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Five energy food groups: whole grains, azuki beans, wakame, squash and sesame

The method

Recipes with a why.

Dr. Jorge Pérez-Calvo's method isn't a diet. It's a framework — four principles he learnt from macrobiotic, Chinese and Ayurvedic traditions, applied to the Western patient over four decades of practice. Each recipe in the catalogue carries the reasoning.

  1. Yin / Yang energy

    01 · Cooling vs warming

    Yin / Yang energy

    Some foods cool you down (yin), others warm you up (yang). The balance depends on your state, the season and what your body asks for. The Dr.'s method is built on this polarity — never on extremes.

  2. Contractive / Expansive

    02 · How food moves energy

    Contractive / Expansive

    Salt, miso and root vegetables concentrate energy inward. Fruit, sugar and raw greens disperse it outward. Each meal balances the two — that's why every recipe has its 'why'.

  3. The five tastes

    03 · Sweet · sour · bitter · pungent · salty

    The five tastes

    In the energy-nutrition tradition each taste is associated with a different organ: sour with the liver, salty with the kidneys, sweet with the spleen and pancreas, bitter with the heart, pungent with the lungs. A balanced day visits all five.

  4. Seasonal alignment

    04 · Eat with the calendar

    Seasonal alignment

    In this tradition buckwheat is a winter food, bitter greens belong to autumn and seaweed to summer — each season has its own register of warming or cooling dishes. The Dr.'s 'Bitácora' page tracks the theme of every month.

How it shows up

From principle to plate.

The four principles aren't theory you read once and forget. They appear in three concrete places when you use the platform:

  • On every recipe card

    The energy fingerprint: 5 dots on the yin/yang scale + a coloured dot for the dominant taste. You learn the framework by osmosis, no glossary needed.

    Browse catalogue
  • In the 14 protocols

    Each protocol groups 6-10 recipes around a theme. The energy-and-rebuilding theme leans yang and warming, the liver theme leans sour, the pregnancy theme favours mineral-rich, building foods.

    See protocols
  • In the Dr.'s monthly journal

    12 entries, one per month. Each one picks the seasonal theme — January warms the kidneys, May celebrates greens, December returns to deep miso.

    Read the journal

Try the method

119 recipes. One framework. Four decades of practice.