Relationship between food composition and its cold/hot properties: A statistical study

Abstract

Food cold/hot properties are one of the basic principles of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and have been used as a basis to make healthy food choices in oriental countries for thousands of years. It is of great interest to know how the cold/hot properties are related to food nutritional composition. In this study, 179 foods in different categories (cold, plain, and hot) were identified from the literature. Their compositional data were obtained from USDA and Chinese food composition databases. The contents of 32 nutritional components and calorie were used through ANOVA and multivariate analysis to evaluate the most important variables affecting food warming and cooling characteristics, and the interaction effect of different components on food properties. Mathematical equations were derived to correlate the component variables and the probability of the food being cold/hot. The results indicate vitamins (B6, folate, and VA) are among the most important influencing factors. Logit functions were developed to evaluate the hot and cold characteristics of a food based on its compositional data. The obtained information from this study is expected to enhance the understanding of the link between food composition and its cold/hot properties which may provide another method to evaluate the food diet and their health effect.

Keywords

• Food cold/hot properties
• Food composition
• Statistical analysis
• Logit functions