Dai S, J Altern Complement Integr Med 2020, 6: 111 DOI: 10.24966/ACIM-7562/100111 HSOA Journal of Alternative, Complementary & Integrative Medicine

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has Four Qi, and the majority of daily commonly consumed foods like , and beans are considered to be neutral or have very mild How to Use Traditional Chinese Four Qi actions. So, these foods can be consumed all year-round. In Medicine Principles to Choose food therapy theory, warm and hot foods are called Yang foods, and cool and cold foods are called Yin foods. To balance a Diet for Your Pet -Use “Four to promote health, the strategy is to feed more cool foods during the warm seasons and more warm foods in cold seasons. For a healthy Qi and Five Flavor” to Select a animal, food can be selected according to the changes in the four sea- sons and the Four Qi of the food. If we only consider the ingredients Scientifically Balanced Diet which are in the highest amounts in a pet food and based on the most common ingredients used in the pet food industry, table 1 below can help you with selecting the appropriatefood for your pets from the Shu Dai* standpoint of TCVM. Equine Acupuncture Center/Integrative Medicine, University of Florida, USA

Seasons Four Qi Meat choice Grain choice Others

Buckwheat/ The food therapy principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine Spring Cool Food Rabbit/Turkey Celery/ Apple (TCM) or Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) come Brown Rice Cucumber/ from the collective experience and practice over the span of history. Summer Cold Food Duck/Ocean Fish / Watermelon These principles combine the concepts of Yin and Yang and the Five White Rice/ Potatoes/ Autumn Warm Food Beef/Lamb Elements, forming a unique health diet theory. The basic principles Pumpkin mainly include adjustment of Five Flavors; the balance of Cold (Yin) Yam/Sweet Winter Hot Food Chicken/Pheasant / and Warm (Yang); consideration of seasonal, geographical and indi- Potato vidual factors; avoidance of excessive food intake, and protecting the Table 1: Food choices in 4 seasons by Four Qi in TCVM. Spleen and Stomach (digestive system) first [1]. The key behind these considerations is the principle of conformity to nature and balanc- ing or harmonizing. This article focuses on using the adjustment of Case example: For a 3-year-old spayed female Labrador, generally in Five Flavors and balance of Yin and Yang (cold and warm) principles, good health, if you would like to choose a food for her in summer- or “Four Qi and Five Flavors” as they are called in the language of time, you would look for an adult dog food which has as its protein TCVM, to choose the most appropriate foods from the most scientifi- source duck meat or ocean fish, like Hill’s® Prescription Diet® d/d® cally balanced diets available. Canine Skin Support Potato & Duck Formula Dog Food or Brit Fresh Dog Active Run & Work with Duck & Millet 12 Kg, etc. You may Feeding by Four Qi also provide her a little cucumber or watermelon as her daily treats. Four Qi are the 4 actions of foods in the body in TCVM when they Feeding by Five Flavors are consumed. The theory of Four Qi of food or herbs comes from The Materia Medica or Ben Cao Jing, written between about The Five Flavors of food in TCVM are Sour, Bitter, Sweet, 200 and 250 CE [2]. The categories are cold, cool, warm and hot. Pungent, and Salty. As the flavors of food are different, so the effect of each on the body is obviously different. In the classic TCM book, Examples of each (plant) category include watermelon as a cold food ’s Internal Classic, it states that “after the Five Flavors while banana is considered a cool food, cinnamon is warm, and a enter the stomach, they enter the organs that they select respectively. good example of a hot food would be dried in vegetables; like- Acid first enters the Liver, Bitterness first enters the Heart, Sweet first wise, deep ocean fish is considered cold, duck is cool, lamb is warm enters the Spleen, Pungent first enters the Lung, and Salty first enters and chicken is hot when considering meats. However, not every food the Kidney” [3]. Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic also indicates that *Corresponding author: Shu Dai, Equine Acupuncture Center/Integrative Med- Pungent is contraindicated in Liver disease, Salty is contraindicated icine, University of Florida, USA, E-mail: [email protected] in Heart disease, Acid is contraindicated in Spleen disease, Bitter Citation: Dai S (2020) How to Use Traditional Chinese Medicine Principles to is contraindicated in Lung disease, and Sweet is contraindicated in Choose a Diet for Your Pet -Use “Four Qi and Five Flavor” to Select a Scientif- Kidney disease. According to the Five Flavor theory, there are the ically Balanced Diet. J Altern Complement Integr Med 6: 111. Five Meats and the : chicken is considered acid in Five Received: July 17, 2020; Accepted: July 29, 2020; Published: July 31, 2020 Flavors and it enters the Liver; sheep or lamb as bitters enters the Copyright: © 2020 Dai S. This is an open-access article distributed under the Heart; beef is sweet and enters the Spleen; horse is pungent and terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted enters the Lung, and pork, which is salty, enters the Kidney. The Five use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author Grains are thought of as follows: wheat nourishes the Liver, brown (or and source are credited. yellow) rice nourishes the Heart, millet nourishes the Spleen, white Citation: Dai S (2020) How to Use Traditional Chinese Medicine Principles to Choose a Diet for Your Pet -Use “Four Qi and Five Flavor” to Select a Scientif- ically Balanced Diet. J Altern Complement Integr Med 6: 111.

• Page 2 of 3 • rice nourishes the Lung, and beans nourish the Kidney [4]. The Five Summary Flavors of food theory determines which directions (or Meridians) the food action goes to, suggesting that each food has a “target or- The purpose of TCVM food therapy is not only to make the ani- gan”. According to these TCVM principles, if an animal has disorders mals full when they are hungry, but to satisfy the taste or flavor they of the Liver and needs to tonify (promoting healthy function) Liver, need. So, feeding a pet on one type of food all year-round, without re- foods containing chicken and wheat would be preferred; on the other gard to seasonal changes, or not paying attention to the imbalances in hand, foods containing horse (or donkey) meat and rice would not be the body, either way, would not be ideal in TCVM. By applying Four a good selection. Table 2 below can help you with selecting an appro- Qi and Five Flavor principles in TCVM in selecting a scientifically priate food for a pet that has some imbalance or disorders in the body well-balanced pet food, you not only have taken into account the in- from the TCVM point of view. dividual pets and the seasonal changes, you also provide your pet the greatest possible benefits from both science and TCVM. Therefore, you will have provided your pets an opportunity to achieve physical Choose Avoid and mental health and satisfaction [5]. Imbalance or Disorder Protein Carbohydrates Protein Carbohydrates

Liver (or/and Gall References Chicken Wheat Horse Rice bladder)

Heart (or/and vascular) Lamb Yellow rice Pork Beans 1. Shuanlei T, Qi W (2011) Analysis of the basic principles of dietary regi- men in traditional Chinese medicine. Li Shi Zhen Chinese Medicine and Spleen (GI tract and/or Beef Millet Chicken Wheat pancreas) Herbal 22 :976-977.

Lung (respiratory and/or Horse Rice Lamb Yellow rice 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shennong_Ben_Cao_Jing immune)

Kidney (urinary and/or 3. Rui Z (2008) Discussion on the theory of Huang Di Nei Jing health regi- Pork Bean Beef Millet bony/neuron) men with the concept of neutralization [D]. Thesis of master’s degree of Heilongjiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, . Table 2: Food choices for imbalanced pets by Five Flavors in TCVM. 4. Zhang Dasheng (2006) Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic (graphic ver- sion), Tianjin Ancient Books Publisher, China. Adjustment of Five Flavors is a method using the selective action 5. Wenbing X (2018) “Diets and Tastes” (“Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic of food on internal organs, Qi and Blood, Yin and Yang by the appli- “ Diet Edition), Jiangxi Science and Technology Press 27-79. cation of food’s Five Flavors in TCVM, to achieve the purpose of reg- ulating organ function, improving body immunity, resisting external pathogens, and preventing diseases.

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