In Chinese Herbal Medicine, many foods are included in the medicinal literature because of their health benefits. After thousands of years of observation and recorded experience, walnuts have been shown to have very specific therapeutic effects in the human body.
Chinese herbal medicine categorizes herbs based on their taste attribute. An herb can have a taste attribute of acrid, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, bland or astringent. Walnuts fall into the sweet category. Sweet herbs often have tonifying and harmonizing properties.
Chinese herbal medicine also categorizes herbs based on their thermal property. Thermal property describes the temperature of herbs. Herbs can be categorized as cold, cool, neutral, warm and hot. Walnuts fall into the warm category. Many Chinese classic texts state that “Cold diseases must be warmed, and hot diseases must be cooled.” Therefore, appropriate herbs (and foods) are chosen to treat disorders based on their thermal category. Cold herbs would be chosen to treat disorders characterized by heat, such as sore throat and fever. Warm, or hot herbs would be chosen to treat cold conditions such as cold extremities.
Based on their therapeutic effects, herbs are said to enter one or more of the energetic meridians of the body. Walnuts are said to enter the Kidney, Lung and Large Intestine.