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Traditional Chinese Medicine and Nutrition

Ever wonder why watermelon tastes so good on a hot summer’s day? Or on a cold winter’s day a nice hot cup of ginger tea will do just the trick to warm you inside?

Watermelon has a cooling nature therefore it immediately helps regulate the warmth you feel from the summer air. Ginger has a warm property and dispels cold inside the body.

Food is such a basic component of life yet it’s not always viewed that way. Of course we know that we need to eat to live but have you ever thought about what foods you can eat to live better?

Consider using food as the essence/nutrition we need to fulfill our existence.

Can we stay healthy now and into the future if we continue eating what we currently eat?

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) looks at food as it does everything else: restoring balance.

Foods are a source to heal what is not balanced. You don’t have to understand each component of every food; you just have to listen to your body to understand whether or not it settles well.

All foods have properties. Foods can be hot, warm, cold, cool, spicy, sour, sweet, bitter and neutral.

Think about a good spicy dish that makes you so warm inside you start sweating on the outside. Now think about what you do after you take a bite. You reach for something cool to balance out the flavours. We use TCM principles every day but we don’t think about how it affects our health.

TCM will highlight the underlying condition and suggest foods to address it. For instance if a person has a hot and damp condition, foods must be eaten to clear heat and dispel dampness.

All of these balances can only be accomplished through the movement of the energy that is within, your qi.

“As long as an individual’s qi remains strong and flows freely and the body’s organs work in harmony, disease or illness cannot enter-not even cancer!” (p.xxi A natural Guide to Weight Loss that Lasts, NanLu).

Balance and prevention of disease and illness can be achieved by combining healing foods into everyday life with regular exercise for both mind and spirit. Consult a TCM Practitioner to better understand your internal system and how you can eat to heal it.

Think about food in a new light. It is the essence that makes you who you are.

And who you can be.