Physical & Food Therapy

-“To fully cure disease, eat grains, meat, fruit and vegetables” 

Written more than 2000 years ago, Plain Questions: On Laws and Times of Organs had already pointed out that grains to nourish, fruit to assist, livestock to benefit, vegetables to supplement, take them in proper proportion to supply energy. The key point is to keep a balanced diet.

Besides, it has suggested that when one illness is already under control, it could be removed gradually by eating grains, meat, fruit and vegetables.

There is no more need to take too much medicine, which might cause extreme side effects to our health.

The claimed “grains to nourish” refers to using millet, sorghum, beans, wheat, rice
and other cereals and beans as staple food for maintaining ones life.

“Fruit to assist” means that Li, apricot, chestnut, peach and other fruits and nuts are essential food aid to balanced diet.

“Livestock to benefit” emphasizes that cattle, dogs, sheep, pigs, chicken and other livestock are beneficial to human
body along with making up the deficiency of nutrition that grains can’t provide. They serve as the main complementary food in the balanced diet recipe.

“Vegetables to supplement” indicates that vegetables like kwai, leek, allium, scallion, shallot etc. can supplement various essential nutrients.

In other words, grains, meat, vegetables and fruit should be used in proper proportions so as to maintain the normal function of human body. Moreover, following a diet is very necessary and it is not advisable to either starve or overeat.

Starvation will cause insufficiency of vital energy and blood and decline of immunity, resulting in diseases, such as malnutrition, anemia.

According to Plain Questions: On Arthralgia, intestines and stomach would be impaired by overeating, along with symptoms like abdominal fullness and distention, anorexia, excessive gastric acid and vomiting and diarrhea.

Therefore, Traditional Chinese Medicine emphasizes that it is necessary for people to keep a regular diet habit and arrange balanced diet according to ones age, gender and constitution. This viewpoint is exactly consistent with the balanced diet proposed by experts of modern nutriology.

Traditional Medicine holds that food has various properties, including warm, hot, cold, cool. Among
them, warm and hot share the same property, while cold and cool are of the same nature.

Warm and hot food can warm the spleen and stomach for dispelling coldness, invigorate the spleen and reinforce
the stomach, and reinforce the kidney-yang, which are suitable for those who are in deficiency of Yang with hyperactivity of Yin and cold constitution, with symptoms appearing like cold limbs and waist, chills, thin sloppy stool and frequent nocturia.

Warm food mainly includes glutinous rice, oats, red dates, arillus longan, pine nut, garlic, chives, onion, coffee, black tea and chicken, etc.

Hot food basically includes pepper, cinnamon, mutton, venison, etc. Both cold and cool food possess positive effects, for instance, clearing heat and purging fire, detoxifying and laxative, expelling damp and dryness, which are
beneficial to those in deficiency of Yin and with hyperactivity of Yang and hot constitution, with symptoms like repeated sore mouth and tongue, dry mouth and tongue, dysphoria with feverish sensation in chest, palms and soles, and dry stool, etc.

Cool food mainly involves millet, mung bean, pear, mango, loquat, lily, tomato, eggplant, tofu, lotus root, wax gourd, chrysanthemum, milk, and rabbit, etc.

Cold food includes watermelon, bitter gourd, kelp, nori, water spinach, honeysuckle and aloe, etc. In addition, there is some mild food, neither cold nor hot and good to eat all year round, for instance, rice, corn, sesame, soybean, cowpea, pea, apple, pineapple, grape, peanut, radish, Chinese yam, mushroom, pork, lycium barbarum, etc.

Food does not only possess the above four properties, that is, warm, hot, cold and cool, but also carry
with five flavors, viz, spicy, sweet, sour, bitter, salty.

According to Plain Questions: On Five Flavors, talking about distributions of five flavors, sour food was said to be absorbed by the liver, spicy by the lungs, bitter by the heart, salty by the kidney, sweet by the spleen. That is to say, each flavor plays a different role in different organs respectively.

Disordered diet or being partially addicted to a particular food will do harm to the above mentioned five organs.

In Plain Questions: On Vigor and Nature, it’s been mentioned that on the one hand, Yin originates from five flavors, however, on the other hand, organs where Yin is stored could also be impaired by overuse of five flavors.

If it is too sour, the liver-qi would increase and the spleen-qi will decrease. If too salty, it could lead to bone damage, impotent muscle and depressed heart-qi;

If too sweet, the heart-qi would rise up, causing asthma, darkened skin and
imbalance of the kidney-qi;

If too bitter, it could cause dryness of the spleen-qi, bloating of stomach;

If too spicy, tendons and vessels would become flabby and vigor would be undermined. That is to say, physiological condition and pathological mechanism of the five internal organs are inseparable from the five flavors of food.

Thus, Sun Simiao from Tang Dynasty wrote a special article in Invaluable Prescriptions for Ready Reference. He pointed out that being a doctor, the first thing is to know clearly the source of the disease, what the symptom is and treat with food therapy.

If food therapy fails, then prescribe medicine. This concept indicates that food therapy should be used before medication therapy, which theoretically supports the view, “dietetic nourishment should be used in preference to medical invigoration.”

At Ibujahd holistic our nutritionist our ready to guide you on the best combination of food to eat. We believe you are what you eat.