It's still pretty warm outside, but it seems like pumpkin-spice latte season is already upon us!
Did you know that many of these spices are actually herbs we use in our materia medica?
Pumpkin Spice in Chinese Medicine
You may not know this, but Pumpkin Spice doesn't actually contain any pumpkin. This is just the name for a mixture of spices that are commonly used when making pumpkin pie or apple pie.
And it turns out that many of the ingredients in this spice blend are also found in our Chinese materia medica:
Cinnamon - Rou Gui Cinnamon bark (Rou Gui Pi) comes from the category Herbs that Warm the Interior. It warms the Kidney and Spleen, and is a common ingredient in Kidney Yang tonics.
Dried Ginger - Gan Jiang Ginger is also from the Warm the Interior Category and is especially useful for warming the Spleen. It also warms the Lung and transforms phlegm.
Nutmeg - Rou Dou Kou Nutmeg is from the category Herbs that Stabilize and Bind. It binds up the intestines to stop diarrhea, but it also has an action of warming the middle.
Clove - Ding Xiang Clove is also from the Warm the Interior Category. It warms the middle, and helps with rebellious Stomach qi due to cold.
🎃 Eating with the Seasons
So you can see that many of these ingredients warm the interior, so it makes sense that we would eat them as the weather starts to get colder.
You could even add these to other foods as well. For example, you could make some oatmeal with walnut and add in some pumpkin pie spice. The walnuts will help tonify Kidney yang, and the spices will warm the interior.
You could also just eat pumpkin pie! Pumpkin is yellow in color, so it belongs to the Earth phase. Earth is associated with late-summer, so by eating pumpkin pie, you're eating in alignment with the seasons!
