Diet In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), diet is considered the first line of defense in health matters. Being aware of what we eat can help to maintain internal balance and prevent disease on a daily basis. There are several Chinese concepts of healthy eating habits. The most basic one is the balance of yin and yang; the failure to maintain this balance is the root to many illnesses - excessive yin leads to weakness and excessive yang to restlessness manifested in inflammation and ulcers. Yin foods include foods that are cool or cold in nature. These foods clear away heat, purge fire, remove heat from the blood and remove poisons. Yang foods include foods that are hot or warm in nature. These foods warm the interior as well as dispelling cold. From the preceding paragraph, it is obvious that a large part of TCM is balancing opposites out. The principles of TCM also suggest that it is important to eat in harmony with the energetic transformations manifested in the seasonal cycles of Nature. Eat more yang foods during the winter, the most yin time of the year, and eat more yin foods during the summer, the most Yang time of the year. 
In autumn, the weather becomes dry. To avoid dryness, a person could eat foods that nourish yin and moisten the lungs. In winter, it becomes cold, so it is better to eat more warm and hot foods. In spring, the live is in hyperfunction, which reduces the digestive function of the spleen. The flavour of the food could be sweet and not to sour to nourish the spleen. In summer, people have weaker digestion. It is better to eat lighter food that cab be digested easily. The Chinese viewpoint of a balanced diet is very different from that in the West. In the Chinese system, a balanced diet is one that also includes all 5 tastes - spicy, sour, bitter, sweet, and salty. 'The sour taste goes to the Liver, the bitter taste goes to the Heart, the sweet taste goes to the Spleen, the pungent taste goes to the Lungs, the salty taste goes to the Kidneys ... if the Liver is diseased one should not eat pungent foods, if the Heart is diseased one should not eat salty foods, if the Spleen is diseased one should not eat sour foods, if the Kidney is diseased one should not eat sweet foods, if the Lung is diseased one should not eat bitter foods. In his Outline of Materia Medica (1578), the master Chinese herbalist ShiChen Li (15181593) stated that: "in spring, one should eat more pungent and warm foods to stay in harmony with the upward movement of the season; in summer, one should eat more pungent and hot foods to stay in harmony with the outward movement of the season; in autumn, one should eat more sour and warm foods to stay in harmony with the downward movement of the season; in winter, one should eat more bitter and cold foods to stay in harmony with the inward movement of the season."
A daily dietary practice, which goes with this natural flow, enhances our personal experience of Qi. Just as struggling against a river's flow merely wastes one's energy, so a diet that is not in harmony with the movement of Nature will sap one's Qi.
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