The Fire element’s organs are Heart (a solid and yin organ), Small Intestine (Heart’s hollow counterpart and yang organ), and the circulatory system and autonomic nervous system (including the parasympathetic(1) and sympathetic branches). The Small Intestine transforms food into nutrients and energy and then provides that nourishment for Heart to deliver throughout the body by way of the blood. The relationship between our diet and the balanced function of Fire’s organ’s and thus, prevention of heart disease cannot be overstated.
Summer is the season of abundant variety of produce and it offers us the opportunity to vary our diets more with healthful produce that supports the Heart. Our Summer diets should reflect the bounty of the season.
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Cooling Food Consumption Practices
It may seem illogical as practices during hot Summer, but instead of drinking cold beverages and sitting in icy cold air conditioned spaces, drink hot liquids and take warm showers. These induce sudden sweating and actually cool the body down.
Certain foods that are cooling to the body are fresh salads, sprouts, fruit, cucumber and tofu. Flower and leaf teas like chrysanthemum, mint and chamomile will also help cool the body from within.
Too many cold beverages and too much icy food will cause an inner contraction of the digestive system, holding in sweat and heat, thereby weakening the digestive organs.
Cold food and drink is really best avoided during Summer.
Dispersing hot spices are very beneficial during Summer and though they will initially create warmth they ultimately bring body heat up to the surface to be dispersed. You won’t really feel that heat very much because your body is already well accustomed to mirroring Summer's heat.
Examples of heat dispersing spices include:
red and green hot peppers
cayenne pepper
fresh ginger (not dried)
horseradish
black pepper
Don’t be overly liberal with the use of hot spices though because doing so could cause a loss of yang energy resulting in weakness. It can even impact your ability to stay warm in future Metal (Fall) and Water (Winter) seasons.
In Summer, the healthful rule of thumb is to eat light and eat less. Heavy foods, especially on the hotter days of Summer, will cause you to be sluggish.
Such heavy foods include meats, eggs and an excess of nuts, seeds and grains.
A dietetic tenet of traditional Chinese medicine is that of avoiding too many cold and raw foods. A “digestive fire” exists within the digestive system that “cooks” the food you consume.
If we consume too many cold or raw foods, this dampens that fire making the small intestine much less effective at breaking food down into the nutrients needed for nourishing the body.
“Use plenty of brightly colored Summer fruits and vegetables, and enjoy creating beautiful meals—make a dazzling display with the colors of the food, and design a floral arrangement for the table. Cook lightly and regularly add a little spicy, pungent, or even fiery flavor. When sautéing, use high heat for a very short time, and steam or simmer foods as quickly as possible. Use little salt and more water.”
The Fire element relates to bitter flavor as we commonly find in herbs, but green leafy vegetables and most lettuces have some of this bitter quality also. Unsweetened coffee, tea and cacao have a bitter quality, too, and these are helpful when consumed in moderation.
The property of bitter foods is descending and centering.
The bitter flavor of any food “enters” and affects the Heart. There that bitter food has a number of functions:
The bitter cleanses deposits from the physical heart and associated arteries.
Bitters cool an overheated Heart. They also help tone up a stagnant Liver which in turn makes more energy available for the Heart.
Bitter foods sedate and lower yang qualities in the head (an overactive mind) and draw them down and concentratesthem in the Heart so a person may become more centered.
If Your Fire Is Too Strong
If you are an overheated person with a red complexion, full of energy and very busy, talkative, and one who finds it difficult to slow down and relax, you may be out-of-balance with Fire. You have too much yang Fire energy.
Foods that will help to bring you back to balance are cooling juice- and water-rich fruits and vegetables. Citrus fruits, cucumber and melons are good examples of Fire balancing foods.
If Your Fire Is Weak and You Have Too Much Yin
When a person is overworked and denies the body and mind periods of time to slow down and rest, fatigue, weakness and anxiety are the result and these indicate a Heart yin deficiency.
Traditional Chinese medicine says that Heart’s function of pumping blood doesn’t just help keep the physical body in balance, the Heart as source of consciousness and thinking helps keep thought processes and mental activities in balance, too.
When Heart’s yin or yang energy is out-of-balance, symptoms of anxiety, insomnia and restlessness can result.
Often when Fire is not in balance, circulation slows resulting in extreme coldness and a pale face indicating a Heart yang deficiency and a yin energy excess.
During hot Summer, minerals and oils also get sweated out of the body and losing them can cause us to become weak. But certain foods can be utilized to replenish your Fire if you’re feeling weak and fatigued.
If your Fire is weak, a more warming and cooked food diet that includes whole grains like buckwheat, millet, oats, brown rice and rye will help.
Grains also have a helpful bitter aspect which is in their germ and bran. Unfortunately, these are removed in the processing of refined wheat flour and white rice so consume grains with their germ and bran intact.
Spices, too, like cayenne, ginger and curry help add Fire to your blood.
A weak Fire is also often caused by a poorly functioning small intestine (Fire’s yang organs).
The small intestine is responsible for sorting and separating food in the digestive tract and for proper blood formation.
When food is improperly digested it creates damp mucus in the body which may cause obstructed blood flow. It creates an effect where too little yang energy is available to move the blood.
Stagnant blood flow often occurs in people who develop coronary artery disease, inflammation of the heart and angina.
If your small intestine needs a jumpstart, some traditional Chinese medicine practitioners offer an a time honored recipe to help cleanse and tone the small intestine. It involves an approximate two week practice of consuming a daily cup of equal parts simmered brown rice, lentils and sunflower seeds in one and half times the amount of water. This recipe is an excellent heat producer and should benefit the assimilation function of the small intestine.
Years of consuming red meats, animal fats, sugars and starches, without regularly pausing to cleanse the toxins those foods feed the body will clog up blood vessels.
“The greatest cause of all heart trouble is a wrong diet, which causes impure blood and weakens the heart… other causes are lack of exercise and poor circulation. Often palpitations of the heart are due to gas and fermentation in the stomach.
… When so much food is eaten that is robbed of its life-giving properties, and since the real health-giving properties that have refined out of foods are the properties that strengthen our bodies and heart, the heart gets weaker and weaker. ”
Nutrients That Support a Healthy Heart and Balanced Fire Energy
Magnesium very importantly supports calcium to function properly in the heart and nerve tissues. An interesting benefit of magnesium is that it also restrains the “anxiety peptide” in the brain which appears to contribute to anxiety.
You can get the magnesium you need with a healthy leafy green and whole grains based diet.
Magnesium in foods that are healing to and balancing for Heart are virtually depleted when grains are milled or refined so again, consume whole and not overly processed grains.
Green foods are magnesium rich. The mineral magnesium is uniquely positioned at the center or “heart” of every chlorophyll molecule.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that consuming food that is red in color is good for not just your heart and small intestine but also for your brain.
These foods would include carrots, tomato, sweet potato, strawberry, chili, red beans, red pepper, jujube (2), goji berry, dragon fruit, apple, brown sugar, and any other food that is a shade of red.
Do consult your traditional Chinese medicine health practitioner (or alternative health physician) before engaging in practices mentioned in this article.
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Endnotes:
The parasympathetic(a) nervous system is also known in traditional Chinese medicine as the Triple Heater. The Triple Heater is believed to be a body cavity of some kind which has the ability to influence other organs, and overall health, mainly through the free movement of chi, the fundamental energy or life force.
(a) Parasympathetic relates to the part of the automatic nervous system that counterbalances the action of the sympathetic nerves. It consists of nerves arising from the brain and the lower end of the spinal cord and supplying the internal organs, blood vessels, and glands.
(2) Jujube seeds (Ziziphus jujuba/spinosa) are a widely used Chinese herbal remedy to calm the Spirit and nourish the heart.
Sources:
Haas, Elson M.. Staying Healthy with the Seasons: 21st-Century Edition. United States, Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed, 2012.
Kloss, Jethro. Back to Eden: A Human Interest Story of Health and Restoration to be Found in Herb, Root, and Bark. Bahrain, Back to Eden Books Publishing Company, 2004.
Pitchford, Paul. Healing with Whole Foods. Poland, North Atlantic Books, 2003.