December 21, 2004
Sardi-Garmi
Hedieh Wojgani asks: I
was just wondering ... you know in Farsi when we say this food
is "garmi" (warm),
that one is "sardi" (cold)? What exactly does that refer
to? How can one decide what is "garmi" and "sardi"?
I guess I wonder how one would explain this concept to a non-Iranian.
The basis of this classification is the humor system
in medieval medicine. Foods are considered to be a mixture of 4
humors in the body
1) Blood
2) Yellow Bile
3) Phlegm
4) Black Bile
-- Blood is considered (hot and moist)
-- Yellow Bile (hot and dry)
-- Black Bile (cold and dry)
-- Phlegm (cold and moist).
Foods are according to their constituents
can be either dry, hot, moist or cold or a combination of the
above. If you are ill according
to medieval medicine you have an imbalance of humors therefore
you have to partake of foods that will correct your imbalance.
For
example a fever is considered to be due to too much Yellow Bile
(dry and hot humors are predominating) therefore you must
have something (Moist and Cold) to counteract it (The essence
of Shah-tareh is considered cold so you have that into a syrup
with
water to make a cold and moist concoction to counter-act the
Yellow bile). There is no easy way to explain what foods are related to what
humor unless one is willing to consult medieval texts. Every
food has its own humor, but some examples are
-- Ginger (that
is warm)
-- Sugar (Ghand) is warm and moist
-- Beef (is cold and dry)
Aand go to any essence store in Shiraz and they would give you
every essence with the relevant humor! Shirazi's are obsessed
in this
regard!
Mazdak Heidary-Khajehpour. Sad Afarin!
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