Hey, it's Nicholas! 👋

I don't know about you, but around here it's finally starting to get cold!

Here are a few TCM tips for staying warm as the weather changes...

A big part of Chinese medicine is living in harmony with the seasons.

One way to do this is with food!

In a commentary on Chapter 2 of the Su Wen, Wang Bing writes:

Here are some ideas for warming foods…

Embrace the Pumpkin Spice Latte Trend

While pumpkin-spiced everything seems like a fad, there’s a reason it comes out this time of year.

Even though it’s called “pumpkin spice,” it doesn’t actually contain any pumpkin. Really it’s just a mixture of the spices used to flavor pumpkin pie, like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

And it turns out that these are all warming herbs in Chinese herbology.

Cinnamon (Rou Gui), ginger (Gan Jiang), and clove (Ding Xiang) are from the category Herbs that Warm the Interior. Nutmeg (Rou Dou Kou) is actually from the Stabilize and Bind category—it stops diarrhea—but it also warms the middle.

So there are plenty of ways to stay warm! Add some pumpkin spice to your oatmeal. Make some mulled wine with cinnamon, cloves, and star anise (Ba Jiao).

And if pumpkin spice lattes are too trendy, just make some chai instead. It often uses similar warming ingredients, like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black pepper (Hu Jiao), and fennel seed (Xiao Hui Xiang).

(The cardamom we use in TCM is Bai Dou Kou, or Siam cardamom, which is a different species from the green cardamom you’ll find in the store. But the green one still seems pretty aromatic to me.)

Eat Lamb

If you want to warm up while nourishing blood, augmenting qi, and tonifying fire at the ming men, try some lamb!

Lamb (羊肉 yáng ròu) is one of the warmest meats. I’ve seen some books call it warm, but others say it’s hot. Either way, it will warm you up!

I wrote more about lamb and mutton in an article from last year: Lamb as a Warming Food.

There’s also a Lamb Stew recipe I really like. The process of making it is similar to a French boeuf bourguignon, but you use hard cider instead of wine, and it adds in additional warming ingredients like cinnamon, ginger, cumin, and turmeric.

Dumplings for Your Ears

And if your ears start to get cold, that’s a great excuse to get some Chinese dumplings!

According to legend, dumplings were invented by Zhang Zhongjing as a cure for frostbitten ears. You can read more about that here: 🥟 Dumplings in Chinese Medicine.

Stay Warm

So don’t let the cold get you down this year.

And if people start judging you for eating too many dumplings and drinking too much mulled wine, just tell them you’re living in harmony with the season!

I'm still working on updates for the Formula Review Course.

It's going slowly. Partly because I've been taking breaks to do chainsaw work, and partly because I'm lazy.

(I'm starting to worry that I might be allergic to my cat. I guess it's time to actually quit sugar and start taking herbs...)

I did a livestream on Dui Yao pairs just to get it out quickly, but now I'm going back and making a proper set of videos to go inside the course.

(I also made some dui yao quizzes and a matching game here.)

So I think I'm just going to embrace my laziness for the time being. Maybe I'll get back to making those acupuncture videos five years from now...

Nicholas

This is a weekly newsletter to let you know about the weekly updates like livestreams, office hours, and Q&A's. It's also a way to share whatever little TCM tidbit is on my mind. If you prefer not to receive this each week, you can unsubscribe from just the newsletter. You'll still receive major updates when new videos are added, you just won't get this newsletter.