Food and the seasons

None of this is a diet plan, and it's no substitute for advice from your GP or a registered dietitian. Think of it as a different lens for looking at the meals you already cook.

Warming and cooling foods

Traditionally, every food has a "nature": hot, warm, neutral, cool or cold. That's nothing to do with how hot it is on the plate. It's about the effect the food was believed to have on the body.

• Warming: oats, garlic, onion, chicken, ginger, cinnamon and lamb, said to suit people who tend to feel the cold.
• Cooling: pears, tomatoes, tofu, mung beans and watermelon, said to suit people who tend to run hot.
• Neutral: rice, sweetcorn, apples, peas and mushrooms, thought fine all year round.

The five flavours

Chinese medicine also sorts food into five flavours: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty. The classical texts link each one to an organ and an element. The traditional advice is simple: a little of each, and not too much of any one.

Where modern nutrition fits

Chinese food therapy is a tradition, not a set of proven treatments, so I pair it with current NHS advice. The Eatwell Guide recommends at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day, meals based on starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes, bread, rice or pasta, and 6 to 8 cups or glasses of fluid a day.

The two sit together happily. You can follow the Eatwell Guide and still enjoy a warming ginger soup in January or a crisp cucumber salad in July. If you have a medical condition or a food allergy, or you're planning a big change to how you eat, talk to your GP or a registered dietitian first.

Try this

Before you plan your next meal, ask yourself two questions. What's the weather doing? And how am I feeling: a bit cold and flat, or warm and wound up? Let the answers nudge what you cook.

For more on the food traditions, read food as medicine in Chinese medicine, or see which season you're in now on the five seasons calendar.