FOOD THERAPY

Food has always been recognized as a powerful healing force in Chinese Medicine.  Sun Simaio, a prominent physician who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) said:  ““Doctors should first understand the cause of disease, then treat it with diet. (Herbal) Medicine should only be used if diet fails.”   Indeed, to this day, a practitioner will almost always use food therapy first to remedy a condition.

Food therapy goes well beyond what we know in the West about nutrition,  which classifies food in terms of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals.  Chinese Medicine is more concerned with food energetics, which in a simple terms means how the food acts upon our body.   Think about how you feel when you eat a jalapeno pepper—it makes your mouth and then body feel hot.  Or, in the summer, when you have a slice of watermelon–it cools the body.  Food in Chinese Medicine is classified by temperature, flavor and movement.

Temperature:  When speaking about the “temperature” or “nature” of a food,  Chinese Medicine is referring to whether a food warms or cools the body.  It does not mean the food itself is hot from the oven or cold from the refrigerator, rather the effect it has on the person once they eat it.  There are five natures of food:  hot, warm, neutral, cool and cold.  If a person has inflammation, such as a rash,  they have heat in their body.  (You can see this in the red breakout and literally feel it on the surface of the skin.)   Chinese Medicine would use a food such as mung beans, which are “cold” in nature, to counteract the heat.   Mung beans are actually an effective cure for eczema.  Patients are rather surprised that few bowls of mung bean soup actually clear up their condition.

Flavor:  The five flavors of foods include pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.  Each of the flavors nourishes specific internal organs:  Sweet foods such as bananas and honey affect the spleen and stomach.  Pungent foods such as onions as garlic nourish the lungs and large intestine.  Sour foods such as lemons and vinegar work on the liver and gall bladder.  Bitter foods such as kale and broccoli nourish the heart and small intestine.  Salty foods such as fish and kelp work on the kidney and bladder.

Movement: The movement of food describes its ability to direct qi within the body.  When there is illness, or as Chinese Medicine terms it, imbalance, qi is not flowing correctly.  Chinese Medicine uses food to help direct qi flow. The four movements of food are upward, downward, inward and outward.  For example, ginger, which has an outward movement (brings flow to the surface) induces perspiration,  which can reduce fever.

A practitioner will consider the qualities of food to create a therapeutic action or actions within the body to correct imbalances.  Food Therapy is safe and remarkably effective.   Eating your medicine is a natural first step in promoting good health.