Heatiness

Today, I was having a discussion with some colleagues over durians and how they were very unhealthy and heaty or "pu jua". Apparently durians contain about 357kcal per serving (about one full cup), which is a lot of calories. So, they were right with that - but what about the "heatiness"?

What exactly is "heatiness"? Heatiness stems from a Chinese philosophy of balance - in this case, of "hot" vs "cold" air inside the body. Correspondingly, there are certain foods which have the characteristics of being "heaty" and "cooling".

Excessive "heatiness" will bring about symptoms or physical feelings of temper, fever, and irritability. Symptoms of excessive heatiness would include:

1. Pimples
2. Sore throat
3. Nosebleeds
4. Ulcers
5. Indigestion / Constipation
6. Rashes / flushed face and cheeks

How our body is susceptible to these effects is affected by things like our lifestyle - sleep, exercise, nutrition, environment). From a TCM point of view, "heatiness" arises from lifestyle and weather factors, for example, hot weather, over-exertion, lack of sleep and exercise, stress and an imbalanced diet. Food thus does play a part in causing heatiness.

Typically, heaty foods are:
1. Fried
2. Fatty
3. Rich is sodium
4. Sweet
5. Grows under the sun

Cooling foods are:

1. Dry
2. Lean
3. Rich is potassium
4. Salty
5. Grows in little sunshine

Examples of cooling and heaty foods:

Cooling Foods:

Bamboo shoot, banana, bitter gourd, clam, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, persimmon, salt, seaweed, star fruit, sugar cane, water chestnut, watermelon, lotus root, cucumber, barley, bean curd, chicken egg white, marjoram, oyster, pear, peppermint, radish, strawberry, tangerine, and yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, zuccini, corn, tomatoes, pineapple, turmeric.

Heaty Foods:

Pepper, cinnamon bark, ginger, soybean oil, red and green pepper, chicken, apricot seed, brown sugar, cherry, chestnut, chive, cinnamon twig, clove, coconut, coffee, coriander (Chinese parsley), date, dillseed, eel, garlic, grapefruit peel, green onion, guava, ham, leaf mustard, leek, longan, mutton, nutmeg, peach, raspberry, rosemary, shrimp, spearmint, sweet basil, tobacco, vinegar, walnut, jackfruit, durian, leek, shallots, spring onion, , apricots, blackberries, black currant, mangoes, peaches, cherry, mandarin orange, grape.

Ideally, one has to balance the body condition with one's food intake. For example, herbal tea is said to have cooling properties which helps to negate one's heatiness.

A good knowledge of how your body is feeling and symptoms of heatiness will help you know what to eat to negate its negative effects and vice versa.

Live well!
Tim