Chinese dietetics: Season and rhythm

Five moments, five emphases

Tradition does not assign foods to seasons: it describes an emphasis. What changes over the year is mainly the method and the proportion, not the shopping list.

Spring

Transition and lightness; fewer heavy dishes

Summer

More cooling and more water, with hygiene and tolerance

Late summer

The center and dampness: grains, roots, moderate cooking

Autumn

Dryness: wet methods and seasonal fruit

Winter

Long cooking and stews in many repertoires

Common mistake: Turning the emphasis into a compulsory calendar. Watermelon is not banned in January, nor stew in August.

Each moment of the year with its emphasis

Rhythm is dietetics too

A predictable schedule helps with organization, and eating unhurried lets fullness register. Both adapt to each person's work, medication and exercise: they are aids, not moral rules.

Predictable schedule

Makes organizing easier, adapts to real life

Eating unhurried

Lets fullness and enjoyment be noticed

Keeping a record

For learning, not for self-policing

Common mistake: Moralizing food. Turning “it is suggested” into “you must” is the fastest way to make someone stop telling the truth about what they eat.

In mid-August, someone very thirsty and hot asks whether they can have watermelon. What do you answer?

1. No: very cold fruit shuts digestion down
2. Yes, but only at midday and never on its own
3. No, better a hot tea so as not to cool the center
4. Yes: it fits the season and what they describe, and you watch how it goes

Someone has logged every meal for two weeks and has already marked nine foods as “bad”. What do you correct?

1. The log format: weekly is better than per meal
2. That they are turning normal variation into symptoms
3. That drinks are missing, and they count too
4. Nothing: observing more is observing better