Chinese Medicine Dietary Therapy
Acupuncture, therapeutic bodywork and herbal medicine are excellent tools to promote wellness and address acute or chronic conditions, but what you do the majority of the hours you’re not receiving treatment tend to have a much greater impact on your overall health!
Therefore, individualized dietary and lifestyle recommendations are often an essential part of our treatment plans. Whether it is to establish a healthy baseline or to address specific constitutional patterns, incorporating some simple TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) dietary recommendations can be critical finding overall health and balance.
In Chinese Medicine, food is classified according to its energetics versus its biologic components. Foods can be warm/hot or cool/cold and flavored sour, sweet, bitter, pungent and salty. Additionally, some are considered useful for building qi and blood, whereas others are used for draining dampness or moving qi. Thus, food choice can either help or hinder us depending on our particular constitution. Rather than focusing on a generalized “healthy diet” we prioritize eating health for your particular body type.
In this post, we’ll outline the basic principles of a healthy diet from a TCM perspective. In subsequent posts, we’ll provide detailed recommendations for some of the most common constitutional patterns.
TCM Diet Guidelines
As a general rule, if you stick to whole, fresh foods that are free from preservatives and over-processing, you’ll be set up for success! Chinese Medicine is all about balance, finding moderation in everything is key.
Eating according to the seasons is another great way to align your body with the external influences. We tend to do well with lighter fruits and vegetables during the warmer months and are comforted by heartier root vegetables and grains in the colder times of the year.
Eat mindfully in a relaxed atmosphere
Listen to your body! Multi-tasking has become an essential way of life for may of us, but how can we expect our bodies to fully integrate the nutrition we are ingesting if we eat quickly and barely taste our food? Paying attention to the sensations in our bodies as we eat allows us to listen to how we feel ingesting each food and moderate our intake by responding to fullness and hunger signals. In Chinese Medicine, the Spleen & Stomach are the organ systems associated with digestion and its associated emotion is worry/pensiveness/overthinking. Therefore, eating while stressed, working, or focusing on the upcoming task is especially damaging to our digestive function. Because of this, we also recommend avoiding distractions like watching TV, scrolling social media, or having a heated discussion.
Adhere to a regular eating schedule
According to the TCM energetic clock, Stomach Qi is at its peak between 7-9am and the Spleen Qi from 9-11am, making this the ideal time to initiate the day’s digestive processes. Eating a breakfast that balances your blood sugar is critical to stable energy levels throughout the day. This means avoiding sugary, carb-heavy foods and focusing on adequate protein, fat and fiber intake.
The Spleen and Stomach prefer a regular schedule of eating moderate amounts. This allows adequate time to process foods while also keeping the energetic movement of the gastrointestinal tract from stagnating.
It’s important to avoid eating large meals late at night, right before bed, as our Spleen & Stomach Qi is lowest in the evening. It is difficult for our bodies to process large amounts of food and fluids while also trying to complete all the essential processes of repair during sleep.
Avoid raw, cold foods and iced beverages
In Chinese Medicine, the digestive system is described as a fire that “cooks” or “steams” the food and fluids we eat to allow us to process them. Overly cold foods dampen the fire and make it more difficult for our system to “warm” the substances we ingest in order to digest them.
If you choose to go for that smoothie or crunchy salad, eat alongside a cup of tea or broth, or warm it up by adding ginger, garlic, cinnamon.
Limit dairy, sugars, refined carbohydrates and oily foods
These foods are categorized as damp-producing and can slow metabolism and make detoxification systems sluggish.
Move your body regularly
The root of many diseases in TCM is stagnation, aka lack of movement and flow of qi. Daily exercise can help boost your metabolism and improve your digestive function. We recommend a relaxing walk after dinner to reflect on your day, center yourself in nature, and connect with loved ones.
