FOODS THAT BUILD BLOOD

Inherent in Chinese medicinal theory is the understanding that blood is imbued with an energetic aspect as well as being the red substance that travels around in your body carrying oxygen to and carbon dioxide from the tissues of the body. In Chinese medicine theory Blood (xue) is seen as a condensed form of qi, with qi playing a vital role in helping the blood to circulate to where it is needed. Attention is also focused on the strength of your digestive system’s ability to successfully obtain the nutrients from your food necessary for the production of blood

General Guidelines:

Avoid alcohol, tobacco, coffee, cold temperature foods, refined sugar, hydrogenated fats, and over consumption of fruit or raw foods.
Consume cooling foods and dairy products (preferably fermented/aged/raw so that enzymes and probiotic strains are present)
More sweet, sour and salty foods, less pungent and bitter foods
Beneficial to consume some of daily food in a watery medium such as broth, soups, stews, and congees.

· Vegetables: Sprouts, leafy greens such as kale, collards, chard (lightly steamed as not to loose the iron, folic acid, and manganese), celery, artichoke, beets, button mushrooms, cabbage, dandelion leaf, kelp, spinach, watercress, wheatgrass

· Grains: barley, corn, oats, rice, sweet rics, wheat, bran

· Fruit: dark grapes, blackberries, huckleberries, raspberries

· Beans: Mung beans and mung sprouts,

· Nuts/Seeds: coconut milk, sesame seeds, walnut, cold-pressed flax oil

· Algae: All seaweeds, micro-algae’s such as Spirulina, Chlorella, and Wild blue-green

· Fish: Carp, mussels, oysters

· Meat: liver (beef, lamb, chicken), marrow bone broth,

· Dairy: chicken egg

· Herbs and spices: nettle, parsley

· Common supplements: Royal jelly, gelatin (10-15 gr./day), extracted oils of borage, evening primrose, or black current seeds, aloe vera gel, blackstrap molasses