The Spleen and the Stomach are responsible for extracting the Qi from the food we eat, and to do that they use our internal fire. If we put cold food in the digestive system, it requires more fire, thus using more energy (which is also Qi) to digest the food.
It is somewhat similar to put the wrong fuel in your car: it will still move, but the engine loses its power, and it can misfire.
Thus, my first TCM recommendation: cook your food!