Hi Stefan,

Very interesting.  Thank you for feedback.

> your scale for raw foods:
> >--veggies-fruit-seeds-grains-beans-fish-poultry-meat - -

> >--cold - - cool - -neutral - - warm -  - heating - - - -

> I'm not sure about veggies vs. fruits. My scale would look like this:
> --tropical fruits-european fruits-veggies-seeds/nuts/beans---flesh
> --      cold - -       cool    - -neutral - -   warm    - - heating --

Actually, TCM was developed before european fruit was in the picture
:-)
so that is a useful addition for me.  However, it does generally
distinguish the fruit from tropical areas vs fruit from northern
climates, but I cannot recall property of each fruit, except that pears
are "cooling for the lungs" and papaya is "drying".

I wonder if your neutral point is moved because you eat little or no
cooked foods, and because you have a wider variety.  I think in old
times most people couldn't get both types of fruit, both tropical and
northern.

> What about sea salt, eaten alone? The last two days I felt a need for
> it in the morning time so took some grains.

Salt is supposed to nourish the kidney channel energy, and generally, is
cooling, if memory serves me.  But specifically, it is the taste that
"belongs" to the kidney meridian, which includes the function of the
organ, but also the emotion of fear, the colors blue and black, and
generally the state of being/mind of quiet.

> Where would you put herbs?

Chinese herbs are on the scale too, just as foods are, but also they go
further, being very much more cold and very very hot.  Each herb has
different heat/cold properties as do foods.  There are over 400 in
traditional texts.  Toxic is one property that about 5% of them have,
and, should generally be avoided, but which can have healing properties
for certain illnesses.  Most are not toxic unless you consume too much,
which, you would never do if eating instinctively.  Mints are cooling,
onion types (chives, scallion, onions etc) are warming, ginger is warm,
wild-yam (dioscorea - not potato) is neutral, chrysanthemum is cool,
walnuts are warm, citrus peel is warm, loquat is cool, coptis is very
very cold, angelica (dang-gui) is heating, ginseng is quite hot...

regards, roberta
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