Yin and yang: the energy of food

You take on the energy nature of food and literally become what you eat.

Food provides nutrition in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, etc.Food also imparts energy.

The common understanding of this energy is that it is some sort of fuel which we burn up. But there is more to it. When we eat, we also take on the energy nature of food.

And we become, in a sense, like our food.

This is the understanding of food in macrobiotics and other oriental philosophies. Not many people can accept this idea. But from our studies and experience, we find much truth in it.

Expanding and contracting energy of food

Let’s take a few examples… If you eat very hot chili, your nose may start to become runny with watery mucus.

But if your nose is already runny, you can stop it almost instantly by taking umeboshi, a salt pickled sour plum.

Umeboshi can; in fact, counter a wide range of what might be called expanding or loose symptoms – vomiting and nausea; frequent urination; diarrheoa; etc.

In macrobiotics, expanding or loosening energy is called yin; contracting or tightening energy is called yang. Do not confuse this with the Chinese concept of heaty and cooling. That is a different classification altogether.

To avoid confusion, let's just ignore the terms yin and yang, and focus instead on expanding and contracting nature of energy.

The expanding / contracting energy of food is a useful classification because we can predict the effect of a food just by observing its nature.

Expanding energy of food

Fruits, for example, have an expanding nature. They are soft, watery and loosely structured. So eating fruits will produce some kind of loosening effect, for example, softer stools.

A person who eats lots of fruits may also develop soft and wet palms, and puffy ankles.

Alcohol has stronger expanding energy. It has strong smell and a tendency to evaporate – that is, expand into the atmosphere.

What’s the effect of alcohol? It relaxes the body and the mind; it makes a person lose the ability to focus. He or she can neither walk straight nor think straight.

The following foods have quite strong expanding energies. See if you can understand why:

• Milk
• Sugar
• Spices
• Oil
• Coffee (and other foods with caffeine)
• Food chemicals like MSG and artificial sweeteners
• Hallucinating drugs
• Antibiotics and most pharmaceutical drugs.

Contracting energy of food

And the other end of the scale, egg is an example of a food with strong contracting energy.

An egg is, in energy terms, the contracted energy of a whole chicken. If you break open an egg, you can almost “see” some kind of force holding it together.

Meat has similar contracting energy. Compared to plants, animals are more compact, plants are more expanded.

Salt, too, has strong contracting energy. You see this when you marinate cucumber in salt. Water is drawn out and the cucumber becomes crunchier.

Salt also prevent decay, a process of expansion and breaking up. Salt preserves food by holding its energy together.

Other strong contracting energy foods include dry, baked foods like biscuits, and hard cheese.

Food cravings

One immediate effect of eating these foods is that it makes you crave expanding foods, in order to restore balance.

For example, if you eat salty food, you thirst for water. If you have a big steak for dinner, you may want a salad, or wine, to go with it. Or fruits for dessert.

In the long term, contractive foods will make you tight, tensed and easily stressed. One outcome may be arteriosclerosis. From the medical view point, this is because the cholesterol clogs up blood pressure. From the viewpoint of the energy of food, it is because contractive food makes the blood vessels tight and hard.

The mind and consciousness, too, becomes tight. Heavy meat eaters tend to be materialistic, self centered and less open minded.

Understanding the energy of food will enable us to really adapt our food to suit our needs – like if you want to ask your boss for a raise, you will know what to eat and what not to eat.

I heard this when I first learnt about macrobiotics many years ago. I thought it was a crazy idea. But it’s not all far fetched.

If you want to ask for a raise, or if you are about to do some tough business negotiations, you cannot afford to be wishy washy. You need to be firm, yet not so firm as to be totally inflexible.

So what should you eat? To begin with, you should not take alcohol, sugar, fruits, or other strong expanding foods. These foods would make you a bit too easy going, and you tend to accept too readily whatever is offered to you.If you eat too much meat, eggs, salt and other contractive foods, you will become too inflexible and aggressive in your negotiations.Then you put the other party off, and again you may not get what you want.

In the middle

You need to be somewhere in the middle. As usual, eat whole grains, vegetables, beans and etc.To firm yourself up slightly, you could take foods that are just slightly more contractive, like a stronger, more salty, miso soup; more grains than vegetables; more long cooked vegetables than raw salads, and so on.

With an understanding of the energy of food, it begins to make sense that a students preparing for examination take essence of chicken. The contractive energy of chicken helps them to concentrate (although brown rice, miso soup and vegetables would be better).

But they should also avoid chocolates and sweets, which would make them spaced out!

And it does not make sense for men seeking sexual adventure to go drinking. Alcohol relaxes them, so they are less afraid to approach women. But when it comes to the actual act, alcohol renders them somewhat less capable!

Click here to read Part II of this article on the energy of food, which looks at how we take on the quality of chicken, pigs and cattle...