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CONSTITUTION & DIET

Once there was a young wife who tried to send her very wealthy but much older husband to an early grave so that she could marry her lover. This pretty, young woman was a wonderful cook and she was especially good at making fried rice- which her husband, Mr. Yang, loved. Therefore, he frequently ate fried rice. The wife ensured his diet was high in ‘yang’ foods. There were a lot of fried food and meat, nourishing herbal meat soups as well as sweet desserts in his diet. Before retiring each night, she gave her husband either herbal tonic wine or ginseng chicken soup to improve his vitality. [Wine, Korean ginseng and chicken are ‘heaty yang’ foods].

Gradually, her husband started to suffer from frequent sore throat, canker sores, fever and headache. Hot weather made him break out in heat rash. He became impatient, irritable and short tempered. His blood pressure rose, complexion became ruddy and often fell hot. His gums, swollen and tender, bled easily . sometimes, there were nosebleeds. His urine was dark, stools hard and he was often thirsty. Mr. Yang also could not sleep well. His sleep was often restless and troubled by unsettling dreams.

He suffered from constipation, made worse by eating ‘obstructive’ or high-fiber food such as olives, guava and lotus root

Mr. Yang exhibited an excessively ‘yang’ constitution and ailments brought about by a lopsided, unbalanced ‘Yang’ diet.

Diet play an important role in determining our state of health. To maintain good health, there should be a balance of yin and yang as well as neutral food in the diet.

Since Mr. Yang’s constitution was in a very yang state, he should eat more ‘yin’ food to restore balance. Yin foods are often low in calories. Lots of fruits, vegetables and legumes are often in this category. He should eat more raw, steamed and boiled food to dissipate excessive heat in his body. Boiled spinach for example, is cooling and moistens the body. Raw cucumber, melons, tofu and many types of lightly cooked leafy green vegetables are beneficial in his diet. Wheat dumplings which is damp and cooling is preferable to fried rice. American ginseng tea, which is cooling, is a good substitute for Korean ginseng.

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