Rice varieties can be divided into white, glutinous, purple, and black. Among them, black rice has the most nutritional and medicinal value. In ancient China, black rice was reputed to cure disease, contribute to longevity, and was used as a tribute to the Emperor—so powerful and rare it was.
According to the Chinese medical classic “Compendium of Materia Medica,” black rice can “nourish yin and tonify the kidneys, keep the body fit, warm the stomach, improve eyesight, and promote blood circulation.” Studies have also confirmed that black rice contains anthocyanins (a group of deep red, purple and blue pigments found in plants), which can effectively improve diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease) and vision, as well as prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer.
5 Colored Foods Nourish 5 Internal Organs
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory is based on the five elements or five phases theory—that all things in the universe are composed of five basic qualities or substances: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The development and changes of various things and phenomena in nature are the results of the continuous movement and interaction among these five substances. For instance, earth nourishes wood, and wood nourishes fire, like how soil creates food that our body “burns” as it extracts calories from that food.
Ellen Wan has worked for the Japanese edition of The Epoch Times since 2007.
