Feng Shui Juicing
While I am no master of Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shoy), I am interested in how this ancient science can benefit my health.
For me, health is a fascinating subject. While I've always realized the benefit of wholesome nutrition, I did not realize its full power until I began studying and learning about wholesome nutrition for dogs and cats when I was the ripe old age of 23. When I saw how my 16 year old cat responded to a very wholesome and healthy diet, I stopped and began to observe how the body works, responds and ultimately heals itself. Since that time I helped my cat, I have gone on to help thousands of more dogs and cats around the world by teaching people how to make wholesome homemade pet food at my pet web site www.pet-grub.com.
Learning about and seeing the benefits a wholesome diet provides our pets was merely the beginning of my journey into health. In 1996, when I was 26 years old, I was quite sick and really thought there was no hope. To this day, nobody knows what went wrong, but it was ultimately a homeopathic remedy called Medorrhinum that reversed my condition. For the following 10 years, I would continue to take this remedy as needed. If one is a student of homeopathy, then one will understand how and what Medorrhinum did for me. But when I took Meddorhinum for the first time, I had no idea what homeopathy was, how it worked, etc. All I knew was that within a week of taking the remedy, I could literally see my health problem going in reverse.
This personal experience of seeing how the body can heal itself when the energy is allowed to flow through the body freely was an experience that pushed my fascination with health, especially holistic health, even deeper.
Ultimately, all of this led me to Chinese herbal medicine — one of the great influences behind my juicing book.
Lucky for me, I found a Chinese herbalist who was not only interested in helping improve my health, but also, was happy to teach me many things about Chinese herbal medicine. My only wish is that I could speak Chinese so I could learn even more!
Over the years, as my herbalist helped me, she taught me too. Every time I visited her for some herbs, I would ask questions about the balance within my body along with wanting to know what were the signs of the imbalance, why my body was hot or cold, damp or dry, etc.
I had many wonderful experiences, well, perhaps not wonderful unless you consider heat stroke, chest colds, fevers, etc as good experiences. But these were all good experiences for me because that allowed me to learn — I still look back at the experiences with a smile on face!
The heat stroke experience was a fun one. It was a hot early summer and I was doing some road work in a slightly remote valley. Being fair skin, my body reacts more violently to the sun than most. It was also the first hot weather of the year and so my skin hadn't really built even a small level of immunity to the sun. As a result, I started to feel awful — but the worst part was a horrible toothache I felt. I thought this was all too weird — why would I have a tootache?
The last thing I wanted to do was go to the dentist. So first, I went to my Chinese herbalist where I discovered that when the body is overheated, like mine was, the heat goes up the body and can affect the tongue, cause mouth ulcers and also cause tooth pain. In my situation, it was major pain too. I could barely chew my food. Thankfully, my herbalist immediately gave me herbs to reduce the heat in my body and overnight, the toothache began to go away.
This was my first major experience with a yang
body. But it wouldn't be my last!
All of my experiences with my Chinese herbalist really began to show and teach me about balance within the body — the balance of yin and yang energy.
This curiosity led me to learn more and so I began studying the yin and yang energies of food — ultimately, I began to study feng shui cooking
. The first book I read was The Feng Shui Kitchen
by Master Lam Chuen. On page 10 of his book, he shares a story as follows:
The story is told of a man walking in the mountains. It is a cloudless summer day. The sun beats down relentlessly. The man comes to a small house near the path and knocks. An old woman comes to the door. He asks her for cool water and stands hesitantly outside. She insists that he come in and sit down. She motions to a place near an inside wall. Although he is obviously in a hurry, she insists of heating the water to make a tea. When it is ready, it is too hot to drink and there are rice husks floating on the surface. This angers her visitor: he is forced to sit, waiting for the tea to cool and then pick the floating husks out with his fingers. He leaves without a word of thanks.
Several years later, the same man is walking along the mountain path. He finds the old woman's house and knocks on the door.
I have come her to thank you,he says.It has taken me all this time to realize my good fortune in coming to your door when I wanted water. You could tell I was foolish, walking in the burning sun. You made me come inside, gave me a seat where I woul feel protected, and forced me to cool down and rest. That was the reason for the boiling tea with rice husks. I was too stupid to realize your kindess. Please forvive my anger.This is a story about Feng Shui. The position she chose for her guest was guaranteed to put him at ease, resting with his back against a solid inner wall. It is also a story about Chinese medicine. If she had served him cool water in his overheated condition, it would have caused a powerful and potentially damaging reaction inside his body. The relative cold of the water would have caused his body to retain heat, not release it. Unbeknown to him, the old woman was preventing an attack of heat stroke. The hot tea she gave him was the preventitive medicine he needed — the whole proccess allowed his body to restore itself naturally to its balanced state.
Naturally, I had a good laugh when I read this because it reminded me of my own heat stroke experience. While previous to this, I had always known that cold food or drink was not good on a hot day and while I had not drunk cold water that led to my heat stroke, this excerpt from The Feng Shui Kitchen
by Master Lam made me really see how cold water, cold drinks or cold food reacts within the body to make the body more hot, not cooler.
The science of feng shui cooking essentially realizes that in the winter you need more yang (warming) foods while in the summer you need more yin (cooling) foods. In the past, this was more easily done as people ate seasonally. But now, as an example, you can buy watermelons — the ultimate summer food — in the winter time!
Traditionally, people have incorporated feng shui cooking into their life without knowing it. In the summer, people would make fresh lemonade — a wonderful cooling drink on a hot summer day. In the winter, people would drink a nice glass of hot ginger tea — a wonderful warming drink on a cold winter day. In the winter, people would eat stews while in the summer, people would eat lighter foods like salads.
Ultimately, when we juice, we need to realize the yin and yang energies of the foods we are juicing.
On this page, you will see which fruits and vegetables are yin, yang, neutral and also those which the energy is unknown. This guide is meant to help you become more aware more easily of which foods have which properties.
Feel free to also read:
- Yin and Yang, A Basic Explanation
- The Five Elements Explained
- The Five Elements Explained Further
- Yin and Yang In Our Diet
- The Yellow Emperor and other Chinese Healers
Okay, enough bantering. Below, you will find lists of fruits and vegetables according to their Chinese herbal properties.
Actually wait — one final thought. It is said that of the five energies or elements, water and air are the most important. Why? Because we can't survive without breathing nor drinking water.
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Cold and Cool Vegetables — Yin Energy Vegetables
- Cold Vegetables
- Cool Vegetables
Cold and Cool Fruits — Yin Energy Fruits
- Cold Fruits
- Cool Fruits
Hot and Warm Vegetables — Yang Energy Vegetables
- Hot Vegetables
- Warm Vegetables
Hot and Warn Fruits — Yang Energy Fruits
Fruits and Vegetables With Yin or Yang Energy Unknown
- Vegetables
- Fruits
Wood Element Vegetables and Fruits (Sour Taste)
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Parsley
- None known
Fire Element Vegetables and Fruits (Bitter Taste)
- Vegetables
- Fruits
Metal Element Vegetables and Fruits (Spicy Taste)
- Vegetables
- Fruits
Water Element Vegetables and Fruits (Salty Taste)
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Green Cabbage
Red Cabbage
Lentil - None known
Vegetables and Fruits With Unknown Element and Taste
- Vegetables
- Fruits
Have you been wanting to do hatha yoga (stretching) but have found it either too difficult or you are not that flexible? If yes, and even if no, watch Jesse do some pure hatha yoga routines.
Unlike flow yoga
, each pose in pure or traditional hatha yoga is held for a few minutes. While holding the pose, you focus the mind on the stretch. When you focus the mind, that's when you find silence.
Jesse is not flexible — never has been and probably never will be flexible like others. But it doesn't matter. In pure hatha yoga, how flexible you are makes no difference. It's all about loving the pose and focussing the mind on the stretch.
If you want to learn pure hatha yoga, now you can by following Jesse on a series of hatha yoga routines.
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Random Questions That Have Been Asked:
- Is Eating Whole Fruit Okay Even Though It Is High In Sugar?
- Receding Gums and Juicing
- Is it okay to store juice and drink it later?
- What can I juice or do to help with my excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis)?
- How often should I juice to get enough nutrition?
- What Do You Recommend for high blood pressure and high cholesterol?
- How important is a slow speed juicer compared to fast speed?
- How Can I Store Vegetables?
- Putting Vegetables On Ice Before Juicing
- Can I juice carrot greens?