Daily food as a fountain of health
We eat cold food and drink cold beverages. There are two ways in which foods and drinks can cool us down: ingesting cold food taken from the fridge and consuming food that has cold thermal properties. As noted in the previous chapters, the consumption of thermally cold foods contributes to the cooling of the body. This fact has been well-known in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Due to many years of observations, healers in ancient China knew about the different effects that foods have on body temperature. While cherries and pomegranates have a warming effect, watermelons and oranges cool the body temperature. Herbs and herbal medicine have also been categorized according their warming, cooling, moistening or drying effect, as well as others, on the body. Occidental naturopathy has long known about the impact of food on the body although it seldom enters our modern consciousness today. Warming chicken soups against colds, the traditional “Wöchnerinnensuppe“ [form of chicken soup] given after birth as well as mulled wine with warming spices are supposed to drive out the coldness of winter.
A new dimension of cooled foods has established itself with the introduction of refrigerators. Initially, the purpose of the fridge was to cure food. Nowadays it is used for more than the preservation of perishable products. It has become “trendy” to consume cold food and beverages. Yogurts, puddings, milk products, spreads, fruit, vegetables, juices, lemonade, cola, smoothies, water, ice tea and, not least, cold beer as well as cold white wine or even alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks “on the rocks” have become a normal part of our food culture.
Some start their day with muesli in cold milk or yogurt and a few ice-cold berries plus a glass of orange juice from the fridge. How often during the day do you consume something that has not been heated to 98.6°F? Each time you do so, your own energy reserves must compensate for the temperature difference. In a nutshell: Eating cold foods robs you of your strength and heat. More than that, your digestive functions are decreased; food is no longer broken down optimally causing you to slowly and gradually descend into heat and energy deficiency. Of course, you do not notice this immediately. As children, we easily compensate for this with plenty of movement, which in turn generates heat. However, in today’s society, we spend more and more of our lifetime sitting on chairs or in front of a desk. For children and adolescents, this already starts during the regular school day and continues into adult life. Less movement means less combustion and less heat production. Our lifestyle slowly but surely brings about an inner ice age when we also factor in the consumption of cold beverages and foods.
Health tip no.1:
It is highly recommended to immediately stop this destructive behavior if you have lived this way for many years and finally reached a chronically low body temperature. Change your eating behavior! Only drink cold beverages in exceptional cases or when you are truly over-heated! Eat less cold foods from the fridge! Avoid items from the list of thermally cold or cool foods! Take fruit, berries, salad and vegetables out of the fridge so that these can at least acclimatize to room temperature before eating them!
The following is a second list of foods from traditional Chinese medicine, this time, with warming and neutral properties. People who suffer from hypothermia should choose their diet based on these foods.
Some people tell me right away in our initial meeting that they have not been able to eat anything cold for years, “especially not from the fridge”, which is an unmistakable indication of a low body temperature. A cold yogurt makes them shudder. If you want to raise your body temperature, you should mainly eat foods from the “neutral” and “warming” category and ensure that it is heated to body temperature if possible. You can compensate for a food from the “cool” category with dried or fresh herbs from the “warm” category.
Excerpt from the book “Uwe Karstädt: 98.6° F – Ideal Body Temperature”
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