Hi John and everyone,

The Chinese and Ayurvedic food theories I mentioned are "food
energetics". There is info. on foods and their properties on
acupuncture.com.  That's where I first heard about it.  A book with a
good discussion on the subject is The Herbs of Life by Lesley Tierra
(wife of Michael Tierra).  It's Chinese medicine mixed with nutrition
and is worth the $15 it costs.  I got it from the library and had to
return it, because it's a popular book.

 I also got ideas on this from Healing with Whole Foods by Paul
Pitchford.  I need to study it a lot more.  I began to get the idea from
Paul's books that I've probably been eating too many cooling foods.  I
think this is one area where vegetarians can get into trouble.  Lots of
salads and wheat=very cooling.  Millet is a warming grain.

I can't find the Ayurveda book at the moment but it's by Vasant Lad and
has mainly the same conclusions about food energetics as the Chinese
theories, but there are a few exceptions.  In a lot of cases the color
of the food seems to relate to its thermal properties, but a green food
that is pungent like mustard greens is warming.

A lot of spices that are good for diabetes are warming: cinnamon,
cayenne, garlic, and turmeric.  The books cover herbs as well as foods.
Mary J.