Chinese medicine divides foods and herbs into five essences: Warm, Hot, Cool, Cold, and Neutral. Over several millennia, masters perfected the art of using essence to help prevent illness and disease and to heal a range of conditions. Ginger and cinnamon are two examples of the characteristics of essence. Each contains a Warm essence. No matter how you incorporate them into other foods or change their physical composition—even when they are turned into ice cream—they will always carry a Warm essence.

The body loves warmth. For a healthy and smooth-flowing digestive system, it’s important to feed the body warming foods—even in summer! Many people reach for a crisp salad or raw vegetables on a hot summer day. But the essence of these foods is Cold. If the Spleen-Stomach receive too many cold things, they will start to complain. At first, you will experience certain signs like bloating, burping, or a white coat on your tongue. That’s just their first round of messages. They will send more!

By roasting or sauteing your vegetables or blanching your salad, you’ll remove the Cold energy from your food and gain Qi for healing. Instead of using Stomach Qi to warm up raw, cold vegetables, you will have more Qi reserved for healing. If you want to use food as a healing medicine, this is an important concept to remember: The Qi and healing messages you gain from foods are more effective than their nutritional or physical components.

Healing Foods for Late Summer

Late Summer begins around the third week of August and runs through the Fall equinox. This is the season associated with the Spleen/Stomach, your energy generators. The Spleen and Stomach are responsible for digesting and processing more than food. At a higher level, they also process your emotions, thoughts, and experiences. As Grand Master Lu says, “Emotions have a stronger effect than food on our bodies. On one level, you are what you eat; at a higher level, you are what you think!”

Here are some foods to support your Spleen and Stomach function:

Chinese barley

Lotus seed

Chinese red dates

Red grapefruit

Radish

Red grapes

Red apples

Sweet potato

Mango

Papaya

Peanuts

Pumpkin

Ginger

Cinnamon

Turmeric

Fennel seeds

Garlic

Black and white pepper

Get Creative!

What recipes can you create with the foods on this list?

How can you smooth out your emotions so your Spleen/Stomach duo doesn’t need to work so hard? Conserve your Qi! Use it to heal instead of using it to process your emotions.