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Bamboo Leaves

Bamboos flourish along the river banks and in the lowlands of Southern China just as Oak trees grow everywhere on the Pacific Coast. Although the climate of Southern China is very hot, the leaves of the bamboo are always green, and no matter how oppressive the weather may be, one does not feel the heat of the summer sun under the bamboo shade. The bamboo leaves shut out the summer heat. The green color of the bamboo leaves belongs to the Vegetation Element, and when taken into the human system, the leaves cool the blood by acting upon the liver. A special kind of delicate bamboo leaves is often used in herb treatments for relieving cases of overheated blood, of inflamed nerves, and of severe headache. Just as Nature provides the bamboo shade as a protection from the heat of the sun, so do the bamboo leaves, when added to a herb -(136)treatment, cool the blood and allay the inflammation of the nerves in the head and upper part of the body. Bamboo leaves are good for headache, inflamed eyes, hot flashes, fever, etc. Bamboo shoots are used extensively in Chinese dishes.

LETTUCE While lettuce belongs to the vegetation element, yet each kind of vegetable has its own taste, color, and particular effect upon the system. In China, the study of vegetables and plants differs widely from the Occidental chemical analysis. In America, we often hear people say that everyone should eat lettuce because it contains a high percentage of iron, which is very beneficial to the human body. The Chinese analysis of the composition of any vegetable is based solely upon the five principal elements of Nature. For instance, the colors of lettuce are green and white. Its taste is slightly sour and it contains considerable water. Its sour taste has a tendency to contract the air passing through the liver and gall bladder. Its color resembles that of the bile, the secretion of the liver. Therefore, both the sour taste and green color of lettuce indicate that it belongs to the liver and gall bladder, which also belong to the vegetation element. The white color in lettuce is similar to the color of the lungs and the large intestines. This white color belongs to the mineral element. The lungs and their sub-organ, the large intestines, also belong to the mineral element. Consequently, the white portion of lettuce has a strong influence upon the lungs and the large intestines. Its watery fluid naturally goes through the kidneys, and their sub-organ, the bladder.

When lettuce is taken cold and raw, it quenches the heat, the fire element, of the human system. Therefore, people who are coldblooded, or have low blood pressure, or who lack blood heat in the stomach or other organs, should not eat raw lettuce very often. It should be cooked with a small slice of ginger to equalize its effects. When lettuce is eaten by hot-blooded people, it cleanses the overheated blood of the fire element in the stomach, the lungs, and the large intestines. Lettuce taken on an empty stomach sometimes acts as a physic. If people eat lettuce too frequently, their intestines are liable to become filled with harmful germs. Dysentery and Colitis may result. -(137)-