78-4 |
Foods in black color as medicine |
Y. W. HUANG, Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Univ. of Georgia, 204 Food Science Bldg., Athens, GA 30602-7610 and C. Y. Huang, Dept. of Food Technology, I-Lan Institute of Technology, I-Lan, Taiwan. In recent years, foods in black or dark color have been recognized as health food with medicinal effect. Traditional Chinese medicine recognizes that the use of food as medicine is based on five elements, naming water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. The nature (energy, "qi" or "chi") and taste of food and drug are interrelated. The four energies are cold, cool, warm, and hot. The five tastes include the sour, sweet, bitter, acrid, and salty flavor. In addition to energy and taste, Chinese also believe that food can be categorized as five colors: green, red, yellow, white, and black. Color of foods is corresponding to different human organs. Green foods tonify the liver, reds tonify the heart, yellows tonify the spleen, whites tonify the lung, and blacks tonify the kidney. Balancing the diet with foods in different color will help strengthen the organs of body and prevent from the disease. Black/dark foods come from both plant and animal origins. Foods from plant origin include black rice, black soybean, black sesame, black plum, black mulberry, purple seaweed, kelp, and black mushroom. Foods from animal origin include sea cucumber, black chicken, cuttle fish, grass eel, turtle, black snail, and frog. Studies on proximate composition, dietary fiber, amino acids, minerals and other minor elements show that foods in black color contain higher levels as compared with other color foods. This presentation will discuss selected popular black food items in terms of nutritional quality and preparations.
Session 78, Traditional Asian functional food products and markets
|