Not JMG, of course, but if you haven't yet heard of it or checked it out, I'd strongly recommend The Humoral Herbal by Stephen Taylor, which posits that humoral medicine is the West's version of energetic medicine. It includes a fairly extensive, but by no means exhaustive (especially if you live in the US and not England) list of herbs and their humoral associations/effects. It also gives advice on what characteristics certain foods have, though again, I wish this were more extensive, and also I wish it were easier to reference.
Your 2. was one of my early points of resistance with the information in the book, which I haven't read all the way through, much less put much of into practice, but which I have found interesting and valuable where I have gotten into it. Taylor recommends eating foods that balance your predominant humor - so, if you're a choleric like me, lots of cool and wet foods. I unenthusiastically put this into practice for a while, but wasn't very happy, as all of my favorite foods and drinks are hot and/or dry. So, I also asked JMG about it, and he pointed out that while the goal is "balance," your "center" will be closer to your main humor. For me, that would mean that I likely want/need to eat more hot/dry foods than a melancholic, but should keep an eye on my tendency to over-indulge in such things. Since I adopted that approach, I've been both happier and, perhaps, healthier.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-06-30 05:39 pm (UTC)Your 2. was one of my early points of resistance with the information in the book, which I haven't read all the way through, much less put much of into practice, but which I have found interesting and valuable where I have gotten into it. Taylor recommends eating foods that balance your predominant humor - so, if you're a choleric like me, lots of cool and wet foods. I unenthusiastically put this into practice for a while, but wasn't very happy, as all of my favorite foods and drinks are hot and/or dry. So, I also asked JMG about it, and he pointed out that while the goal is "balance," your "center" will be closer to your main humor. For me, that would mean that I likely want/need to eat more hot/dry foods than a melancholic, but should keep an eye on my tendency to over-indulge in such things. Since I adopted that approach, I've been both happier and, perhaps, healthier.
Your mileage may, of course, vary.
Cheers,
Jeff