Traditional Chinese medicine has long recognized the important connection between food and good health. The Chinese have learned that certain foods have healing properties and can be used to replace traditional medical treatments. Specific foods will often be recommended as part of the treatment plan for certain disorders.
According to Chinese medicine, every food has a different “temperature”. Some foods are considered “hot” while others are classified as “cold. It’s all about balance – Yin and Yang. Balancing the body’s yin and yang by consuming foods with the proper “temperature” can effectively treat the disease and correct the imbalance the body is suffering from.
Holistic veterinarians will often look to Chinese medicine when treating idiopathic diseases that have no definitive cause. When a condition in the body is caused by an inflammation (allergies), the vet will usually recommend feeding the animal a cooling food to counteract the condition, such as duck or turkey. Hot foods like chicken and lamb may aggravate an inflamed condition and will normally be removed from the pet’s diet completely. Other ingredients that can also cool the body are bananas, cucumber, kelp, lettuce, and oranges.
The following are examples of hot, cold and neutral proteins (1):
HOT : Beef Kidney, Chicken, Chicken Egg Yolk, Ham, Lamb Kidney, Lamb Liver, Lobster, Mutton, Pheasant, Prawn, Shrimp, Venison
COLD : Alligator, Clam, Cod, Conch, Crab, Duck, Egg White, Oyster, Rabbit (raised), Scallop, Shark, Turkey, Turtle
NEUTRAL : Beef, Carp, Catfish, Goose, Mackerel, Pigeon, Pork, Quail, Salmon, Sardines, Tripe, Tuna, Wild Rabbit
The Chinese philosophy is to use frugality, simplicity and balance to effectively treat the condition – a lesson we all need to learn!
(1) List supplied by the Chi Institute website
