The Five Flavours of Chinese Medicine Food

All foods in traditional Chinese medicine are assigned according to the five flavours: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty and the four natures: cool, cold warm and hot.The flavour of food (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty) can be used to predict its effects on the body. Many foods belong to more than one of the five flavours, for example vinegar is seen as being both bitter and sour and cheese as being sour and sweet.

The nature of food (cool, cold, warm and hot) also has a direct effect on the body and modifying its preparation can make it more suitable to an individual’s constitution. Raw food is the most cooling for the body, requiring more energy to digest than food that has been cooked. Examples of the same food prepared in a different manner are muesli compared with porridge, salads compared with stir-fried and roasted vegetables, or a piece of fruit that is compared with one that is stewed or baked.

In this context a ( cooked) potato salad is viewed as more warming than a (raw) green salad but not as warming as a hot baked potato, although the basic qualities of the potato will remain unchanged (that of a sweet flavour with qi and blood tonifing properties).

The five flavours of food with examples

Bitter foods Such as rhubarb and dandelion leaf, tend to drain heat and cool. Some bitter foods such as rhubarb have a purgative effect as they induce bowel movements

Sour foods Such as grapefruit and olives are cooling and in small amounts aid digestion

Pungent or spicy foods Such as onion and cayenne pepper have a warming action, promoting energy to move upwards and outwards to the body’s surface. They also have useful properties in dispersing mucus from the lungs.


Salty foods such as kelp and soya sauce are cooling and hold fluids in the body.Sweet foods can be divided into two groups 1) Sweet foods that are neutral and nourishing or warm and nourishing, these include meat, legumes, nuts, dairy products and starchy vegetables. 2) Sweet foods that are cooling, these include fruits, sugar, honey and other sweeteners. Potatoes, rice and apples are all considered to belong to the sweet flavour