“Tard-chao-ruan” or the dominant element of the body
According to Traditional Thai Medicine , the human body is composed of four elements (or ‘tard’ in the Thai language), i.e., earth, water, wind and fire. The balance of the four elements leads to a person’s good health. In contrast, if an imbalance of these elements occurs, e.g. under-function, over-function and malfunction in any of the four elements, a person will fall ill. In addition to such imbalance of the 4 internal elements, illness may result if the four internal elements do not correspond with the external element, i.e. environment. An individual has one dominant element called “Tard-chao-ruan”, which is determined by month in which you were born or your personal characteristics.
At Small House Thai cooking school Chiang Mai, we offer Thai herbal drink by your individual elements of Tard-Chao-Ruan which are pandan leaf, lemongrass, lime-blue flower and beal in Thai and Northern Thai cooking class. See all cooking courses
Fire (People born in Jan- Feb - Mar)
These people usually have thin bodies, fairly dark skin with freckles, wrinkle skin, soft hair & facial hair, gray hair at young age, loose muscles and joints, bad breath and body odor. and moderate sexual desire. They tend to be bald, impatient, short-tempered and have good metabolisms leading to their being frequent eater of large portions. Their appropriate diets include cool, bitter flavored or bland food such as water melon, cucumber (cool); Siamese cassia, gourd (bitter), radish, eggplant, cabbage (tasteless), etc.
Drink : pandan leaf, watermelon, chrysanthemum tea
Wind (People born in Apr - May- June)
These people usually have tall and thin bodies, dry skin, sleeping problem, low voice, unclear speech and low sexual desire. Their joints crackle when they make any movement. They are envious, timid, talkative and always intolerate to cold. Their diet should include spicy flavored food such as ginger, galangal, lemongrass, pepper, chili pepper, basil, holy basil, fennel, garlic, etc.
Drink : lemongrass, ginger, galangal
Water (People born in Jul - Aug - Sep)
These people usually have nice bodies, healthy skin, beautiful eyes, thick hair, clear voice, steady stride walk and good sexual desire. They are slow eater, slow worker as well as tolerant to heat, cold and hunger.Their ideal diet include sour and bitter flavored food, such as orange tomato, pineapple, kaffir lime, lime, young tamarind leaf (sour);Chinese bitter cucumber-chinese, bitter gourd (bitter), etc.
Drink : lime, tamarind, orange, roselle, tiger herb
Earth (People born in Oct - Nov - Dec)
These people usually have tall and large bodies, fairly dark complexion, thick hair, loud voice, strong bones and joints and healthy organs.Their appropriate diets include astringent, sweet or salty flavored food and starchy vegetables such as guava (astringent); rambutan, mangosteen, banana (sweet); salt (salty); taro root, yam, potato (starchy vegetables), etc.
Drink : beal, sugar cane, coconut, soymilk, orange
Ref: Faculty of Traditional Thai Medicine, Prince of Songkla University
Ref: Institute of Thai Traditional Medicine, Ministry of Public Health (Thailand)
