Five Flavours Flashcards
Pungent properties (effect, energy movement, qualities
- Yang, warming effect
- Expansive and disrpersive (energy up and out)
- Circulation of energy and blood
Pungent Organ Functions
- Enters and clears lungs of mucus conditions
- Improves digestive activity (ruled by Spleen-pancreas) and expes gas from intestines
- Moistens the kidneys. Hot pungents warm and releax cold, contracted kidney
- Stimulates blood circulation and is cardiotonic
- Clears obstructions and improves liver function
Pungent Seasonal Attunement
- Attunes a person to Spring (in alliance with full sweet flavour)
- Hot pungents (cayenne, black pepper, fresh ginger, hot green and red peppers) attune body to summer. These are so extreme that they change to a cooling effect after 30 min.
- Can use deeply warming pungents (cinnamon and dried ginger) to help overcome cold conditions
Diaphoretic pungents are used to promote sweating during a common cold or exterior condition. Give examples
Cayenne
Chamomile
Elder flower
Garlic
Scallion
Who benefits most from pungent?
People who are sluggish, dull, lethargic, overweight benefit from pungent (as well as bitter).
Certain pungents can be beneficial for dry thing individuals with wind conditions (nervous, restless activity). Give examples
Relax nervous system and soothe digestion: Anise, Caraway, Coriander, Cumin Dill, Fennel
Stimulants but promote stability and smooth circulation: Black Pepper, Ginger, Horseradish, cooked Onion
What pungent flavours can worsen the condition of the dry, windy, nervous or thing person?
Sage, raw onion, ALL hot peppers, especially cayenne
Those who are overweight from overeating should choose…
cooling pungents
What is the Inner Classic caution about pungents?
In qi diseases, avoid too much pungent. This applies to deficient qi (weakness) or stagnant qi of obstructions. Also avoid warming pungents if there are any heat signs
Cooling pungent examples
Peppermint, marjoram, elder flowers, white pepper, radish and its leaves
Neutral pungents
Kohlrabi, Taro, Turnip
Salty flavour properties (effect, energy movement, functions)
- Yin, cooling effect
- Moves energy downward and inward
- Centering, earthy qualities
- Moistens dryness
- Softens hardness and lumps
- Detoxifies
- Purge bowels and promote emesis
Uses of the salty falvour int/ext
- Soften lumps such as hardened lymph nodes, cataracts
- Internally for constipation, abdominal swelling and pain
- Externally for impure blood conditions with heat signs (skin discharges, sore throat)
- Counteracts toxins in body
- Increases appetite
Organ Functions
Salty flavour enters the kidneys.
Considered “proper” flavour for spleen-pancreas where it strengthens digestive function.
Salt also fortifies a weak heart-mind and improves mental concentration
Salty Seasonal Attunement
Descending, cooling nature attunes one to colder seasons, should be used progressively more during fall and winter
Individuals who benefit most from salty flavour
Salty flavour moistens and calms the thin, dry nervous person
Cautions for salty flavour
Salt must be greatly restricted by those with damp, overweight, lethargic or edemic conditions (esp. high bp).
Seaweeds are an exception.
Inner Classic says “Do not eat much salt in blood diseases”
Salty flavour examples
Salt
Seaweed
Barley & Millet
Soy sauce
Miso
Pickles
Sour Properties (effect, energy movement, qualities)
- Yin, cooling effect
- Contracting effect, inward movement
- Gathering, astringent, absorbent
Uses of Sour flavour
- Used to prevent or reverse absnormal leakage of fluids and energy
- Dry and firm up tissues
- Urinary dripping, excessive perspiration, diarrhea, weak and sagging tissues, hemorrhoids, prolapse
Sour Organ Functions
- Most active in the liver where it counteracts the effects of rich greasy food, acts as a solvent breaking down fats and protein
- Helps in digestion and to dissolve minerals and can help strengthen weakened lungs
- “Proper” flavour for the heart-mind as it plays a role in organizing scattered mental patterns
Individuals who benefit most from sour flavour
Sour flavour collects and holds together the dispersed, capriciously changing personality.
Sour flavour cautions
Those with dampness, heaviness of mind or body, constipation and constrictions should use the sour flavour sparingly
Bitter flavour properites (effect, energy movement, qualities)
- Yin, cooling effect
- Contraction and descending (brings energy in and down)
- Reduces the excessive person
- Antipyretic (lowers fever)
- Dry fluids and drain damp
Uses of the bitter flavour
- Inflammations, infections
- Overly moist, damp conditions (candida, parasites, mucus, swellings, skin eruptions, abscesses, cysts, obesity, edema of SP areas like intestines and flesh)
- Constipation (increases intestinal muscle contraction)
Organ functions
- Identified with fire element, balances heart
- Clears heat
- Cleans arteries of damp, mucoid deposits (cholesterol and fats), lower BP
- Bitter is the “proper” flavour for the Lungs
- Tonfies kidneys and lungs.
- Removes heat and mucous from lungs
- Clears stagnancy and cools heat in liver
Bitter Seasonal Attunement
Progressively increase use of the bitter flavour during the fall and winter in order to contract and channel energy lower into the body.
Heat symptoms that arise during any season can be treated with bitter.
Individuals who benefit most from bitter
- Slow, overweight, lethargic, watery (damp) individuals
- Overheated, aggressive people
Cautions for bitter flavour
Careful with people who are deficient, cold, weak, thin, nervous or dry
Inner Classic says “Those with bone diseases should not eat much bitter food.”
Sweet Flavour Properties (effect, energy movement, qualities)
- Yang flavour divided in two:
i) full sweet which is tonifying and strengthening
ii) empty sweet which is more cleansing and cooling (eg. fruits) - When found in warming food the energy expands upward and outward in the body
- Harmonizing flavour with a slowing, relaxing effect
- Builtds yin of the body, tissues and fludis, therefore tonifies the thin, dry person
Uses of the sweet flavour
- Sweet food is the centre of most traditional diets
- Energizes yet relaxes body, nerves and brain
- Reduce harsh taste of bitter
- Relieve acute disease symptoms
- Cold and deficiency can be treated with sweet, but not necessarily the cooling ones. Warming vegetables, legumes, grains are good
- Extreme deficiencies can be improved with dairy and animal products
Organ Functions
- Sweet flavour enters and strengthens the spleen-pancreas
- Sweet is appropriate for the liver as it soothes aggressive liver emotions such as anger
- Moistens dry conditions of lungs
- Slows overactive heart-mind
Seasonal Attunement of Sweet Flavour
The sweet flavour is appropriate in every season, especially during equinoxes/solstices and late summer.
Warming and/or ascending sweet foods attune one to upsurges of ssrping as do warming pungent foods.
What are some sweet foods with an ascending direction yet thermally neutral effect?
Cabbage
Carrot
Fig
Shiitake
Peas
Yam
What individuals benefit most from the sweet flavour?
- Dry, cold, nervous, thin, weak, scattered person
- Reduce sweet flavour in diet of aggressive person except fro in the form of grains like wheat, rice and oats
Cautions of Sweet Flavour
- Sluggish, overweight individual
- People with damp signs or mucous conditions
- Chewing carbohydrates well makes them less mucus forming and has a less damp impact on digestion
