“The wise nourish life by flowing with the four seasons and adapting to cold or heat, by harmonizing joy and anger in a tranquil dwelling, by balancing yin and yang, and what is hard and soft. So it is that dissolute evil cannot reach the man of wisdom, and he will be witness to a long life”. ~ Huangdi Neijing Suwen
Practitioners of Oriental Medicine believe that human beings should live in harmony with the natural cycles of their environment. Winter is the end of all seasons. It is yin (stillness, peaceful, nourishing) in nature. It’s a time to remain introspective, restful and consolidate your subtle breath (qi) through the season and prepare for the outburst of new life and energy in the spring. The winter months are a great time to hibernate or slow down internally, to contemplate or meditate deeply.
Winter is the season to seek warmth. A time to rest and refine the spiritual essence through harmonising the 3 treasures – essence (jing), subtle breath and spirit. And it’s a time to store physical energy with a couple of kilos of weight. Even though the yin processes predominate, we must stay active enough to keep our joints and our spine flexible.
In Chinese medicine canons, a quote from the Inner Classic states that “The forces of winter create cold in Heaven and water on Earth. They create the kidney organ and the bones within the body …. the emotion fear, and the ability to make a groaning sound”.
Winter Foods
It is our kidneys which are most affected by the cold winter conditions. In traditional medicine, our hearing is related to the health of the kidneys. The kidneys open into the sense door of the ears and affect our hearing. Foods which fortify the kidneys include dried foods, small dark beans, seaweeds and steamed winter greens. Warm hearty soups, whole grains and roasted nuts are great on cold days. It is best to cook foods longer and at lower temperatures and with less water to infuse warmth at this time of year.
Salty & Bitter Flavours
Both salty and bitter foods are appropriate for winter as they promote a sinking, centering quality which helps storage capacity. Such foods also cool the exterior of the body (so you do not feel the cold as much) and bring warmth to deeper and lower parts of the body, which we want in winter.
Some of the foods considered to be bitter include lettuce, watercress, endive, turnip, celery, asparagus, alfalfa, carrot top, rye, oats, quinoa, amaranth, outer cabbage leaves and citrus peel. Bitter herbs are chicory root, burdock root, horsetail and chaparral.
Salty foods include miso, soy sauce, seaweeds, salt, millet, barley, plus any food made salty by the addition of salt. Salt if often overused in a typical diet while the bitter foods are often under-represented in our western diet.
The Kidneys in Harmony and Disease
The kidneys are the foundation of all yin and yang qualities in the body and are the organs seen as the root and foundation of the human body. They rule the lower part of the body, including the sexual organs and their reproductive functions. And they also provide energy and warmth.
The kidney yin supports and affects the yin of the entire body; kidney yang acts as a foundation for all the yang of the body. As practitioners of Oriental Medicine, we consider both the yang and yin aspects when making a diagnosis involving the kidneys.
Disharmony of the kidneys is recognised, in Oriental Medicine, primarily as “deficiencies”. The most prevalent types being insufficient yang, insufficient yin, lack of energy (qi) and a lack of essence (jing) which is common among modern people. Treating kidney yin deficiency or kidney yang deficiency can involve the introduction of suitable foods, natural herbs to supplement the diet and acupuncture to remedy the imbalance of yin and yang.
Written by Dr Mark McAuliffe (Acupuncture)
Reference – Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford, 2002 3rd Edition