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Free Naturopathic and TCM resources

TCM Food list

TCM Food List — The Complete Guide to Warming, Cooling & Energetic Food Properties
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Probably the Most Complete and Beginner-Friendly List Online

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) views food as a powerful tool for balancing your body’s natural tendencies.
Every ingredient carries an energetic effect — warming, cooling, moistening, drying, grounding, or dispersing — that influences how you feel.

On this expanded page, you’ll discover:

  • Over 150 foods sorted by TCM energetic categories

  • What each category means for digestion, energy, and comfort

  • Examples of how warming/cooling foods influence your body

  • How to start using food energetics safely and intuitively

  • Why personalization matters for true transformation

This is the public overview.


Inside NaturaBalance, you get the complete database, with:

✔ 400+ foods
✔ Strength levels (mild → moderate → strong)
✔ Yin/Yang designation
✔ Cooking method modifiers
✔ Seasonal uses
✔ Full notes, cautions & personal fit
✔ Constitution-specific scoring

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Understanding TCM Food Energetics (Beginner Friendly)

TCM teaches that foods influence the body through:

1. Thermal Nature

  • Hot

  • Warm

  • Neutral

  • Cool

  • Cold

2. Flavor (Each Has an Action)

  • Sweet → tonifies, moistens

  • Sour → astringes

  • Bitter → drains, clears

  • Salty → softens, descends

  • Pungent → moves, disperses

3. Organ/Channel Influence

Example: Ginger influences the Lungs & Digestion, cooling foods often influence Heart or Liver.

4. Direction of Movement

  • Upward

  • Downward

  • Inward

  • Outward

5. Moisture Effect

  • Moistening

  • Drying

  • Damp-clearing

  • Damp-forming

This page keeps everything clean and simple so anyone can understand it.

Woman Working Laptop

Warming Foods (Yang-Supporting)

Best for people who:

  • Feel cold easily

  • Prefer warm drinks

  • Experience slow digestion

  • Tend to feel tired or heavy

  • Feel better with soups or cooked meals

Warming foods gently activate digestion, support circulation, and bring internal heat.

Warming Foods List (Expanded)

Strongly Warming

  • Ginger (fresh & dried)

  • Cinnamon

  • Cloves

  • Chili pepper

  • Garlic

  • Black pepper

  • Lamb

  • Venison

  • Shrimp

  • Mussels

Moderately Warming

  • Chicken

  • Trout

  • Salmon

  • Walnuts

  • Chestnuts

  • Leeks

  • Spring onion

  • Mustard greens

  • Turmeric

  • Fennel

Mildly Warming

  • Oats

  • Quinoa

  • Brown rice

  • Parsnips

  • Turnip

  • Cabbage

  • Cauliflower

  • Cherries

  • Peaches

  • Grapes

Common warming qualities:

  • Stimulate digestion

  • Increase warmth

  • Improve circulation

  • Grounding and strengthening

Cooking tips:
Roasting, slow-cooking, and stews increase warmth.

Food Plate

Cooling Foods (Yin-Supporting)

  • Best for people who:

  • Feel hot or flushed easily

  • Prefer cold drinks

  • Get irritated or restless

  • Run warm at night

  • Live in hot climates

  • Cooling foods help soothe, calm, and refresh.

  • Cooling Foods List

  • Strongly Cooling

  • Watermelon

  • Cucumber

  • Bitter melon

  • Mint

  • Chrysanthemum

  • Mung beans

  • Seaweed

  • Tofu

  • Zucchini

  • Moderately Cooling

  • Spinach

  • Celery

  • Lettuce

  • Pear

  • Kiwi

  • Orange

  • Taro

  • Aloe vera (gel used in food traditions)

  • Mildly Cooling

  • Broccoli

  • Tomatoes

  • Mushrooms

  • Eggplant

  • Strawberries

  • Pineapple

  • Barley

  • Coconut water

  • Common cooling qualities:

  • Reduce internal heat

  • Calm irritability

  • Soothe dryness

  • Light and refreshing

  • Cooking tips:
    Steaming or light sautéing keeps foods cooling.
    Raw increases cooling effect.

Array Of Vegetables

Neutral Foods (Balance-Supporting)

Gentle, steadying, well-tolerated for most.

Neutral Foods List 

  • Rice (all varieties)

  • Sweet potato

  • Carrots

  • Beets

  • Cabbage

  • Mushrooms (button, shiitake, oyster)

  • Green beans

  • Peas

  • Eggs

  • Beef

  • Pork

  • Cod

  • Trout

  • Millet

  • Potatoes

  • Chickpeas

  • Black beans

  • Pumpkin

  • Dates

  • Figs

Neutral qualities:

  • Build Qi and Blood

  • Easy to digest

  • Useful for grounding

Tip:
Neutral foods form the base of most balanced meals in TCM.

​

Damp-Clearing Foods

For people who experience:

  • Sluggish digestion

  • Heavy legs

  • Soft or sticky stools

  • Brain fog

  • Puffiness

These foods lighten and support digestive clarity.

Damp-Clearing Food List 

  • Barley

  • Adzuki beans

  • Mung beans

  • Red lentils

  • Pumpkin

  • Radish

  • Daikon

  • Celery

  • Turnip

  • Ginger

  • Papaya

  • Lemon

  • Dandelion greens

  • Corn silk tea

  • Parsley

  • Job’s Tears (coix seed)

Cooking tips:
Light soups or porridge are ideal. Avoid overly oily preparations, which add dampness.

Blood-Nourishing Foods

Used traditionally for vitality, hair, skin, and general nourishment.

Blood-Nourishing List 

  • Beets

  • Dark leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale)

  • Black beans

  • Kidney beans

  • Eggs

  • Liver

  • Sardines

  • Anchovies

  • Goji berries

  • Cherries

  • Mulberries

  • Black sesame seeds

  • Red dates

  • Oats

  • Sweet potatoes

Actions:

  • Nourish blood

  • Support growth and repair

  • Improve luster of hair and skin (traditionally)

Strawberries

Qi-Tonifying Foods

For people who often feel:

  • Low energy

  • Short breath

  • Weak digestion

  • Easily fatigued

Qi-Tonifying List (Expanded)

  • Sweet potato

  • Rice

  • Oats

  • Millet

  • Chickpeas

  • Lentils

  • Chicken

  • Turkey

  • Squash

  • Pumpkin

  • Carrots

  • Dates

  • Honey (mild, gentle support)

  • Broth (chicken or vegetable stock)

Russian cuisine

​Yang-Tonifying Foods

Strengthening, warming, steadying.

Yang Foods 

  • Ginger

  • Lamb

  • Shrimp

  • Chestnuts

  • Garlic

  • Cloves

  • Walnuts

  • Chives

  • Mustard greens

  • Black pepper

  • Leeks

Foods That May Create Dampness (TCM Perspective)

Not “bad” — but some people feel better reducing them.

  • Cheese

  • Milk

  • Yogurt

  • Peanut butter

  • Bananas

  • White flour products

  • Fried foods

  • Excess sugar

  • Very oily meals

  • Ice cream

​How Cooking Method Changes Energetics

Food energetics shift depending on preparation:

  • Raw → more cooling

  • Steamed → mildly cooling

  • Boiled soups → neutralizing

  • Roasted/Baked → more warming

  • Stir-fried → warming

  • Slow-cooked stews → strongly warming

  • Fermented → mildly warming, digestive support

These adjustments help personalize your meals without eliminating foods you love.

Fresh Salad

Why Personalization Matters (And Why This Page Alone Isn’t Enough)

Two people can eat the same food and feel very different.

Example:

  • Ginger may boost digestion for someone cold-natured

  • Ginger may feel overstimulating to someone already warm

Your TCM constitution determines:

  • Your thermal tendencies (run cold / run warm)

  • How you respond to specific foods

  • Which foods provide grounding, clarity, or ease

  • Which combinations work best for your digestion

This is why personalization is essential.

​

Take the Free Constitution Quiz

Your personalized food scores and best/worst matches await inside the full program.

Want the Complete Food Database?

Inside NaturaBalance, you’ll unlock:

More than 400 foods

Each with detailed energetics.

Strength levels

(mild → moderate → strong)

Personalized scoring

Foods ranked for your constitution.

Monthly seasonal meal guides

100+ recipes auto-matched to your element

Food analyzer tool

Paste your meal → see warming/cooling effects.

Weekly TCM insights

Simple habits, seasonal tips, digestion-friendly practices.

Start Your Personalized Journey (€9.99/month)

Everything on this page becomes deeper, clearer, and tailored specifically to you.

👉 Take the Constitution Quiz
👉 Unlock Your Full Food Energetics Database

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