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Mini Masterclasses

Why warm food is comfort food

Why Warm Food is Comfort Food

Acupuncturists and herbalists around the world know that warm food is comfort food and highly recommend warm, well-cooked preferably moist foods. It’s truly the easiest way to improve digestion, strengthen immunity, increase energy, regulate elimination and so much more. 

Karen created this mini masterclass to give you a little more insight into how Chinese medicine understands our digestion as a fire and why our Spleen needs easy-to-digest food to fuel our body, mind, and spirit. (Find the full transcript below.)

Why Warm Food is Comfort Food

Want to read more about the benefits of eating warm food? Check out this article:

Hot Meals or Cold Meals, Which is Better for You?

Thank you so much for watching. Please send this along to anyone you know who could benefit from this simple yet powerful wisdom!

Before you go, check out our selection of pre-packaged, organic, gluten-free gourmet breakfasts that slow-cook overnight. Yep, warm, moist, and well-cooked, Breakfast Cure is a wise choice for your Spleen!

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Hello and welcome. I’m Karen Taylor acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist. Today. I want to talk about the wisdom of warm and why acupuncturists and Chinese herbalists like me are always talking about the importance of eating warm well-cooked food that’s preferably also moist. This fundamental teaching from Chinese medicine has yet to be truly embraced by most Americans. I’ve seen for myself over the last 25 years with my own patients that this wisdom can be life-altering for so many people. Most people here haven’t given any thought to their Spleen and they don’t really know what it is. The Spleen is our main character in this story about digestion and hot versus cold. The health of our spleen plays a crucial role in how we feel and stay healthy. A strong Spleen helps you get the energy that you need from the food you eat and allows you to do everything you want each day.

 

Imagine that your digestion it’s like a fire. When you add good fuel and keep it all stoked up, it’s happy and it burns a lovely glow. You efficiently digest your food and you can get the most energy out of it and easily absorb the nutrients too. In Chinese medicine, we call this fire of digestion your Spleen, Yang which is the warming moving energetic part of your body. It fuels the functions of your organs. Yang is what allows your Spleen to do all the jobs of digestion and metabolism. It also manages incoming fluids. So when your spleen is sluggish or unhealthy, these fluids that we call “dampness” can build up and cause swelling, bloating, and congestion. So your Spleen Yang oversees the digestion of your food. So it makes sense that the Spleen is said to loathe coldness and it functions best when it’s warm and cozy.

 

If you’re dumping iced drinks and ice cream in there, this coldness pours down on the fire, which weakens your fire of digestion that a healthy Spleen is working so hard to maintain. It is common knowledge in Asia that when your digestion is optimized with warm well-cooked foods, especially those that are also moist like congee and porridge or soup, you are revving up the power of your human engine. This fire of digestion is a huge part of your metabolism. Keeping your Spleen warm and healthy and stoked up is the most important thing you can do for your digestion. When the Spleen can’t function optimally, you will feel fatigued, weakness, poor appetite, frequent or lose stools, feel tired after eating, have puffy eyes, swelling or bloating,  and suffer from overthinking and worry too. 

 

I hope you’ll try building your Spleen Yang by protecting yourself from the cold weather. and most importantly, by enjoying yummy, warm comfort food that you love so you can feel healthy and vibrant every single day. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

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