Five-Element Feeding: The Five Flavors
continued from p. 12
PUNGENT•METAL Te pungent flavor includes foods and herbs that are acrid, spicy, hot, and aromatic. Horses who are sluggish, lethargic, and overweight or who have mucus/damp conditions of the lungs and large intestine can benefit from the pungent flavor. Conditions that would fit this description include chronic moist coughs or intestinal parasites.
Certain horses with wind conditions, such as nervous or restless behavior, are helped by the pungent flavor, which relaxes the nervous system. In addition, horses with digestive issues benefit from pungent-flavored seeds that improve digestion, including fennel, dill, caraway, anise, coriander and cumin.
Te pungent flavor, along with the sweet flavor, helps attune the horse’s body to the spring season. Pungent flavors that are also hot, such as cayenne and fresh ginger, are helpful in the summer as well. Dried ginger and cinnamon can be used for overcoming signs of coldness because they warm the body for an extended period.
Rosemary is considered a warm pungent flavor. Examples of cool pungent flavors include peppermint and marjoram.
Cautions: Very dehydrated or thin horses may not be able to handle much of the pungent flavor and you should avoid feeding these horses spices such as sage, cayenne, or any hot pepper. Foods with a hot pungent flavor should be avoided if heat conditions exist anywhere in the body, including abscesses or active infections of any kind. For example, cinnamon can help lower high blood glucose levels in horses with Cushings, but if that horse has an active hoof abscess secondary to laminitis, cinnamon would be contraindicated.
It’s also important to be clear about when to use warming versus cooling
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pungent foods. If there are heat symptoms such as fever or thick discharges, use cooling pungent foods and herbs. If your horse has weak digestion the warming pungent herbs can stimulate digestion.
Warming pungent foods that might be used for horses include rosemary, garlic, cinnamon bark, fresh and dried ginger root, cayenne, fennel, anise, dill, basil and nutmeg. Cooling pungent foods include peppermint and marjoram.
SALTY•WATER Te salty flavor moves energy down and in, which helps center it deep within the body. It moistens dryness, softens hardened lumps, and loosens stiffness. It also supports digestion and helps to
THERAPEUTIC USE OF THE FIVE FLAVORS
When using the five flavors to balance a horse, it’s important to first consider the Five-Element horse personality type, and then take into account the season. Never go to extremes with any flavor because too much of a particular flavor can create the opposite effect and weaken the organ you want to support.
Bitter/Fire: heart and small intestine; yin
Sweet/Earth: spleen/pancreas and stomach; yang
Pungent/Metal: lungs and large intestine; yang
Salty/Water: kidneys and bladder; yin
Sour/Wood: liver and gallbladder; yin
(yin, cooling, moves energy inward; yang, warming, moves energy outward)
Salty flavors also include seaweed, barley and millet.
detoxify the horse’s body. Te salty flavor is associated with winter, since it brings the energy away from the surface and helps keeps the interior of the horse’s body warm during cold weather.
Cautions: It is best to avoid excessive use of salty foods, including electrolytes, for horses who are overweight, lethargic, or have damp conditions such as stocking up. If necessary, these horses should be fed salty seaweeds, such as kelp, because the iodine and trace mineral content support the metabolism.
Salty foods and supplements that might be fed to horses include salt, seaweeds, barley, and millet.
SOUR•WOOD Te sour flavor has a yin, cooling effect, and although yin is usually considered to be moistening, the sour flavor has a drying or astringent action on the tissues. Tink of the way your mouth feels when you suck on a lemon or lime. Interestingly, the sour flavor can help with mental focus.
Te contracting quality of this flavor helps the horse prepare for the cooler months, so fall is the perfect time to add some sour-flavored foods to your horse’s diet.
Cautions: If you horse already shows signs of tightness in the body, such as constipation or tight muscles and ligaments, then use the sour flavor cautiously.
Te most common example of sour foods for horses would be products containing vitamin C. Natural foods, such as rose hips, are the best sources of vitamin C. Hawthorne berry is a nutritional herb with the sour flavor that can be safely given to horses. Vinegar is considered sour and bitter, which makes it a good horse supplement for cleansing and tightening the tissues.
Apples are sour and sweet. Although I have not found a supporting reference, I suspect that aloe vera gel also has the sour flavor, based on its energetic properties of building the yin and acting as an astringent, especially in the digestive tract.
Madalyn Ward, DVM, publishes the monthly newsletter, “Holistic Horsekeeping.”
www.holistichorsekeeping.com,
www.yourhorsebook.com
Holistic Horse™ • October/November 2010 • Vol.16, Issue 69
Ellen Haight
Stacey Small
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