Putting vegetable yakuzen to work in daily life

Vegetable yakuzen offers a way of eating matched to the season and to your constitution, on the basis of the wisdom of Chinese medicine. No special ingredients or complicated cooking are needed; what marks it out is that anyone can practise it easily with the vegetables and fruit available day to day. Here we set out concretely how to put vegetable yakuzen to work in daily life.

What is vegetable yakuzen?

Let us start with the basics. Vegetable yakuzen is a way of eating that chooses vegetables and fruit to suit your constitution, how you feel and the season, and keeps body and mind in balance. The basis of yakuzen is holding the balance of yin and yang and of the five phases, and bringing the inside and outside of the body into harmony. Vegetable yakuzen takes that thinking, focuses it on vegetables and fruit, and offers it in a form that is easy to bring into daily life.

Bringing in cooling summer vegetables in the hot season lowers heat in the body; in winter, making a point of warming root vegetables warms you from within. Adjustments like these help keep you well day to day.

How to put vegetable yakuzen to work in life

Supporting your own health

Learning how vegetable yakuzen thinks gives you the skill to choose the right ingredients for how you feel and for the season. If you struggle with the cold, for instance, you can make a point of warming ingredients such as ginger, garlic and spring onion. When tiredness or stress has built up, you can rebuild your strength with nourishing vegetables and fruit.

Constitution changes with age and surroundings, but bringing vegetable yakuzen in lets you choose ingredients to suit how you feel, naturally.

Supporting the health of people around you

Learning vegetable yakuzen lets you support not only your own health but that of family and friends. Cooking something with warming ingredients for a family member with a cold, or suggesting a nourishing dish to a tired friend: you can care for people by putting what ingredients do to work.

Varying everyday meals also means staying well together with family and friends, and enjoying it. That is part of what makes vegetable yakuzen appealing.

Widening how you eat

Bringing vegetable yakuzen in gives you more chances to try ingredients you would not usually use and new ways of cooking. That widens your repertoire and makes eating more enjoyable. Dishes that make a point of vegetables and fruit in particular are nourishing and bright to look at, and make mealtimes richer.

Trying new ingredients makes the family table more creative and more enjoyable, and lets you enjoy living well.

What to keep in mind when bringing vegetable yakuzen into life

Choosing ingredients for the season

Choosing ingredients that suit the season is the basis of bringing vegetable yakuzen in effectively. In spring, choose vegetables that help clear things out, such as nanohana and spinach; in summer, cooling ones such as tomato and cucumber. In autumn, bring in moistening pear and kabocha squash, and in winter warming daikon and spring onion, and you eat to suit how you feel through the year.

Choosing ingredients for your constitution

Choosing ingredients to suit your own constitution matters too. Someone who feels the cold should centre their eating on warming ingredients; someone in whom heat builds up should make a point of cooling ones. Constitutions differ from person to person, so understanding yours first, and choosing ingredients to suit, makes everyday meals work better.

Valuing balance

Balancing ingredients matters in vegetable yakuzen. Eating nothing but warming ingredients can leave the body overheated; nothing but cooling ones can make you ill. Holding the balance of yin and yang while bringing in a range of ingredients is what keeps you well.

In summary

Bringing vegetable yakuzen into life makes everyday meals both healthy and enjoyable. Choosing ingredients to suit how you feel and the season settles body and mind naturally and makes falling ill less likely. Being able to enjoy healthy eating together with family and friends is another of its great appeals.

Vegetable yakuzen needs no special knowledge or expensive ingredients and anyone can start it easily. Why not take this chance to bring its thinking in and make your days healthier and richer?