A few Taoist tips to follow during the winter..!
The foods traditionally recommended to support our energy battery in winter are characterized by being either salty in flavour, black in colour or shaped like the Kidneys as an organ.
These include seaweed, legumes such as red or black beans, chestnuts, tofu and tempeh, miso soup, shiitake mushrooms, beef, duck, chicken, lamb, kidneys, shrimp, walnuts, black pepper, chili, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and black sesame.
Each food can have an energetic property, either warming, to tone the Yang of the Kidneys, or cooling, to nourish the Yin of the Kidneys, because according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, our Kidneys are organs that are both yin (water) and yang (fire).
The ancient texts speak of the Fire of MingMen, “the Gate of Life”, housed in the Kidneys, where the original energy (Yuan Qi) resides and breathes vital energy into all the organs of the body.