You Sorta Are What You Eat

The father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, supposedly said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”  Food as medicine makes sense; what else do we put into our bodies (including water) more than anything else?

Food is at the pinnacle of Chinese medical disciplines.  The main reason that herbal medicine exists as a practice apart from food is because most herbal formulas aren’t palatable.  We’re supposed to like the taste of food.  Beyond their degrees of bitterness, herbal formulae are also very focused and usually more potent in addressing acute conditions.

But day after day, year after year, our health is fundamentally impacted by what we eat.  Hence the saying, “you are what you eat.” 

This, however, assumes that everyone’s digestive system is working optimally.  The truth of the matter is that we are what we can assimilate.  One might be buying, preparing and eating the most wholesome of foods, but when one’s digestion is out of whack, then not much nutrition is actually metabolized.

Food is so personal; I suggest to my patients that they imagine themselves to be the head scientist of their own laboratories.  There are no hard-fast rules, dietary-wise, that apply to everyone.  Michael Pollan shared in one of his books (In Defense of Food, I think) that some otherwise “unhealthy” foods are more readily digested if they’re eaten in a ritual, celebratory context.  This implies that our metabolism is sensitive to our moods, to our emotional lives.  That is a very Chinese medicine understanding.

So, with that said, there are five “hot” foods in the Western diet that are universally taxing over the long haul.  This list will set off a rebellion in many, so I invite you (so new-agey, but I sure ain’t gonna tell you what to do :), if interested, to try removing a few of them for a few weeks and see if you feel a difference in your digestion and overall well-being; sleep, digestion, breathing, overall ease.  These foods would be ones that I would recommend avoiding to anyone who suffers with chronic inflammation.

If you are hobbling around on a swollen knee that came out of “nowhere”, have repeatedly tried steroids to no avail, and are at the point where you’re willing to try anything, then this list is especially for you.

Ok, enough caveats.

1.    Onions

2.    Garlic

3.    Hot spices

4.    Chocolate

5.    Coffee

6.    Alcohol

Whaaaaaaaat!!!!  Yep. 

I don’t like to put out a bunch of “thou shalt nots” without throwing in some yesses.  You can replace onions with leeks, scallions and chives.  Try cutting down to half the coffee you normally drink; and eventually try replacing with black tea.  Keep raisins around and nibble on a few when you’re craving chocolate or something sweet.  Use garlic less.  If you feel a cold coming on or have any kind of infection, by all means use garlic.  It’s a part of Chinese herbal medicine given its potency.  Alcohol and hot spices too have their place as medicines, but only in very sparse, occasional quantities.  Herbal medicine was originally infused into wine and administered in tiny little cup fulls.

So, why would you try any of these dietary tweaks if you’re feeling relatively good?  You might want to feel better.  And as you age, the name of the game becomes preservation, as in living a full happy life and working at maintaining a vitality that supports this aim.  Not only will you live longer, but your longer life will be more vital along the way.  Our ability to feel good in spite of our lifestyle choices wanes as we age.  Maybe you used to be able to eat a bunch of fried food, or a pint of ice cream, or have a few drinks and feel fine the next day.  Now any of these will have lingering effects into the next day or so.  I think this is obvious to folks who have had a big night out in their thirties and even more apparent as the decades catch up with us.

Think of your blood as money in the bank.  Those who suffer from anemia know full well how much will power it can take to move through an ordinary day.  The more you protect your bank of blood, the better you’ll feel and the better you’ll sleep.  You’ll feel less anxious.  And more alert and capable.

Hot foods, particularly those on the above list, will use your blood up faster than need be.  Heat evaporates water, right?  Same idea.  The heat from these foods unnecessarily “boils” your blood.  They can also make you feel hotter, more irritable, and more prone to headaches; head and facial symptoms are usually due to heat that’s rising in the body.  Pretty logical stuff.

Food choices are a luxury, at least the myriad of choices are that we have in our modern world.  Food is an expression of one’s autonomy.  It’s my body!  That’s why there are no rules here.  So, please take this all with a grain of salt.  Experiment if you’re so inclined.

I’ll write more, soon, about the yesses.  For starters, experiment with more soups and stews, especially during the colder months.  Mung beans (in soups) and buckwheat (kasha too) help to counteract the taxing, damp nature of the high carb American diet.

And please don’t get rigid about this.  Discipline is great, but if you feel like you’re miserable after a few weeks of trying to eliminate too much all at once, then you know you’re not helping yourself.  Anything you do that is “healthy” needs to be done from a place of inner-happiness, from a place of knowing that you’ll feel better once you get through the force of habit.  Okay.  Enough for now.