Healing Chinese Soup

I just spoke with my mother on the phone. She said that I should drink more soup to replenish my strength since I am breastfeeding and working. Here is an article from About.com about benefits of drinking soups.

Healing Chinese Soup

Beyond comforting, Chinese soups have holistic value

By Rhonda Parkinson, About.com Guide

Treating a cold or fever with soup is an ancient and time honored tradition. If nothing else, a bowl of soup, lovingly prepared, can make us think we feel better - even if it doesn't really help cure our illness. However, in addition to its ability to comfort, the Chinese believe certain soups have healing powers.

A large part of Chinese medicine is based on the concept of yin and yang, the two forces that rule the universe. Depending on the context, yin refers to the feminine, darker, cooling forces, while yang represents the masculine, lighter, hot forces. Although sometimes depicted as being in opposition, in reality they are meant to complement one another.

So what does a philosophical belief have to do with medicinal soups? The Chinese believe illness is a signal that the two forces are out of balance. For example, if you have a cold it is because there is too much yin in your body. A Chinese herbalist might prescribe a soup designed to restore the yang forces. Similarly, a fever might be treated with a yin soup.

Over time, medical experts and herbalists have developed a classification system, in which foods are categorized as having either yin or yang properties. (I should point out that no food is purely yin or yang - it's more that one characteristic tends to dominate, which is why you'll sometimes find experts disagreeing over what category a specific food falls into). Physicians make use of these classifications when deciding on a course of treatment.

Read more here.