CREATING BALANCE THROUGH DIET

The traditional Chinese view of health, both physical and mental, resides in the belief of balance and equilibrium of the yin and yang energy forces.

"Yin (the female element) represents the passive principle or bodily forces described to darkness, cold, wet, and emptiness.  Yang (the male element) is equated with the active principle, characterized by light, heat, warmth, dryness and fullness." (Olson, 29)

By living a balanced life, it is the Chinese belief that good health and prosperity will naturally follow.  However, the Chinese concept of a balanced life does not necessarily mean eating well-rounded meals and exercising, as would be the American way of thinking.  According to the Chinese, certain foods are considered to be "warmer" or "cooler", and consuming such foods would ultimately affect a person's internal balance of yin and yang.  While foods like ginger and hot tea are thought to affect the yang element, foods such as bananas, watermelon, and most vegetables would cool the body, affecting the yin element (Koo, 759).

For the Chinese elderly to believe so strongly in the concept of yin and yang, practices that seemed to make perfect sense to them could go against Western styles of thinking.  For example, because elderly people are seen to possess more yin element "because of their age and physical conditions", according to the yin and yang food beliefs they should refrain from eating most fruits and vegetables (cold foods), which would affect the imbalance of yin and yang in the body (Olson, 29).

This goes against the American view of having a balanced diet in order to lead a healthy life.  The conflict could arise between elderly Chinese who still hold on to their cultural beliefs and their acculturated children and grandchildren; while the younger generations see a balanced meal as being important, the elderly would see it as being imbalanced for them to consume foods that would add to their yin element rather than trying to balance it out with "warmer" foods.  The elderly could even begin to believe that, upon their posterity's insistence to eat a more balanced diet from the American standards, their family would be trying to poison them and prevent them from restoring the balance within their own bodies.




SOURCES:

Koo, Linda C. 1984. "The Use of Food to Treat and Prevent Disease in Chinese Culture." Soc. Sci. Med., p. 759.

Olson, Laura Katz. 2001. Aging Through the Ethnic Lens: Caring for the Elderly in a Multicultural Society. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001. 29. Print.