What are the four qi in nutrition and diet adjustment?

The "four qi" often mentioned in nutrition and diet supplements are the core classification of food attributes in the traditional theory of homology of medicine and food, specifically referring to the four properties of cold, hot, warm and cool, also often called the "four properties" - its core judgment standard is the physiological reaction produced after food enters the human body, which has no direct relationship with the physical temperature of the food itself.

I ran outside for half an hour on a day of over 30 degrees in the summer, and gnawed half of a watermelon just taken out of the refrigerator while sweating. I instantly felt a chill from my throat to the bottom of my stomach. Even the throbbing pain in my temples was relieved by most. This is the cold nature of watermelon at work.； But if you are greedy and eat two or three food in a row, you will most likely have to run to the toilet that day. People with weak spleen and stomach may suffer from stomachache, which is also the effect of coldness. On the other hand, on a subzero day in winter, if you stew a pot of lamb scorpion with peppercorns and star anise at home, you will want to take off your coat after eating it, and the ice particles on your hands and feet will melt. This is the warm nature of the lamb taking effect. If you eat it for three days in a row, many people will develop oral ulcers and acne on their faces the next day, which means that they have overheated it.

Many people tend to misunderstand this concept when they first come into contact with it. They think that hot food is warm in nature and cold food is cold in nature. How can it be so simple? Even if you steam the hairy crabs until they are too hot to hold, they are still cold in nature. People with a weak spleen and stomach will easily suffer from diarrhea and abdominal pain if they eat two. The older generation eats crabs with ginger vinegar and warm rice wine. This is to use the warmth of ginger and wine to neutralize the coldness of the crabs, otherwise it is easy to cause problems. On the other hand, if you freeze pears into frozen pears, they themselves are still cool, which can moisturize dryness and clear fire. They will not become colder because of freezing. Even if you cook them into pear soup, they will at most weaken the cold irritation. It is suitable for people with weak spleen and stomach, and its properties will not directly become warm.

In fact, the industry's current views on the four qi are not completely unified. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine and dietary therapy believe that the four qi are the essence of thousands of years of trial and error. When adjusting and supplementing, they must strictly correspond to their physical constitution: people with yang deficiency are usually afraid of cold, have cold hands and feet all year round, and tend to have unformed stools. They should eat more warm and hot foods and avoid cold foods, otherwise they will only become more weak as they eat. ； People with yin deficiency are usually afraid of heat, prone to dry mouth, and prone to getting angry and getting acne. They should eat more cool and mild foods and avoid warm and hot foods, otherwise it is easy to make up for the problem. However, many modern nutrition researchers feel that the definition of the four qi is too subjective and lacks a unified quantitative standard. People with different physiques may have completely different reactions to the same food, so there is no need to rigidly label food with attributes. In recent years, there have been many studies on the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine to fill this gap. For example, it has been found that most foods classified as cold generally have the effect of lowering the basal metabolic rate and inhibiting inflammatory reactions, while most warm foods can improve metabolism and promote blood circulation. In fact, this has an objective physiological basis and is not purely based on experience.

I have been doing dietary supplements for so many years, and I actually feel that both sides of the argument are reasonable, and there is no need to argue about right or wrong. A young girl who had just started working came to me before. Her hands and feet were cold all year round. Her aunt was so painful that she broke out in cold sweats. She still had to rush to drink iced American in the morning and eat cold light salads at noon. I didn’t let her take any expensive supplements. I just asked her to change the iced American to I made hot ginger and jujube tea with some osmanthus, replaced the cold salad with warm vegetables with a little peppercorn oil, and ate braised lamb or stir-fried chicken with ginger once a week. After only half a month, she came to me and said that she no longer had to carry a hand warmer all day long, and her aunt's pain was mostly relieved. But I have also met a young man with a very strong physique. In winter, it is no problem to chew popsicles every day when the temperature is more than ten degrees. If you insist on making him follow the rules of the four qi, his life will be too restrictive, which is unnecessary.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the Four Qi is a dietary reference for ordinary people. There is no need to turn it into some obscure metaphysics, and there is no need to beat it into feudal dross. Just pay more attention to your body's reaction when eating: if you feel comfortable after eating something and there is nothing unusual about it, then it is suitable for you. ； If you feel sick immediately after eating, or get acne, irritation, or sore throat the next day, just try to eat less next time. This is much more effective than memorizing any food attribute list.