Personalized Dietary Nourishment Based on Constitution
Personalized Dietary Nourishment Based on Constitution
1. Qi-deficient constitution arises from insufficient qi and blood, primarily characterized by easy fatigue. Consume qi- and blood-nourishing foods such as lotus seeds, longan flesh, lean meat, chicken, pigeon, red dates, maltose, milk, and honey. Avoid cold-natured and qi-dispersing or blood-breaking foods like bitter melon, eggplant, winter melon, cold drinks, and white radish.
2. Cold constitution stems from deficient vital energy (yang), with extreme sensitivity to cold. Consume warming, yang-enhancing foods such as lamb, chicken, shrimp, walnuts, leeks, loach, sea cucumber, and cinnamon bark. Avoid cold-natured, yang-damaging foods like watermelon, mung beans, bamboo shoots, chrysanthemum, loofah, cucumber, duck, frog, and crab. Avoid cold drinks entirely.
3. Heat constitution results from deficient yin, with intense heat sensitivity. Consume cooling, yin-nourishing, heat-clearing foods such as yam, pear, pomelo, banana, malabar spinach, clam, and lean pork. Avoid heating foods such as lamb, shrimp, five-spice powder, walnuts, chili peppers, black pepper, lychee, longan flesh, chicken, and all fried foods.
4. Damp constitution arises from metabolic waste accumulation causing dysfunction in the zang-fu organs. Consume foods with dampness-removing properties such as red adzuki beans, coix seed, winter melon, white radish, and bitter apricot kernels. Avoid dampness-retaining foods like flour, honey, red dates, and alcohol. Ginseng and American ginseng also retain dampness—should be avoided.
5. Blood stasis constitution results from poor blood circulation or increased blood viscosity. Consume foods with blood-activating and stasis-resolving effects such as garlic chives, black fungus, hawthorn, safflower, vinegar, and shiitake mushrooms. Avoid foods promoting blood clotting such as peanuts and pomegranate.
6. What about the balanced constitution? Can one eat freely? No. Long-term excessive intake of cold or hot, overly sweet or salty foods may eventually cause constitutional imbalance and lead to illness.