-"Huangdi Neijing Su Wen Zangqi Law"
Acid enters the liver, bitter enters the heart, sweet enters the spleen, pungent enters the lung and salty enters the kidney.
-"The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic Su Wenxuan's Five Qi Articles"
Yin produces five flavors; Yin, five houses and five smells hurt. Therefore, the taste is too sour, the liver qi produces fluid and the temper is unique. The taste is too salty, strong and tired, with short muscles and depressed heart. The taste is too bitter, the heart is full of breath, and the kidney is unbalanced. The taste is too sweet, the temper is damp, and the stomach is strong. The smell is too pungent, the bones and muscles are slack, and the spiritual center.
-"Huangdi Neijing, Su Wen, Angry to Heaven"
The Chinese nation's diet health culture is extensive and profound. From ancient times to the present, many literati and health-preserving people have mentioned various experiences and methods of diet and health-preserving in their poems and articles, which provide valuable reference for future generations' diet and cooking. Among them, the theory of five flavors, as the ancestor and foundation of diet and health preservation, was first seen in Huangdi Neijing, and was supplemented by later doctors, and gradually improved.
The five flavors are sour, bitter, sweet and salty. The five flavors are first identified by the taste in the mouth, which is a reflection of the real taste of food. But more importantly, through long-term clinical practice observation, different medicines and foods have different effects on human body, resulting in different reactions and different therapeutic effects. In other words, the five flavors are not only a true reflection of the taste of food, but more importantly, a concrete description of the functions of drugs and food.
Su Wen Zang Qi Lun pointed out: "pungent and scattered, sour and bitter, sweet and slow, bitter and firm, salty and soft". This is a high summary of the efficacy of the five flavors by the ancients. These include:
Pungent, can disperse, can do, refers to pungent drugs and food have the functions of dispersing, promoting qi circulation and promoting blood circulation. For example, ginger is divergent cold; Radish, mustard head digestion; Perilla leaves sweat and relieve exterior syndrome, with wide breath; Honghua Huoxue Tongjing and so on.
Acid is astringent, astringent and astringent, and has astringent and astringent effects. For example, ebony can astringe the lung to stop cough, apple can stop diarrhea, Myrica rubra can stop thirst, diarrhea and vomiting, and pomegranate can stop diarrhea and stop bleeding.
Sweet, tonic, harmonious and slow, that is, it has the effects of tonic, neutralization, coordination of medicinal properties and pain relief. For example, ginseng can greatly replenish vitality, maltose can relieve pain, and licorice can reconcile medicinal properties and detoxify food poisoning.
Bitter, can drain, can dry, can be strong, and has the functions of clearing heat, lowering qi, dredging stool and drying dampness. Such as bitter gourd clearing heat and promoting diuresis, okra clearing heat and promoting diuresis, bitter almond reducing qi and relieving asthma, etc.
Salty, soft and soft, it has the functions of purging, relaxing bowels, softening and resolving hard mass. Such as laver and kelp, most seafood has the function of softening and resolving phlegm.
"Su Wen Xuan Ming Wu Qi pian" said that "acid enters the liver, bitter enters the heart, sweet enters the spleen, pungent enters the lung and salty enters the kidney". The homology of medicine and food tends to a certain viscera functional system, and has a special or selective effect on this system. Traditional Chinese medicine calls this meridian tropism. Sour drugs enter the liver meridian, such as kumquat and hawthorn; Bitter taste enters the heart meridians such as Huang Lian and Lotus Heart; Sweet taste enters the spleen meridian, such as jujube and yam; Spicy into the lungs, such as ginger, mint, dried tangerine peel; Salted into the kidney meridian, such as sea cucumber and oyster. But this is just a general rule, not a static one. For example, Lycium barbarum is sweet, nourishing liver and kidney instead of spleen and soil; Grapefruit is sweet and sour, enters the lung and stomach meridian, and has the functions of reducing qi and resolving phlegm, promoting digestion and relieving alcoholism. Therefore, we should not treat it mechanically, but determine its taste according to the function of the food itself, and choose drugs and food according to the state of the body.
It is worth noting that because the five flavors belong to the five elements, there is also a relationship of mutual growth and resistance. If the intake of five flavors in the diet is peaceful, the five flavors of food can be transformed into yin essence and Yang Qi, nourishing the five internal organs and qi and blood; On the other hand, yang deficiency and yin deficiency, qi and blood deficiency. "The third theory of anger" says that "Yin has five flavors; Yin, five houses and five smells hurt. Therefore, the taste is too sour, the liver qi produces fluid and the temper is unique. The taste is too salty, strong and tired, with short muscles and depressed heart. The taste is too bitter, the heart is full of breath, and the kidney is unbalanced. The taste is too sweet, the temper is damp, and the stomach is strong. The taste is too spicy, relaxing and activating, and the spiritual center. " What we are talking about is the concrete embodiment of five flavors causing disease and five elements resisting each other. Overeating or too much sex will damage the five internal organs and lead to diseases. As we now know, "eating too much is easy to get diabetes; Eating too much acid is prone to gastrointestinal diseases; Eating salty food is prone to high blood pressure and kidney disease. The reason is the same.
Generally speaking, people should eat moderately according to their physical condition and the efficacy of the five flavors to avoid partial eclipse or overdose. This is the basis of five flavors diet.