TCM diet for dampness: foods that clear it and foods that make it
The diet for dampness in Chinese medicine rests on one principle: dampness is made by a Spleen that cannot transform what it is given, so the diet feeds the Spleen and leaches the damp. That means warm, cooked, bland, and aromatic food in regular measured meals; the Spleen's grains, rice, millet, and barley; Yi Yi Ren, coix seed, and adzuki beans; winter melon and the other bland vegetables that drain; the warm aromatic spices; and the removal of the foods that make damp, which are dairy, sugar and sweets, cold and raw food, iced drinks, fried and greasy food, alcohol, and overeating of any kind. Damp-heat and damp-cold take the same base and lean it cooler or warmer.
Recognising dampness
Dampness is heavy, sticky, turbid, and slow. The body feels heavy and the head feels wrapped; tiredness is worse in the morning and in humid weather; the stools are loose and sticky and do not flush cleanly; the mouth is sticky and there is little thirst; the appetite is poor with a sense of fullness; there is puffiness, oily skin, discharge, and weight that will not move. The tongue is swollen and scalloped with a thick greasy coat, and the pulse is slippery (hua) or soggy (ru). With heat the coat is yellow and greasy, the taste bitter, the stools burning and foul, the discharge yellow, and the skin breaks out; with cold the coat is white and greasy, the limbs cold, the stools watery, and everything worse for cold. Spleen qi deficiency is the state that makes dampness, and most people have both.
The Spleen and the flavours
The Suwen says that the Spleen dislikes dampness, and the tradition's dietary therapy follows from that sentence. The Spleen is the earth that transforms food into qi and fluids into their proper places; when it is cold, overloaded, or weak, what is not transformed sits as damp. The five flavours act on it. Sweet in moderation enters and nourishes the Spleen, and in excess clogs it. Bland (dan) leaches dampness through the urine, the principle of the coix seed and the adzuki bean. Aromatic awakens a Spleen that damp has stupefied, the principle of the cardamom and the tangerine peel. Bitter dries. Pungent and warm transform damp-cold. Li Dongyuan's Pi Wei Lun builds a school on protecting this organ from what is eaten.
Foods that clear dampness
| Food | How it works |
|---|---|
| Yi Yi Ren, coix seed | Bland and cool, leaches damp and fortifies the Spleen; cooked into rice or congee; not in pregnancy |
| Chi Xiao Dou, adzuki bean | Bland, drains damp downward through the urine, reduces puffiness |
| Barley | Bland and cool, drains damp; best where there is heat |
| Rice, millet, oats | The Spleen's grains, as congee the model damp diet |
| Shan Yao, Chinese yam | Sweet and neutral, tonifies the Spleen without making damp |
| Bai Bian Dou, hyacinth bean | Fortifies the Spleen and transforms damp; always cooked through |
| Dong Gua, winter melon, with its peel | Cool and bland, promotes urination, clears damp-heat |
| Corn and corn silk | Bland, leaches damp |
| Celery, radish, lotus root | Move qi and drain damp-heat |
| Mung bean | Cool, for damp-heat only |
| He Ye, lotus leaf, as tea | Raises the clear yang and resolves the damp of summer |
| Chen Pi, aged tangerine peel, as tea | Aromatic, dries damp and regulates qi |
| Ginger, cardamom, fennel, cinnamon | Warm and pungent, transform damp-cold and wake the Spleen |
| Fu Ling, poria, in congee | Bland, leaches damp and calms |
| Green tea, Pu'er | Green tea for damp-heat; Pu'er after greasy food |
| Shiitake and other mushrooms | Light, drain gently |
Foods that make dampness
Dairy in every form is the first the tradition names; then sugar, sweets, pastry, and honey in quantity; raw vegetables and salads in quantity; cold and iced drinks and food straight from the refrigerator; fruit in excess, above all bananas and the tropical fruits, and fruit juice; bread and wheat in excess; fried and greasy food, fatty meat, and pork in quantity; peanuts; alcohol, and beer most of all; overeating; eating late at night; and eating in a hurry or while working. The mechanism is the same in each case. Cold puts out the Spleen's fire, so nothing is transformed. Sweet, greasy, and heavy food gives the Spleen more than it can transform, and the surplus is damp. Raw food must be warmed inside before it can be transformed, and the warming costs the Spleen its qi.
How to eat
Food is cooked and eaten warm, and congee, soup, steaming, and stewing are chosen over frying. Breakfast is the substantial meal, taken in the Stomach's hours of the early morning, and the evening meal is light and early. Meals are regular, chewed well, and stopped before fullness. The kitchen is aromatic, with ginger, scallion, cardamom, and pepper in the pot. Sweating moves damp out, so the diet is joined to walking, and a damp house and a damp bed are avoided as carefully as a damp diet. Ayurveda reads the same body as kapha with ama and reaches nearly the same table.