1. Knowledge
Flavor and emotions for each element:
Wood: Sour | Kindness – Anger
Fire: Bitter | Joy & Love – Hate
Earth: Sweet | Trust & Openness – Worry
Metal: Spicy | Courage – Sorrow
Water: Salty | Calm – Fear
2. Thinking
Predicting the impact of too much salty food:
Salty food belongs to the Water element.
According to the dashed arrow, Water restrains Fire.
Eating too much salty food will over-restrain the Fire element, which can harm the Heart and reduce feelings of Joy & Love.
3. Communication and Application
Why Joey's anger and sour cravings are related:
Both anger and sour cravings belong to the Wood element (associated with the Liver).
Joey's frequent anger shows his Wood element is out of balance, which triggers his body to crave sour food.
What Joey should do according to TCM:
Use the restraining cycle: Metal restrains Wood (dashed arrow).
To calm his Wood energy (anger), Joey needs to boost his Metal element.
He should eat moderately spicy food (the flavor of Metal) and do deep breathing exercises to strengthen his Lungs.