5.2.3 Chinese Diet
Since China has a history of thousands of years, it can be found that even in the contemporary Chinese society, the diet habits of Chinese people have still influenced by traditional cultural values, especially in terms of the ways that Chinese people connect food with their health. To support my point of view, first of all, it has been a widely accepted routine that Chinese people highly address the importance of the dinner whereas the preparation for breakfast can be simple and casual (Liu 40). More specifically, the Chinese usually consume steamed buns made of wheat flour (either with filling inside or without) and rice porridge implemented with salty or sour pickled vegetables depending on different regional flavors (Liu …show more content…
On the contrary, Chinese dietary habits have been profoundly influenced by the values of traditional Chinese medicine, as they have advocated the idea that food has the equal healing and therapeutic power to the medicament (Liu 5). Therefore, the Chinese believe that only by consuming proper foods based on certain rules can they keep the natural balance in their bodies (McLean 101). To be more specific, as early as approximately in 200 BC, Chinese medical dietary therapy was invented by several Chinese experts, demonstrating the important relations of foods between yin and yang, qi and blood, and so on, and the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic) is the first book, introducing dietary rules (Flaws 1). To clarify a little bit, the philosophy of yin (cooling or cold) and yang (warm or hot) originated from Taoism, which indicates two opposite things in the world, for instance, moon is yin and sun is yang; darkness is yin and light is yang; water is yin and fire is yang; woman is yin and man is yang; steamed food is yin and grilled food is yang (Kastner 3-5). In this way, Chinese people usually classify food ingredients according to their traits of yin and yang and their different therapeutic effects on human bodies. On the one hand, generally speaking, traditional Chinese medicine believes that hot foods can increase the body temperature while cold foods can decrease the body temperature (Flaws 60). Therefore, Chinese meals have to include both yin and yang foods in order to maintain their balance for health, for instance, vegetables and fruits (e.g. cucumber and watermelon) are regarded as yin foods while pungent ingredients (e.g. red peppers and ginger) are considered as yang foods (McLean
Since China has a history of thousands of years, it can be found that even in the contemporary Chinese society, the diet habits of Chinese people have still influenced by traditional cultural values, especially in terms of the ways that Chinese people connect food with their health. To support my point of view, first of all, it has been a widely accepted routine that Chinese people highly address the importance of the dinner whereas the preparation for breakfast can be simple and casual (Liu 40). More specifically, the Chinese usually consume steamed buns made of wheat flour (either with filling inside or without) and rice porridge implemented with salty or sour pickled vegetables depending on different regional flavors (Liu …show more content…
On the contrary, Chinese dietary habits have been profoundly influenced by the values of traditional Chinese medicine, as they have advocated the idea that food has the equal healing and therapeutic power to the medicament (Liu 5). Therefore, the Chinese believe that only by consuming proper foods based on certain rules can they keep the natural balance in their bodies (McLean 101). To be more specific, as early as approximately in 200 BC, Chinese medical dietary therapy was invented by several Chinese experts, demonstrating the important relations of foods between yin and yang, qi and blood, and so on, and the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic) is the first book, introducing dietary rules (Flaws 1). To clarify a little bit, the philosophy of yin (cooling or cold) and yang (warm or hot) originated from Taoism, which indicates two opposite things in the world, for instance, moon is yin and sun is yang; darkness is yin and light is yang; water is yin and fire is yang; woman is yin and man is yang; steamed food is yin and grilled food is yang (Kastner 3-5). In this way, Chinese people usually classify food ingredients according to their traits of yin and yang and their different therapeutic effects on human bodies. On the one hand, generally speaking, traditional Chinese medicine believes that hot foods can increase the body temperature while cold foods can decrease the body temperature (Flaws 60). Therefore, Chinese meals have to include both yin and yang foods in order to maintain their balance for health, for instance, vegetables and fruits (e.g. cucumber and watermelon) are regarded as yin foods while pungent ingredients (e.g. red peppers and ginger) are considered as yang foods (McLean