Michele Moody,certified Neuromuscular Therapist and on the path to being a licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist, was my guest on my radio program, Beyond the Measuring Cup on June 7, 2007.
Michele Mood is the daughter of a pharmacist and father who at the age of 40 was paralyzed by a devastating stroke. This one single event in her life impacted her view of living. She recognized that we cannot control our DNA, but we can control our diet and lifestyle. Michele developed a keen interest in the value of nutrition, exercise and balanced living. She was a vegetarian for 25 years exploring diet as a way to maintain optimum health and vitality. She is not an avid yoga and Qi Gong practitioner and encourages others to be responsible for their health and well being. Her adventure into herbal studies began through a close connection to the earth growing medicinal plants. Michele is a certified Neuromuscular Therapist and on the path to being a licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist.
Chinese Medicine practitioners look at food from a different perspective than we do here in the West. There are 5 elements that everything fits into. They are: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, & Water. Everything in life fits into one of these categories and has an influence on our bodies because of how it fits into this framework. We talked quite a bit about how the 5 flavors of food influence our health. These flavors are also related to the elements. It is believed to have a meal well-balanced there should be elements of each of these flavors.
The first of the 5 flavors is Sour which correlates with Wood Element, and helps attune us to Spring. Foods that are considered
sour are dandelion leave, chick weed, lemon, lime, plums, vinegar, mangoes. All sour foods act as astringent in the body, even though we may not think of them as sour.
The second of the 5 flavors is Bitter, which helps us in Summer which is Fire Element. Bitter is generally cooling. Foods that are very cooling and bitter are coffee, hops, lettuce and vinegar. We generally think of vinegar as sour. It also has that taste in it, but in Chinese theory, it is generally considered bitter. Things that are bitter are often thought of as being cooling. Although it is not bitter water melon is particularly good to cool one down in the summer.
The third of the 5 flavors is Sweet, which correlates with the Element
Earth and late Summer, or Indian Summer. Sweet can help us through out the year, but
most often in late summer. The foods that are sweet are berries, bananas, meat
including beef and pork are considered sweet as well as celery. These foods slow down acute symptoms, and neutralized other toxic effects. When the Chinese add in sweet... it is generally a little bit of sweet.
The fourth of the 5 flavors is Pungent, or spicy in the Fall which correlates with the Metal Element. Foods that are in this section are green onions, parsley, ginger, dill, leek, peppermint, cloves, ginger.
The fifth of the 5 flavors is Salty, which correlates with Water Element, and helps in Winter. Foods that are salty are salt, of course, but also seaweeds, such as kelp. They help to "soften" our body and work on the Kidney meridian. The salt flavor generally is seen as softening tissues and moving things downward and inward into the body, therefore, it would help with any swelling or hardening, or swollen glands, goiters.
This 5 element theory has been in existence for over 5000 years. If you are interested in learning more about food and health from this perspective Michele recommended two good references. The Tao of Healthy Eating by Bob Floss and Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford.
The system derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine is very different from our way of looking at food in our Western system. We benefit from having alternative ways of looking at the things in our lives. There is so much to learn about this way of looking at the world, that we need to have Michele back to talk about some of the other influences on eating. You may contact Michele at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 404-371-0361
