Traditional Chinese Medicine Nutrition

The last branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is nutrition. In this column, we’ve previously described the other branches: acupuncture, herbs, exercise, and massage. Nutrition may be considered the most important of these. As we all know, food is the source of continued life for our bodies.

Nutrition is such an overwhelming topic in recent times. We each read or 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 15 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 fig within a steamed bun in China. I can’t remember seeing a candy bar while traveling throughout the country for a year. Sweetness came from fruit mostly, not a 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 happen to be living in a place and time where there is not much of the original nature of much of the food that we are putting in our bodies. We’ve lost perspective at how crazy this would seem to our great grandparents or to those living in China.

Preventive Medicine = Good Food

The goal, from a TCM view, is to avoid illness and be 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. Whole-wheat grains that are well cooked and easily digested are advised. It is said that you should stop eating when you are 70 percent full; this takes some practice and awareness. When you are 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. You may understand this to mean keeping the body temperature at 98.6 or the blood pressure at 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. A woman with menopausal hot flashes may have a hot condition, while a man with hypothyroidism may have a cold condition. According to the diagnosis, certain foods may be recommended that will best keep the body balanced.

Hot conditions use cooling foods like:         Cold conditions use cooling 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. Please feel free to contact me to learn more about this topic and what foods may be best for you.