Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is considered to have five branches: acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage, exercise, and nutrition. Nutrition may be thought of as the most important of these, as we know that food is the source of continued life for our bodies. Nutrition is such an overwhelming topic. We each read and are told various, often contradictory, information about which foods are good for us and which foods are bad. I won’t attempt to tell you whether eggs or butter or meat or wine will help or hurt you here, but I will share the basic Chinese medical view of nutrition to give you a slightly different perspective on this topic.
Less Sweet, More Fresh
I remember clearly, when living in China over twenty years ago, how the flavor of “sweet” meant something very different than how we think of it in our culture. A sweet dessert may have been dried figs within a steamed bun. I can’t remember seeing a candy bar while traveling throughout China for the year I was there. The sweet flavor came mostly from fruit, not from processed sugar. I remember how difficult it was to find a cup of coffee, while tea was served with every meal. I also remember how everything was fresh; not many foods were packaged. The chicken or fish was alive a few minutes before I was eating it. The noodles were made right before boiling them. The fruits and vegetables eaten only grew during that time of year, from not far away to avoid spoiling. The difference is that we’re living in a place and time where, for a lot of the food we’re eating, there may be significantly less left of its original nature. We’ve lost perspective at how strange this would seem to our great grandparents or to those living in China.
Preventive Medicine = Good Nutrition and Digestion
The goal, from a TCM view, is to avoid illness by being balanced and stronger than any threat to our bodies. Preventive care seeks to maintain the body’s balance. Our bodies have evolved to be sustained by what grows and lives around us. So to maintain balance within our environment and avoid disease, the choice of what we are putting in us is of utmost importance. Of course time is a threat, as our bodies begin to wear out at some point. We can enjoy a gradual aging process by giving our bodies food that has aliveness to it, freshness.
Generally speaking, a nutritional TCM diet consists of warm, cooked foods that one can easily digest. This would include cooked vegetables, soups, noodles, rice, stews and small portions of meat and fish. Whole-wheat grains that are well cooked and easily digested are advised. It is said that you should stop eating when you’re 70 percent full; this takes some practice and awareness. When you’re eating, your attention should only be on eating, to allow for the ideal digestive process and absorption of the nutrition in the food.
Yin and Yang of Food
According to Chinese Medicine, each food has a specific nature to it, ranging from cold to hot. Food may also be cool, neutral, or warm. This is not its temperature to the touch, but rather how it influences the body when ingested. Yin is related to the cooling aspect while yang is related to warming. As was mentioned, to maintain our best health, TCM is seeking a state of balance of Yin and Yang. You may understand this to mean keeping the body temperature around 98 degrees or the blood pressure under 120/80 or the appropriate levels of hormones in order to function normally. It is the practitioner’s job to determine where imbalance is, based on any symptoms and specific signs in the body, such as the pulse and the tongue. A woman with menopausal hot flashes may have a hot condition, while a man with hypothyroidism may have a cold condition. According to the Chinese medical diagnosis, certain foods based on their nature may be recommended that will best keep the body more balanced.
Hot conditions use cooling foods like: Cold conditions use warming foods like:
Apple Basil
Asparagus Black Pepper
Banana Cherry
Barley Chicken
Cabbage Garlic
Clam Ginger
Lemon Lamb
Potato Onion
Tofu Squash
Watermelon Trout
Maintaining Wellness
Historically, physicians in China were compensated when keeping the family well rather than when resolving an illness. Hence, the choice of daily foods for each person was closely looked at. By careful observation over thousands of years, the nature of foods and how they affect individuals has been understood. Remember, it’s important to look at the individual rather than make an assumption for all bodies when making food choices.