I'm a beginner to understanding yin/yang and am having some trouble understanding how yin/yang are expansive/contractive respectively. When I think of yin, I think of dark, cool, inward, dense and yet yin foods are expansive, which doesn't make sense to me. I would think of yin foods as contractive. Similarly with yang, I think of light, warm, outward, sparse and yet yang foods are contractive.
It seems contradictory to me.
Can someone please help me better understand this?
Thank you!
Comment by Archived User
By physics theory, hot thing is expansion, cold thing is contraction, hot is yang, cold is yin. So hot food is expansion, cold food is contraction.
Comment by Archived User
Hi there
It's not quite a simple as hot/cold or expansive/contractive, I'm afraid. Chinese Medicine uses food as therapy, not just as nutrition, so a lot does depend on the state of a body before deciding the dietary approach. So, a good grounding in medical theory helps. However, that's not possible for most lay people, so it's a good idea to just get to grips with yin/yang in the first place before applying it to food. The main challenge we westerners face is in realising yin/yang is not dualistic, it does not take an either/or approach as we tend to in western theory. It's more about shifting energies within the forms themselves, as well as influence on each form.
In terms of food, a good place to start is Daverick Leggett's book Helping Ourselves: A Guide To Traditional Chinese Food Energetics, which you can get from Amazon.This talks you through the various patterns found, and which foods correct them. Through that, it becomes easier to understand the subtle 'dance' that is yin/yang, and then how you can help yourself (as the title suggets) based on Chinese Medicine principles.
Good Luck!
Comment by Archived User
My reading about diets islimited. But if yin foods are cold that means they slow your metabolism therefore lead to weight gain=expansion likewise yang raises metabolism resulting in not gaining or losing weight = contraction. Is not Chinese medicine energetic medicine?
Comment by Archived User
Thank you for your replies, they are helpful. I have also come to learn that there different ways of categorizing cold/hot expansive/contracting yin/yang depending on the Japanese traditions and the Chinese traditions - which doesn't really make things easier for me being a beginner :). So far I have been using the Self Healing Cookbook.
Thanks again!
Comment by Archived User
It's hard to know how to interpret sometimes, though. I've read several books on yin/yang food theories and such, but even the same book can be contradicting, and sometimes, my conditions just contradict the theory.
Such as I show tendencies towards cold, damp, heat, and dry. How can I have all?
Out of the list for those that have a tendency to cold, I have the following bolded tendencies:
Cold
Tendency to feel chilled
Urine tends to be clear
Dresses warmly, likes heat
Tendency toward loose
Pale complexion stools
Preference for warm food/drinks
Slow metabolism drinks
Soft, fleshy muscles
Rarely thirsty
Often tired, sleeps a lot
Tendency to feel depressed
Health worse in cold pressed weather
Quiet, withdrawn
For damp, I have the following bolded:
Dampness
Strong dislike of humidity
Stuffy nose, postnasal drip
Health worsens in dampness
Mentally “foggy”
Abdominal bloating
Retention of fluids
Little thirst or hunger
Overweight, soft fat
Urine tends to be cloudy
Puffy eyes or face
Easily short of breath
Feeling of heaviness especially in lower body
Now for hot:
Heat
Tendency to feel warm
Tendency to be talkative
Uncomfortable in hot weather
Urine tends to be dark
May suffer fever blisters, canker sores
Dresses in short sleeves
Tends toward ruddy complexion
May suffer headaches, nose bleeds, bleeding
High blood pressure gums
Often thirsty, craves cold drinks
Sleep often restless, disturbing dreams
Tendency toward impatience, irritability or anger
May be constipated
And Dry:
Dryness
Dry skin, dandruff
Cravings for sweets
Dry stools, constipation
Preference for warm liquids in small sips
Dry throat or eyes
Night sweats
Menopause
Can easily become both hot or cold
Thin body type
Easily stressed, irritated or frustrated
Rosy cheeks, especially after exercise
So how can I show tendencies from each group at all times? It seems like because of the dampness in my body (including the beginnings of arthritis and too much mucus and phlegm, especially coughed up after some meals, that I should eat more warming foods, yet I seem to tend towards a more hot constitution in some ways, which would signal that I need more cold foods. I'm so confused.
Comment by Archived User
Your confusion about yin/yang contracting/expanding is common. According to Chinese Medicine theory, yin is contracting, cooling, downwards etc and yang is expansive, heating, upwards etc.
However in Chinese Dietary Therapy the terms yin and Yang are rarely used to describe food as they are too broad - a more detailed description is used that covers temperature, flavour, route and actions - eg a food could be said to be Warm, Sweet, enter the Lung channel and Tonify Qi.
The confusion comes from the macrobiotic diet, where for some odd reason they decided to flip the Yin/Yang classification so yin means expansive and yang means contracting. If you're reading a macrobiotic book, thats what they mean - if it;s Chinese Medicine (TCM) then your original thoughts (yin=contracting, cool etc) are correct!
Comment by Archived User
Thank you neilkingham, that is so helpful!
Comment by Archived User
I have struggled with the confusion between the Chinese tradition that yin is contracting and yang is expanding and the Japanese tradition that yin is expanding and yang is contracting. I have several good books on both traditions and I have read the posts here on this forum as well as many articles on the subject and I must say that I am just as confused as I was when I started. Who is correct? Is it possible that both are correct but are looking at the situation from different angles? Is one in reference to food and the other in reference to physics? I am very interested in and seem to lean very heavy to the Japanese explanation (yin-expanding, yang-contracting) and using that for how I eat and an understand of such, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking that the Chinese see this issue different and it seems to have a bearing on my confidence and lets some doubt creep in. Perhaps another post or two on the subject may be able to get me thinking this one through properly. Thank you in advance for any help and information you might be able to seen this way.
earlybird207
Comment by Archived User
i have been thinking about this matter for weeks. i'm very happy to have found this discussion. i started yin/yang experience with macrobiotics and reading feng shui and other chinese books i couldn't understand why it was all reversed, and it made no sense to me. i don't believe in a strict macrobiotic diet but what kushi says about yin and yang create makes sense. maybe for chinese traditional medicine it was underlined the effect more than the properties: yin is expansive but provokes contraction, cold produces contraction. what is cold is hard. Thereby yang is contractive but causes expansion. I am trying to find where Ohsawa states out his choice.