The autumn season is near the end of its beauty and it is now the transitional time from the later autumn into the beginning of the winter season. We now need to start preparing ourselves for the coming cold winter season and paying attention to our daily diet. The winter diet is really a common sense of eating, which leads us to eat more warm, hot and nourishing food. Winter food normally is well cooked, roasted and stewed, and of course in the soup form as well, since the weather gradually becomes damp and cold.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the winter season is in the element of Water, which dominates the Root Energy of both Kidney Yin Essence and Kidney Yang. Hence, the principle of looking after the Root Energy is to nourish Kidney Yin Essence and to strengthen Kidney Yang. Here are the kinds of food, which are good for nourishing the Root Energy. They are beef, lamb, duck, chicken and fish. For vegetarians or vegans, they are all kinds of beans, lentils, nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachio nuts, chestnuts, peanuts and seeds like pumpkin seeds, black chia seeds and black sesame seeds etc. Apart from those mentioned food here, we need to eat more root vegetables in winter season, which are potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, turnips, yams and other forms of root beets. We also need to eat whole grains such as oats, wheat grains, barleys, buckwheat and all kinds of rice, since they are often the backbone food for our morning breakfast. One can cook them with water, milk, soymilk and almond milk etc.

For other daily vegetables, we can try to eat those dark greens, such as broccoli, spinach, Brussels’s sprouts, Savoy cabbage, curly kale, mustard greens, collards, as well as various mushrooms and Wood-ears.

In winter season, we also need to eat vitamin C rich fruits, such as navel oranges, mandarins, clementines, tangerines, grapefruit, pomelo, pears, apples, kiwis, figs, pomegranate and etc.

Finally, we can not forget those winter warm and carminative cooking herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, sages, Chinese chives, garlic, turmeric, dried ginger, cinnamon, cumin seeds, cloves, cardamon, star anise, mustard seeds and so on.

We here warmly wish you, all our clients, a very good-marching into the cold and damp winter season by eating those above mentioned winter nourishing food to strengthen your Root Energy, the immune system and the digestive system in all.

TCM Spezialistin
Frau Rachel Fang