Traditional Chinese Medicine and Diet

In TCM, every food has a property, taste, and action. I’m not going to spend too much time on the latter aspect; just know that each food can produce a specific effect, for instance, celery can help lower blood pressure  and particularly influences certain parts of the body.

The property of a food is its intrinsic temperature, which is based on how it affects the body. For example, watermelon is considered cold, even if physically warm, because it produces a cooling effect on the body.

Property can change a bit based on how a food is prepared. For instance, many green vegetables are on the cooler side, but lightly steaming will make them warmer and easier to digest. Ever wonder, why sushi is served with wasabi and ginger, because raw fish is very cold and ginger and wasabi both are warm to balance it.

Food as medicine

I’ve seen hundreds of my patients cured of chronic disease, lose weight effortlessly, and feel their energy soar when they start eating certain fruits and vegetables that get digestion properly. Your food has power of self healing.

When you eat right, you stop feeling bloated and congested, and best of all, you maximize your self-healing potential.

There have been thousands of studies showing that a diet heavy in fruits and vegetables protects against heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic conditions. Pills are not the answer.

Eat Clean

Something amazing happens when you eat healing foods and give your body a break from junk foods, bad fats, refined flour, and sugar which are the leading causes of chronic diseases.

            I was raised on holistic nutrition, which is more or less different ways to “eat clean”. When I give patients general advice from this approach, it involves avoiding processed foods with ingredients only scientists can pronounce and eating balanced meals.

 I give Chinese diet therapy recommendations based on a patient’s symptoms, tongue, and pulse, but there are a few general guidelines that are good for everyone. In TCM the digestive system likes to be warm, so avoid eating cold foods on a regular basis e.g. instead of making salads, cook vegetables and avoid reheating leftovers. Try not to eat in a rush or work while eating, and really chew and savor each bite of food.

Another good rule of thumb is to have a bit of protein, a good carb like brown rice or quinoa and a fruit or vegetable at every meal; funnily enough this actually comes from every branch of nutrition I’ve studied! Remember you are what you eat, so try to make wholesome, healthy, energizing, fulfilling food choices as much as you can.

TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Tastes       

The taste of a food refers to its intrinsic taste, which doesn’t always correspond to what we subjectively taste. In TCM the five tastes are sour, bitter, salty, pungent, and sweet. Each of these produces certain effects in the body and have a certain direction. Have you ever eaten something spicy (pungent) and started sweating? Have you ever drunk too much coffee (bitter) and had to run to the bathroom for a bowel movement? These are the principles of taste at work!