Taste indicates health condition

Warning signals of the body and different tastes

One's health is closely related to his/her daily diet, and there is an intimate relationship between health and food of different tastes.

Huangdi Neijing Also known as The Inner Canon of Huangdi or Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, it is an ancient Chinese medical text that has been treated as the fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia and until today. This book is about treatment of disease based on the five viscera and the six entrails, meridian system, and energy and blood circulation under the yin and yang and Wu Xing theory. Yin and Yang refers to positive and negative electricity that flow through the human body, and Wu Xing, the five elements to the liver/gall bladder, heart/small intestines, spleen/stomach, lungs/large intestines, kidney/bladder, and pericardium/San Jiao/ These organs are greatly affected by food we eat everyday and its tastes: the first pair by sour taste, the second by bitter taste, the third by sweet taste, the fourth by hot taste, the fifth by salty taste, and the last by astringent taste. Treatment of disease can be helped by taking in food of different tastes according to the patient’s symptoms.

#1 When to eat sour food

Symptoms   Swollen tonsils, a sty, watery eyes, feverish liver, tendency to be aggressive and get easily angry, loss of hair on the side of the head, and fevered eyes.
Cause   Bad liver/gall bladder
Recommendation   Citric acid (to be digested mixed with sugar in water), over-fermented kimchi, plum, apple, etc.
Caution   Not recommended for a person with a bad stomach.


#2 When to eat bitter food

Symptoms   Inflamed eyes, a furred tongue, red cheeks, excessive perspiration, a pounding heart, and premenstrual pain
Cause   Bad heart
Recommendation   Grapefruit, artemisia capillaries, motherwort, mild-tasting chili, etc.

Caution   Not recommended for bad large intestines.

#3 When to eat sweet food

 Symptoms   Cracked heels with scales, a red tip of the nose, blistered lips, cold sores in the mouth, a smell from the inside of ears, and loss of hair on the front of the head.
Cause   Bad spleen/stomach
Recommendation   Organic raw sugar, sweet-tasting fruits except for oriental melon, etc.
Caution   Not recommended for a bad kidney/bladder.

#4 When to eat spicy food

Symptoms   Aching wrists, rhinitis, sinus infection, hives, allergy, and atopy.
Cause   Bad lungs/large intestines
Recommendation   Brown rice, spicy chili, hot pepper paste, etc.
Caution   Not recommended for bad liver

#5 When to eat salty food

Symptoms   Aching ankles, appearance of gray hair, loss of hair on the back of the head, menstrual pain, nearsightedness, farsightedness, a ringing in the ears, and inflammation in the middle of the ear.
Cause   Bad kidney/bladder
Recommendation   Bamboo salt, bay salt, thick Korea soy sauce made with bay salt, soybean paste made with bay salt, etc.
Caution   Not recommended for a bad heart


#6 When to eat astringent food

Symptoms   Being restless and anxious, sweaty hands, habitual biting of nails, symptoms of psychological causes like paranoia.
Cause   Pericardium/San Jiao
Recommendation   Tomato, unmatured persimmon, corn powder, astringent potato, etc.



Written by Lee Jang-Hun, a Naturopathic Medicine Practitioner
Edited by Kim Jung-Ah