Are The Foods You're Eating Making You Hot?

Hello Everyone,

We're hot, sweaty, and experiencing night sweats or hot flashes. The question is, Are the Foods You’re Eating Making You Hot?

As we age, the fluctuation of our metabolism, hormone balance, and environmental influences places a challenge on our ability to maintain a healthy weight and overall good health. Western medicine has used the Food Pyramid Guide and the system of recommended daily allowance of food as rule. The Chinese also have time-proven food guidelines that are based on proportions, taste, quality, and the temperatures of food. The food we eat every day creates the environment of our digestive tract. When we eat food that our body doesn’t tolerate well, our digestion becomes sluggish.

In China, the temperature of food does not refer solely to whether it is being served hot or cold, but rather the heating effect or cooling effect it has on your body temperature. Foods are classified as hot, warm, neutral, cool and cold. Hot foods, such as spicy or curry, warms our bodies and also contributes to heat-related health problems such as fever, headaches, sore throat, bloodshot eyes, and even pimples of your face. The Chinese diet is careful not to include too much hot food, as the heat can make the body temperature even hotter. The Chinese diet consists of plenty of grains, vegetables, and less meat, fat, and dairy. It is believed that the digestion process is aided by first cooking the food, even slightly. Cold foods cool you down but also require more energy for digestion.

If you’re suffering any from heat related symptoms or break out in an unpredictable sweat with no apparent reason, be aware of the food you’re eating. It’s possible to balance the heat in our body by becoming aware of foods and their temperatures. The Chinese diet notes hot foods to include black pepper, chicken fat, chocolate, crispy rice (think Rice Krispies breakfast cereal), curry, hot chilies, lamb, mango, onions, peanut butter, sesame seeds, hot sauces, black tea, Chai lattes, whiskey, smoked fish, and trout. Warm foods include beef, brown sugar, cheese, chestnuts, chicken, egg yolk, dates, garlic, ginger, green pepper, ham, leeks, oats, peaches, pomegranates, potatoes, turkey, turnips, walnuts, vinegar and wine.

On the opposite end, cool and cold foods include almonds, apples, broccoli, celery, fish, oranges, pineapple, radishes, salt, spinach, strawberries, bananas, bean sprouts, cucumbers, duck, grapefruit, green tea, lettuce, tomatoes, yogurt, watermelon, and grapefruit. During the summer, eating more cool and cold foods will keep your body temperature cooler. It’s best to eat food that is fresh and free of chemicals, preservatives and additives. An apple, for example, can be sprayed up to 26 times before reaching your shopping cart. There’s a growing consensus among scientists that long-term ingestion of pesticides and chemicals found in fruit and vegetables can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood.

To aid digestion, eat at a leisurely pace in a relaxing environment to give time for the digestion process. The food needs to be chewed thoroughly and properly and is often the most important step in improving food digestion. Not only does chewing well pre-digests your food before sending it to your stomach, it also gives your taste buds a chance to work and your brain to signal when your body has had enough. Avoid drinking water or sodas with your meal as it dilutes your digestive juices and the fluid may wash down the food before it’s digested fully. If you eat up to three quarters full, your stomach will not become over-stressed, causing you to feel tired to the extra energy spent on digestion.

You can abuse your body to the age 35, and after that, it abuses you. Therefore, your food choices can help your body heal itself through proper nutrition, reducing inflammation, improving digestion, and avoiding chemical additives and pesticides.

All the best, Cheryl




Cheryl Grace is a professional Feng Shui expert, nationally certified interior refiner, and winner of the 2008-09 Natural Choice Award for Favorite Feng Shui Practitioner. For a consultation for your home or business or to contact Cheryl, e-mail ggRedecorating@yahoo.com or call 941-400-3816. Visit www.ggRedecorating.com to shop for contemporary Feng Shui decor and enhancements, or to find a list of Feng Shui seminars taught by Cheryl. For daily Feng Shui tips, follow Cheryl on Twitter and her Blog at www.Twitter.com/FengShuiSimply ; www.Twitter.com/FengShuiGreen; www.FengShuiSimply.blogspot.com