Oriental diet tips for fall: pork, beans, honey and wine

The fall season intensifies the essence of wind and fire in the nature, including the human body

Indian summer, a very pleasant ending of the hot part of the year, is usually followed with exacerbation of chronic diseases and other various ailments connected with cold. Oriental doctors believe that it is possible to avoid trouble with the help of certain appropriate diet alterations. Specialist for the Indo-Tibetan medicine, professor of the Maimonides international medical academy, Vitaly Yefimov, gives his pieces of advice on the matter.

According to Oriental medicine, the fall season intensifies the essence of wind and fire in the nature, including the human body. It is advisable to reduce the consumption of sour and salty food during this period. These two tastes are connected with the fire element. Sour and salty food may unbalance the body. Fire-opposing products of bitter and rough taste should prevail in the daily menu along with relatively-sweet dishes, which oppose against the element of wind.

Specialists of oriental medicine categorize ripe fruit, milk, butter, meat (except for mutton, which possesses increased heating qualities), grain-crops (including bread, macaroni, porridge) and potatoes as sweet food stuffs. Beans are very good in fall: they combine sweet and astringent tastes, which helps pacify the fire. This combination of sweet and astringent can be found in honey, which is recommended as sweetener for obese individuals.

Purified melted butter, or corn oil should be used for cooking. Sesame oil is considered perfect for the fall season, although it can hardly be found in Russian grocery stores. One should try to eat as little fat as possible: fat intensifies fire, which makes boiled and stewed dishes a lot more preferable.

Oriental healers believe that fire is abundant in waterfowl and fish, especially ocean fish. Therefore, one should be careful about these products as well, replacing them with poultry (turkey, chicken), pork and beef. It would be best not to eat herring until the middle of November.

Green salad is the product that strongly opposes to the fire. Several salad leaves would be a perfect addition to fish or goose. Parsley and celery are considered warm flavorings. One should not strike them out of the menu, although it is not recommended to add them to every dish “for more vitamins.” Carrots, beets, spinach are very good all the year round.

Rowan and high cranberries are very good in fall for their astringent qualities. These berries can be eaten as jam or bakery filling. The sour taste of cranberry and cowberry will be a lot better in winter, as well as lemon, which is better to be replaced with grapefruit in fall. One may eat oranges, melons, watermelons and grapes without any limitations.

It is generally believed that the Indo-Tibetan medicine rejects alcohol. This is not true. Dry grape wines have a secondary sour and a primary sour-sweet taste.  It is not forbidden to drink dry wine during this season, although it is recommended to add water to it order to ease the fiery sourish taste. Vodka is allowed too, but beer is not desirable at all.

Natural apple or grape vinegar is a very good product to avoid and prevent diseases in fall. Grape vinegar makes for the health of lungs and bronchial tubes. Apple vinegar has a more general health-improving effect: it enables better oxygen supply to tissues, which increases the output of energy on the cell level and prevents stagnation. A teaspoonful of vinegar added to salad condiment, for instance, would be enough for a day.

A peculiar feature of the post-summer misbalance of wind and fire in the body leads to stool problems. If the stool is dry, one should eat sweet food – ripe fruit, melted butter. If diarrhea occurs frequently, bitter and astringent products will help ease the ailment. Dry wormwood would be a perfect solution in this occasion.