Yin and Yang - Food - Winter - Sweets
Creating Balance for your Health
Holidays are upon us and most of us indulge at this time with wonderfully delicious sweets; cakes, pies, holiday cookies, candies, chocolate treats, it is just a sweet time of year. Many of us have childhood memories about the holiday time and how we were allowed to eat more special holiday sweets. And often those memories are associated with our families that creates a connection inside us of love, family and holiday sweets.
This can create an in balance of your body's energy. A long time ago, when we lived close to nature, we had this inherent knowledge of how nature worked, how it was associated with our bodies and how to live as close to the eb and flow of nature.
In the Orient they used the terms Yin and Yang to talk about being balanced. Those are the terms I am familiar with from my background in Macrobiotic lifestyle for over 27 years. I will explain the energies of Yin and Yang in this blog and relate them to food, winter and sweets.
Yin and Yang
The earliest writing of Yin Yang was found on Chinese animal bones. These bones were carbon dated to be earlier than 2000 BCE and were used for divination. The bones included Yin Yang and the Five Elements.
Everything is energy. Everything has two energies existing inside of it in varying degrees. Everything has both Yin energy and Yang energy. One energy is more predominant and that is how we classify whether something is either Yin or Yang.
Everything is constantly changing. Yin changes to Yang. Yang changes to Yin. A baby is very Yang, small and compact. As we grow, we move to become more Yin, larger and expansive.
Yin - Expansive, upward moving energy, summer, cooling vegetables, peacefulness, introspection, night, sweet
Yang - Contractive, downward moving energy, winter, warming root vegetable, organization, concentration, day, salty
Food
Yin vegetable food is grown above ground, higher water content, and usually sweet - Fruit is yin
Yang vegetable food is grown underground or close to the ground, more firm, and usually salty - Root vegetables are yang
Extreme Yin food is foods made with sugar or other sweeteners. Extreme foods are the foods to avoid or eat very small amounts
Extreme Yang food is foods that are from animal sources or very salty. Extreme foods are to avoid or eat very small amounts.
To achieve health, you want to eat foods that have their Yin and Yang balanced. The food that is most balanced is Brown Rice. All whole grains are in the middle and considered the most balance foods.
Winter Foods
In the winter, cold Yang energy, you want to eat more Yang, warming foods. In the summer, warm Yin energy, you want to eat more Yin, cooling foods.
Since it is wintertime, let’s look at the cooling Yin foods that should be limited at this time. (Limited but not forgotten.)
Lettuce - Lettuce Salads, Raw Foods, Fruit, Desserts (anything made with sweeteners), cucumbers and nightshade vegetables.
Food to eat in the winter, more warming Yang foods.
Root vegetables: carrots, turnips, rutabaga, onions, sweet potatoes, daikon and other radishes.
Also warming Yang energy vegetables (not grown underground)
Pumpkin, all winter squashes (butternut, buttercup, acorn, delicata, spaghetti, dumpling) and cabbage
(Note: Not everyone lives in a climate that has cold winter such as is the case here in Michigan. The food that is grown local to where you live can be classified as Yin or Yang and eaten when ripe to stay balanced, even in climates that do not experience winter.)
Fruit
Many people continue to eat fruit daily during the cold winter months. This will create a colder environment in your body. Fruit has a strong Yin energy.
If we think about how our ancestors lived, they did not have access to fruit in the wintertime. They ate fruit in the summer when they could pick it fresh. They lived very close to nature and they were compatible with the energy of the earth.
Modern day grocery stores have gotten us out of balance. We are not living close to nature by eating seasonally.
Fructose and Sweeteners very Yin
The situation with the sugar substitutes that most people think are healthy are that they are very high in fructose. Fructose occurs naturally in fruit. When you eat the whole fruit, you also get all the fiber, vitamins and minerals. The way that the high fiber, whole fruit digests in your body is different from the way the high fructose sugar substitutes digest. The human body was not made to consume very sweet, high fructose foods. The body does not know what to do with that much fructose. What ends up happening is the body does not digest these high fructose substitutions in the digestive track, the body digests it in the liver.
In the early 1900’s the average American ate about 15 g. Of fructose in their diets. That is about a half of an ounce. And that fructose was in fruits and vegetables. Today we average about 5 times that amount. And if you are using high fructose sugar substitutes you can be sure you are consuming too much fructose.
The liver uses fructose to create fat. This process is called lipogenesis. Give the liver enough fructose, and tiny fat droplets begin to accumulate in liver cells. This buildup is called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, because it looks just like what happens in the livers of people who drink too much alcohol. This was virtually unknown before the 1980’s.
High fructose, so called ‘Natural Sweeteners’
Agave - Beet Sugar - Coconut Sugar - Monk Fruit Extract - Lo Han sweetener (made from Monk Fruit)
Stevia
Although Stevia is not fructose it is 300 times sweeter than white sugar and it gets digested in the liver also.
What you find in the stores is highly refined. Plus read the labels, usually the stevia in big bags at the store has added sugars. It does not contain fructose, but being so sweet, it too also gets digested in the liver.
Good resource on Stevia:
https://janeshealthykitchen.com/the-toxic-truth-stevia/
Brown Rice Syrup
I have been using and teaching about brown rice syrup for 27 years. It is the healthiest sweetener to use. Because it is made from a whole grain, a complex carbohydrate, it is the least yin sweetener that I have come across. It does not contain fructose (or very small amounts).
The healthiest sugar substitute is brown rice syrup.
Made from whole brown rice, it breaks down to maltose, the least reactive sweetener there is on the body. Maltose will never spike your blood sugar. Brown rice syrup contains the minerals zinc, magnesium and manganese. It is made by cooking whole brown rice, adding enzymes to help break down the starches, draining it and then boiled.
Cooking Class:
Student requested!
Fillo Dough, Kale and Mock Feta Cheese Pie Cooking Class
Wed. December 11 - 6 to 9 PM (ET)
In person $65.00 - Virtual $55.00
Sign up: https://www.macroval.com/cookingclasses.htm
Hands on cooking and we eat the food we create in class.
This is not a gluten free class.
Have you ever wondered how to work with Fillo Dough? It is very thin and can be challenging to use in a recipe.
Menu: Kale Mock Feta Cheese Fillo Dough Pie, Fillo Dough Roll Ups with Squash Garlic Sauce, and Blueberry Walnut Fillo Dough Dessert Dish.
Cookbooks make great Christmas Gifts!
I am the author of 6 cookbooks. https://www.macroval.com/buycookbook.htm
Gift Certificates
Give the gift of health for Christmas. Gift certificates for cooking classes of counseling sessions.
https://www.macroval.com/giftcertificates.htm
Thank you for reading, liking, sharing and subscribing to my blog. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help support my work.
