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In the world of Duality Yin Yang and your food...

 

 

 

 The counterpart of the Western concept of the acid/alkaline balance is known in the Orient as the yin/yang principle. Yin is an expanding, feminine quality and yang is its complement: a contracting, masculine quality. Whereas the acid/alkaline balance is bio-chemically measurable, the yin/yang polarity is less concretely defined and is based on an electromagnetic energy model. Nevertheless, food (and everything else in existence) falls somewhere within this spectrum. And, like everything else, foods aren’t purely yin or yang, but can be seen as containing more or less of each quality in relation to or in comparison with other foods.  For example, meat is considered to be very yang (grounding, contracting), and ice cream (especially because of the sugar it contains) is considered to be very yin (airy, expanding).

 

A predominance of either too much yin or too much yang energy not only throws our physiology out of balance, but also creates unbalanced states of consciousness. Have you ever talked with someone who seemed “spacey” to you? Perhaps s/he had trouble completing a sentence or fully explaining a thought or an idea before skipping to another, and another. That would be considered an overly yin (expanded consciousness) condition. On the other hand, you may know someone who has inflexible opinions, can’t incorporate new ideas, may be loud and boisterous and doesn’t want to listen to others. That is an overly yang (contracted consciousness) condition. The goal is to find ourselves balanced physically, mentally and emotionally between the two states, or just slightly more yang (grounded, but not overbearing and inflexible).

 

The Japanese macrobiotic philosophy incorporates the yin/yang principle and applies it to food very specifically. Thus, what we eat plays a major role in how yin or how yang we are (see chart).

 

Overly yin conditions are usually caused by sweet foods and sugar, while overly yang conditions are often caused by too much meat and salt. Eating foods containing processed sugar (e.g. soda pop, candy, desserts, etc.) can create an extremely yin (expanded/“spaced out”) state. Children who eat a lot of these foods (especially sugared cereal in the morning and soda in the afternoon) often have trouble concentrating in school. On the other hand, meat is extremely yang (grounding/contracting); therefore over-consumption of meat can cause aggression and inflexible attitudes. One reason why dessert is desired after a meat-based meal is to counter-balance the yang effects of the meat. Pretty interesting!

 

The effects of each food will be different for different people as well. A person whose constitution is more yin than yang may be thrown off balance by eating ice cream, while someone with a generally yang constitution may enjoy the same dessert without experiencing any imbalance. It’s a complex, ever-changing dance of one element flowing into the other, but eating closer to the middle of the food spectrum (avoiding extremes) is wise. Limiting your intake of meat and eliminating sugary foods/candies/soda, as well as processed foods, is your best bet to developing yin/yang harmony.