Discover the Thai approach to food and wellness-and use nature's elements to eat for optimum health, beauty, and spiritual well-being The traditional Thai philosophy of diet and health involves eating meals planned around your "home element"-earth, water, wind, or fire-as well as the weather, time of day, and other factors. In this book, award-winning author Su-Mei Yu explains this age-old philosophy and gives you information and recipes to help you prepare meals that will promote better physical, spiritual, and emotional health. She describes the personal characteristics related to the each of the four home elements, as well as the tastes, flavors, aromas, and natural ingredients best suited to them. She shows you how to identify your home element and eat foods that accommodate it through different times of the year and different times of the day. Beauty treatments geared to your home element will help you to relax, rejuvenate, and feel renewed. This beautifully designed book Includes an interactive wheel that helps you calculate your elemental sign Explains how to plan meals appropriate to your home element Offers tempting recipes for every home element, season, and time of day Shares dishes with a delicious variety of ingredients and flavors, from Cold Soba Noodles to Stir-Fried Chicken or Port with Watermelon Rind Contains beauty, mind, and spirit sections with recipes for face masks, hair treatments, and massage oils based on each home element Features more than 120 full-color photographs of finished dishes and life in Thailand Written by the IACP Award-winning author of "Cracking the Coconut" and "Asian Grilling," " "the simple, inspiring recipes and straightforward, easy-to-follow advice found in "The Elements of Life" will inspire you to live according to the elements and follow a traditional path to health, beauty, longevity, and inner peace.