HOW TO TELL IF FOOD IS MORE YANG OR MORE YIN

By Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

The two charts below explain how the yang and yin qualities of foods are determined.

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CHART #1

This chart shows the general order of yang to yin of foods. The most yang foods are at the top, and the most yin foods are at the bottom:

THE FOOD LIST

(most yang at the top and most yin at the bottom)

Eggs

Red meat

Poultry

Fish

Shellfish

Cooked whole grains

Cooked root vegetables

Cooked cruciferous vegetables

Cooked leafy green vegetables

Raw vegetables or salads

Nightshade vegetables (tomato, potato, eggplant and peppers) and vegetables that are really fruits (squashes, cucumber, okra, and pumpkin)

Most herbs

Northern, and smaller-sized fruit

Tropical fruit (mango, papaya and others)

Sub-tropical Fruit (coconut, dates, figs)

Most drinking water

Alcohol

Drugs, including marijuana

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CHART #2

This chart goes into much more detail about what determines the yang or yin qualities of a food. On the left are types of foods. The middle column gives the most yang qualities of them, and right column shows the most yin qualities of these foods.

FOOD TYPE	MORE YANG QUALITY	MORE YIN QUALITY
IN GENERAL
Inner and outer qualities	Harder outside, soft inside	Softer outside, and hard inside
Source	Eggs, animal foods	Plant foods, fruit is most yin
Color	Red, black	White, light blue, green
Density	Hard, compact, contracted, more dense	Softer, expanded, fluffy, light weight, low density
Size	Smaller	Larger
Preparation	Cooked	Raw
Preparation	Fresh	Old, canned
Cooking	High Pressure (pressure-cooking)	Lower pressure
Cooking	Longer cooking time	Shorter cooking time
MEATS/EGGS
Type	Mammal, bird, fish	Reptile, bug
Movement	Faster	Slower
Shell	Yes, and thicker	No, or soft
Personality	Happy	Angry, sad
Where grown	Colder climate	Warmer climate
Speed of growth	Slow	Faster
Toxicity	Low	Higher
Taste	Starchy, bitter	Sweet, pungent, sour
Ether content	Higher	Lower
Souls (number)	More	Fewer
Water content	Less, drier	More, wetter or moist
GRAIN
Type	Grasses	Other, seeds, etc.
Cook time	Longer	Shorter


Way of eating	Whole	Fractionated, flour, flakes, cut
VEGETABLES
Growth location	Underground	Above (higher is more yin)
Part	Root	Stem and leaf most yin
Type of root	Vertical or tap	Tuber or bulbous
LEGUMES
Form	Whole beans, pressure cooking	Sprouts
FRUITS (ovaries)
Number of seeds	More	Fewer
Sweetness	More	Less
Seed location	Outside	Inside
Seed size	Smaller	Larger
Seed hardness	Harder	Softer
FATS/OILS
Saturation	Saturated, solid	Unsaturated, liquid
Source	Animal (egg yolk, then beef fat, then chicken fat, then sardine, then butter, then cream)	Vegetable, especially fruit oils (coconut, palm)
OTHER
Sea vegetables	Kelp (kombu), wakame	Dulse or Irish moss, hijiki
Algae		All, and not recommended
Yeast		All
Herbs	Coffee, ginger, curry, garlic, sea salt, dandelion	Most all other herbs are quite yin
DRINKING WATER
Mineral content	Higher	Lower, reverse osmosis, distilled
Acidity	More Acidic	More alkaline
Bond angle	Smaller	Larger
Ability to hydrate	Excellent	Not as good

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