Chinese dietetics: The five flavors
Sometimes the tongue; sometimes the text. 6 activities, about 12 minutes.
Five flavors, one movement each
五味 Wǔ Wèi
Sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty. In classical study each is associated with a movement and a pair of organs. It is a system for ordering and comparing, not a description of what the food does in the body.
- Sour
- Gathers and retains · Liver and Gallbladder
- Bitter
- Descends and dries · Heart and Small Intestine
- Sweet
- Harmonizes and supports · Spleen and Stomach
- Pungent
- Disperses and moves outward · Lung and Large Intestine
- Salty
- Softens and descends · Kidney and Bladder
Common mistake: Reading the correspondence as a direct action on the organ. It organizes study; it is not pharmacology.
The flavor you cannot taste
In quite a few cases the assigned flavor does not match the palate: it is a classification inherited from the text, kept because it places the food among its relatives. Knowing this avoids pointless arguments over a plate.
- A food that does not taste salty and is filed as salty
- A category from the text, not from the palate
- A food with two flavors
- The normal case: the first weighs more than the second
- “Well, it doesn't taste like that to me”
- They may be right and the classification still correct
Each flavor with its pair of organs
Sort by main flavor
- Scallion
- Mint
- Rice
- Red jujube
- Wakame seaweed
- Soy sauce
“Bitter descends and dries, so green tea dries dampness.” What is wrong with the sentence?
Build the reading of fresh ginger the way its entry would write it
Level complete!
Little by little, the pantry fills.
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Study content. The exercises describe concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine; they are not medical advice.
