One of my favorite diet theories is the hot/cold theory, it has been used by Mexico, South American countries and China for hundreds of years. Basically all foods are categorized into two groups, hot and cold, then all illnesses are categorized as hot or cold, foods are eaten to counter these illnesses. For example if you had the flu, that would be a cold illness, so you would want to eat hot foods such as honey, chili peppers, or cacao (chocolate) to help heal your body. They would also eat more cold foods in the summer to cool their body and hot foods in the winter to warm their body.
I have tried this before in the summer and winter to help regulate my body temperature and it seems to work. I have also used this theory to help get better when I am sick, and again it worked really well! It’s a simple concept and if applied correctly it can be a great tool. This is a simple chart below to help you classify foods into the right category, some foods are common sense, but a few foods can get tricky.
| Hot /warm (even) food | Cold food | |
| meat | Lamb, beef, pork, chicken, duck, kangaroo meat, deer meat | Rabbit meat, frog |
| seafood | Prawns, eel, butterfish, carp | Clams, crab, oyster |
| vegetable | Ginger, garlic, onion, leek, carrot, pumpkin, taro, sweet potato, corn, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, potato, chilli, green beans, beans | Chinese cabbage, bai cai, cucumber, melon, fresh mushroom, bamboo shoot (Australian), radish, kelp, seaweed, celery, tofu, bitter melon, eggplant, tomato, bean sprouts |
| fruit | Plum, papaya, grape, jujube, orange, peach, apple, rockmelon, lychee, walnuts, fig, mango, grapefruit, cherry | Pear, watermelon, kiwi, banana, pomegranate, apricot, loquat, mandarin, persimmon, lemon, strawberry, pineapple |
If you want to learn more this is the website where I found the chart:
http://www.traditionalqi.com/2011/04/13/foods-attribute-cold-or-hotwarm/
This chart is for Illnesses:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/557983_3
If you combine these two charts while keeping in mind what season it is you can use them to stay healthy and feel better! All in all the hot/cold theory has helped me with common colds and other small illnesses, and it’s really great for regulating the body temperature during different seasons. I hope that you found this information helpful. If you have any questions please send them!
Primal Spirit Fitness 