Natures Cottage

I just started reading the “Chinese System of Food Cures, Prevention & Remedies” by Henry C. Lu today. Here are some interesting excerpts from the book:

Five Flavors of Food
The five flavors of food include pungent (acrid), sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

Pungent foods include green onion, chives, cloves, parsley, and coriander.
Sweet foods include sugar, cherry, chestnut, and banana.
Sour foods include lemon, pear, plum, and mango.
Bitter foods include hops, lettuce, radish leaf, and vinegar (I list vinegar as bitter because the Chinese call vinegar “bitter wine”. Vinegar tastes both sour and bitter; it is common for some foods to have two simultaneous flavors.)
Salty foods include salt, kept, and seaweed.

The flavors of food are important in Chinese diet, because different flavors have their respective important effects upon the internal organs. Food that have a pungent flavor can act on the lungs and large intestine; foods with a sweet flavor on the stomach and spleen; with sour flavor on the liver and gall bladder; with a bitter flavor on the heart and small intestine; foods that have a salty flavor can act on the kidneys and bladder.

At the beginning, some foods with obvious flavors found to act on some internal organs perform specific actions in the human body. The basic relationships between flavors and internal organs and the actions are studied and analyzed by a process in science called the inductive method. As time goes on, other foods whose flavors are more difficult to determine may be found capable of active upon some internal organs and performing some specific actions.

In general, the common action of foods in regard to their flavors are as follows:

Pungent foods (ginger, green onion, and peppermint) can induce perspiration and promote energy circulation.

Sweet foods (honey, sugar, and watermelon) can slow down the acute symptoms and neutralize the toxic effects of other foods.

Sour foods (lemon and plum) can obstruct the movements, and are useful, therefore, in checking diarrhea and excessive perspiration.

Bitter foods, reduce body heat, dry body fluids, and induce diarrhea (which is why many Chinese herbs recommended to reduce fever and induce diarrhea taste bitter)

Salty foods (kelp and seaweed) can soften hardness, which explains their usefulness in treating tuberculosis of the lymph nodes and other symptoms involving the hardening of muscles or glands.

Mmm… it’s nearly been exactly a year since I went to China. I loved the place we went to, and the food! I never ate so much street food in my life. If only I hadn’t accidentally deleted all the pictures we took of our trip. :’( I just have a few left now.

It’s funny how life’s best lessons can be learned not in classrooms – not in the most expensive, most prestigous universities.. but right in our much-loved play grounds…

In life…
sometimes you’re up. Everything’s going well, going great! Nothing could be better… or – if things could be better- at least it’s all going quite well as it is.

Then, sometimes, you’re down.
When nothing’s going right. Everything just seems to be getting worse and worse and you’re thinking, “How could anything get any worse?” But they do. But, have faith, have patience.. soon you’ll be up again.. but then, don’t get your hopes too high. Every now and then you’ll have your downs too, and it’s just the way life is.

We all look for stability and peace, and it’s in a whole nother realm we can find that peace – that happiness, which is so deep that no ups or downs could possibly affect it.. it’s a place, once you go to- will give you the foundation and fulfillment you look for, so that the ups and downs that we inevitably experience in this world will not affect us any more than the passing clouds in the sky affect us. And there we’ll find rest.

Since time immemorial, people have been looking for ways to stay fit and healthy for as long as possible. The Chinese were definitely not left behind in this search for immortality.

For thousands of years, traditional Chinese medicine experts have taught that each day you should eat 5 different types of food. It’s not quite like our regular food pyramid- it’s more color based. It is said that the white foods (like radish/jikama), are good for the lungs, while red things (ex: radish/tomatoes) are good for the heart, green food (like veggies etc) are good for the gallbladder, yellow food (like Bananas, sweet potato, or squash) are good for the liver, and finally, black foods (Ex: black beans/seaweed) are good for the spleen. It’s a very interesting science of health.

This little article is quite a nice reminder of it:

Back in Black: Your Favorite Foods, Only Healthier
Tips and tricks from our resident dietitian, Julie Upton, RD

When it comes to plant-based foods, deep, vibrant colors are one of the best indicators of what’s healthiest. The pigments that give plants their color also provide the antioxidants that protect against heart disease, inflammation, and certain cancers. A simple swap can provide a big nutritional payoff, like choosing pink grapefruit over white, or dark greens over pale lettuce. So it may come as little surprise that black foods can pack a potent health benefit too. That’s exactly the case with the midnight-hued rice, beans, tea, and berries I can’t seem to get enough of lately. Here’s why:

Black rice
This grain—along with the red and purple varieties—is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, and has long been consumed throughout Asia. Black rice is a 100% whole grain food just like brown rice, but it is thought to have a higher anthocyanin content due to its deeper color. A study in China found that when people’s diets were supplemented with black-rice pigments, their risk factors for cardiovascular disease decreased–including levels of C-reactive protein in their blood, an indicator of inflammation.

Black beans
These high-fiber antioxidant powerhouses pack more disease-fighting power than lighter-colored beans. New research shows that the black skins contained 24 plant compounds including 12 terpenoids and 7 flavonoids. The researchers also found that these compounds halted the growth of colon, liver, and breast cancer cells.

Black tea
It comes from the same plant as green and oolong tea, but the dark stuff has a slew of good qualities all to its own. Numerous studies have shown that drinking several cups of flavonoid-rich black tea a day may provide heart-health benefits, offer protection against neurological decline as we age, and provide anticancer properties. Plus it’s got the added benefit of being calorie-free (as long as you don’t drink it with milk and sugar), and its caffeine may help improve your workout.

Blackberries
These tangy treats are rich in polyphenols that have been shown to have antioxidant activity. University of Kentucky researchers isolated blackberry extract in lab studies, and found that its chemicals stopped the growth of colon-cancer cells. They may also help prevent diseases related to chronic inflammation. Don’t like them on their own? Pair them with blueberries and ginger syrup in this light and fruity dessert.

Black mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, and many other specialty black crops are, well, cropping up these days. Let us know if you’ve seen any at your local farmers market and whether you’ve tried them.

By Julie Upton, RD

From: Health.com

Food, (pun not intended) is an all devouring topic and issue in our world today. Time has a very interesting photo gallery of what people from around the world eat. I posted some of those pictures here. It’s interesting that my diet is most similar to the people from Shingkhey Village- wherever that may be.

Here in the Philippines, as of the news report the other day, hunger has gone up by 18.74 percent. It is too bad that people have become so dependent on what has been referred to time and time again as the “colonial mentality”, and so they starve. In a tropical country like the Philippines, almost all the weeds that grow quite abundantly around are edible. Of course it is not just ignorance that has brought about hunger in my country, but also the corruption of our leaders. Of course the next question will be – “Then who put them in power?” And so it goes, the endless cycle.

In my own little ways I work to help educate the Filipinos about their previous way of life, when food that grew around them would be eaten, and not sold and exchanged for store bought foods wrapped in plastic or packed in cans.

What I find most ironic however, is that it seems sometimes, that the bigger problem in our planet is obesity and weight control rather than hunger! For the most part, there seem to be more people running around and trying to lose weight rather than gain weight. Then again, I suppose that is a good thing… but still points down to very basic yet deeper problems/questions that none of our educational systems tackle or even dare go near.

Heres a little pic taken of the dunes in Whangamata.

Here’s a sweet little picture of the day from Port Waikato, a little town just out of Auckland. It gets real good surf sometimes.

If your looking for nice places to check out in New Zealand ask me any questions of where to go or check out one of the tourism sites.

Autumn pics. I took these last year. Just playing around.

What exactly is this world coming too? I work with about 5 people who have absolutely no life. They work all week so they can spend it all on alcohol and drugs. They don’t even like the work they do. They have absolutely no appreciation at all for nature or  the environment. They  are just totally locked into their little world. So many people are like that that I know. They are totally destroying their bodies with the toxins they throw into it everyday. I can smell the toxins on them everyday they come to work. It’s oozing out of them. I wish I could just slap them and tell them to wake up haha.   A few of them are actually really nice people but they just have no purpose for their life. Work, drugs and fishing is about it haha. I’m not trying to criticize them and put them down. They are free to do whatever they want but I would hate to live my live and then look back on it and think “damn, I lived for nothing”.

I went to Onemana today, a really nice little beach. It’s a perfect temperature out there lately.

I got a few nice pics. I like the artey little pics of nature if you can’t tell already.My favorite time of the day to go for a walk on the beach is when the sun is going down into the ocean. Unless it’s windy then I’ll stay inside.

It’s a very mode of goodness time to be with nature. Makes me feel good

I’ve been sitting here trying to think of something beautiful to post, but I just had too much lunch and can’t think properly, so I’m just going to put a simple introductory message here.

I’ve loved writing and had several journals before but I never kept an online one.. I’m quite excited about this blog.

I’m “Jocks” from the Philippines and I’ll be writing on health, pets/animals, nature, community work, posting about cooking, recipes, health related issues, and probably a few other things.  The other author, Sam, who is from New Zealand, will be posting about sports, pictures, and travel in and around New Zealand and probably other places too.

I hope you will enjoy reading our blog, which is one of our first joint ventures.