Food Medicine
“let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates
Food, as it was to the father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, is also the pinnacle of Chinese medicine. And…there is no one-size-fits-all regarding what we eat day in and day out. Or even one right diet for the same person throughout their lives (though the theme is the same).
Food is so personal. And symbolic. I think many of us celebrate our individual sovereignty via our diets. It is your body after all!
So I suggest to my patients that they imagine themselves as the head scientist of their own laboratories. There are no hard-fast rules that apply to everyone. Experiment with the guidelines I offer.
You are what you eat. True, but even truer is the fact that you are what you can assimilate from what you eat. One might be preparing and eating the most wholesome of foods, but if one’s digestion is out of whack, then not much nutrition is actually metabolized.
And this feeds into another substantial bias of Chinese medicine. Eat cooked food. Especially wet foods, like soups and stews.
The raw food thinking is that some of the nutritional value of food is lost through cooking. But, again, how much can the average person assimilate of that uncooked nutrition? Much of it, other than fruit sugars, isn’t readily accessible in uncooked food, especially as we age. So not only is your body not able to access much of the nutrition of uncooked food, but it’s wasting energy trying to do so.
The same caution goes for cooked food that is eaten cold, straight out of the fridge. And ice water, or ice in general. In both cases, whether it be raw (cold energetically) or cold cooked food, the body has to “warm” it up, which means using up more hydrochloric acid (chemical heat) as well as literal, physical heat.
Think of your digestive capacity as an oven that needs to maintain an optimal temperature to finish cooking (the cooked food) that you’ve eaten. Digestion, like cooking, is a form of alchemy. It’s still amazing to me that a molecule of an apple can become a molecule of me.
Food can also be too hot. Beyond burning your mouth, energetically hot foods, even if eaten cold, can create too much heat, leading to obvious symptoms like reflux (GERD), nausea, bloating, inflammation, etc. Please read the following knowing that it’s not a death sentence to your joie de vivre. If you are suffering from a severe autoimmune flare, however, you will notice substantial relief if you avoid the following for the time being.
Hot (energetically) Foods to be Considered, and Completely Avoided in Some Cases:
Onions (can replace with leeks, scallions, chives, or shallots)
Garlic (due to potency, included in Chinese herbal medicine)
Hot spices
Chocolate
Coffee
Alcohol
Whaaaaaaaat!!!! Yep.
I don’t like to put out a bunch of “though 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 occasionally, in very sparse quantities. Herbal medicine was originally infused into wine and administered in tiny little cupfuls.
So, why would you try any of these dietary tweaks if you’re feeling good? You might want to feel better. And as you age, the name of the game becomes preservation, as in continuing to live vitally as your capacity to regenerate wanes. Not only will you live longer, but your longer life will be more vital along the way.
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 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, a knowing that you’ll feel better once you get through the force of habit. Okay. Enough for now.
If you’re feeling a more gung-ho, try the following as well:
Reduce/eliminate, sugar intake in all forms (including alcohol; honey and maple syrup are ok in limited amounts).
Reduce/eliminate intake of white flour products as well, including bread; very damp producing, like sugar.
Reduce/eliminate on dairy given it leads to more dampness = mucus production; provides fertile terrain for viruses/bacteria/fungi. Butter and ghee are exceptions…perfectly healthy. The fattier the yogurt, the better!
Soups ARE really good food! The best way to hydrate deeply, given the electrolytes in the soup help to hold water in the body.
Ice promotes phlegm production by inhibiting digestion.
A strong immune system relies on plenty of rest. Aim for an extra hour per night. And/or a long nap during the day. At least 7-8 hours/night for an adult.
Lastly, I highly recommend Andrew Sterman’s Chinese dietary medicine books, Welcoming Food Book 1 & Welcoming Food Book 2. Andrew is a fellow student of Jeffrey Yuen’s, so these books are very much in the spirit and alignment of the medicine I practice. Book 1 is a lay person’s primer on theory and guidelines, and Book 2 is all about recipes!