Chapter 7
Chinese Medicine and Traditional Diets
AS A MEDICINE ROOTED IN ANCIENT HISTORY, the dietary principles of Chinese medicine don’t fall far from Weston Price’s observations of historically healthy cultures. The principles of Chinese medicine naturally promote unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods and use food as medicine.
As you’ve probably learned by now, Chinese medicine is all about finding balance within your own inner ecosystem, and food plays a vital role in this experience. Chinese medicine can fine-tune your diet by helping you to choose foods for your specific needs. For example, both you and I might give up junk food, eat eggs, seafood, soups made with broth, etc., but where I may need foods to calm my nervous system and build Blood, you may need foods to warm your digestion or fortify your Jing.
By directing your energy toward dietary changes that include as many traditional foods as possible plus emphasizing foods to support your Chinese medicine diagnoses, you’ll help to bring your body into a state of optimal health, so that normal functions (including baby-making) can occur with more ease.
Using the Nutritional Wisdom of Chinese Medicine to Find Your Balance 
The principles of Chinese medicine are based on the balance of Yin and Yang energies. As women move through their monthly cycles, there is a flow from Yin to Yang and back again. As you move through your days and life, this same ebb and flow occurs as well. For example, Yang energy rises with you as you awaken in the morning and is at its peak midday when the sun is high in the sky. After noon, Yang wanes as Yin begins to rise, reaching its peak at midnight. When you mimic the rhythms of nature in your own body, you are better able to optimize your health and resources.
Determining your individual excesses and deficiencies offers a custom-made approach to healthy eating, bringing into focus the strengths of both Chinese medicine and a real food lifestyle.
Nutrition and the Organ Systems
As we discussed on page 47, Chinese medicine can be broken down into five paired Organ Systems: Kidney/Urinary Bladder, Spleen/Stomach, Lung/Large Intestine, Heart/Small Intestine, and Liver/Gallbladder. For the purpose of this book, you’ll mostly find us mentioning one of the two pairs, the one that pertains more to fertility. That doesn’t mean that the other pair is insignificant to your overall health, but it may relate less to reproduction.
Keep in mind that Chinese medicine is metaphoric; so don’t necessarily expect that the way organ “systems” are presented here will match the modern, Western understanding of organ function. Chinese medicine evolved long before autopsies and MRIs. Nevertheless, the ancient practitioners managed to accurately understand every bodily function that we know about today, even if the organs they attributed those functions to don’t correlate perfectly with the explanations of modern medicine.
In Chinese medicine, each system encompasses much more than the physiological aspects of the organs—including corresponding tastes, colors, emotions, and seasons. By combining these Chinese medicine principles with the wisdom of traditional diets, your specific needs will be addressed, and your body will begin making its way to a balanced state, optimal for fertility and overall well-being.
Let’s look at the relationship between each organ system and the foods that support them.
THE SPLEEN/STOMACH SYSTEM
There is a common thread between most holistic medical models that asserts that digestion and proper nutrient assimilation are the most important components in achieving optimal health. Chinese medicine is no different, even placing the Spleen and Stomach system (which in modern medicine would also encompass the digestive functions of the pancreas) right in the center of any flow chart of the organ systems. This concept makes perfect sense to us and illustrates just how vital a role proper nutrition plays in our health.
The Spleen system is represented by the Earth element, reminding us that healthy soil (intestinal microvilli and flora) is required for proper digestion and nutrient assimilation. Too much worrying and excessive overthinking are said to greatly damage the Spleen. This corresponds directly with our notion of a “nervous stomach.” The intestinal tract is filled with more neurotransmitters than the brain itself, further supporting the concept that worrying impacts our digestive processes. Talking through your concerns and utilizing some of the ideas in the previous section on self-care (page 34) can start you on your journey toward a healthy, balanced digestive system.
The flavor that corresponds to the Spleen system is sweet. That’s not to say that eating a bunch of candy is your ticket to a healthy digestive system. Our real food interpretation of sweet includes Spleen-friendly foods that are easy to digest—healthy carbohydrates, such as sprouted grains, cooked root veggies, and other high-quality carbohydrates—and an occasional cookie.
As with any of the “flavors,” you can have too much of a good thing. If you don’t do well with grains, they should not be included in your Spleen-friendly diet. The ability to digest complex carbs is different for every person and may require a lot of “soil tending” with probiotic-rich foods before you can assimilate them.
THE KIDNEY/URINARY BLADDER SYSTEM
The Kidneys are represented by the Water element, and the flavor is salty. As previously discussed, the Kidneys house our life’s essence, so nourishing this system involves focusing on foods to bolster our Jing resources. Nourishing the Kidney system is vital for maximizing fertility, as it is the root of our reproductive energy in Chinese medicine.
The emotion associated with the Kidney/Urinary Bladder system is fear. People who get stuck in their feelings of fear will ultimately suffer from Kidney deficiency. Similarly, sudden shock or trauma has a tremendous impact on Kidney energy, causing it to scatter. The water aspect of the Kidney system invites us to go with the flow energetically, to allow life to wash over us and to move forward rather than being halted by our fears. Feelings of fear/shock around fertility issues abound for most couples facing difficulties with baby-making.
Foods that support the Kidney system can help to nourish deficiencies and comfort the body to support life’s essence and manage excessive feelings of fear. For example, a warm bowl of miso soup will bring comfort and calm, drawing vital resources into a stressed Kidney system.
Foods that encompass all of these aspects (Jing, Water element, and salty flavor) will thoroughly nourish the Kidney system. Oysters are an example of a perfect food to nourish the Kidneys. They are Jing tonics because eating an oyster is eating the whole animal, and they are both salty and watery. It’s no wonder they are considered an aphrodisiac. If you don’t like oysters, “fear” not … there are lots of Jing foods to enjoy, as you’ll soon see.
THE LIVER/GALLBLADDER SYSTEM
Imbalances in the Liver system are best correlated to being “stressed out” to varying degrees. In Chinese medicine, the Liver is responsible for the “smooth flow of Qi” as well as the storage and movement of Blood, including the menstrual cycle. Painful periods, PMS symptoms, even endometriosis can be attributed to poorly moving Liver Qi, which we call Liver Qi stagnation.
The Liver system is represented by the Wood element, which (like an unhealthy tree) causes rigidity or inflexibility when it’s out of balance. The flavor that corresponds to the Liver is sour, which explains why remedies, such as lemon water flushes, clear out liver toxins and promote optimal function.
Because Wood requires healthy Earth in order to thrive, there is a powerful relationship between the Spleen system and the Liver system. If the Spleen is too weak (depleted soil), then the Liver cannot thrive, leading to conditions such as scanty menstruation, low hormone levels, and PMS.
The Gallbladder, the Liver’s pair, deserves a nod here as well. The Gallbladder meridian flows right through the brain, including the hypothalamus and the pituitary. As such, it is powerfully resonant with both the nervous system and the endocrine system.
The Gallbladder channel also relates to the uterus, through its relationship to the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. An out-of-balance Gallbladder might lead to things such as muscle pain (including menstrual cramps) and difficulty making decisions (such as whether or not to pursue medical fertility options or if you’d prefer chocolate or salty pretzels to combat PMS symptoms).
THE LUNG/LARGE INTESTINE SYSTEM
The Lung system in Chinese medicine strongly correlates to the immune system. The Lung is responsible for creating a protective layer of energy around the body, called Wei Qi. When functioning optimally, Wei Qi prevents pathogens from entering, preventing illness, and supporting homeostasis. The converse is also true, making the Lung system responsible for bringing good things in—which can be seen both literally and figuratively as “inspiration.”
In an esoteric sense, the Lung system is responsible for bringing in the spirit of a baby, and thus must be functioning optimally for pregnancy to occur.
The primary function of the Large Intestine is healthy elimination. Personal experience should inform most people that a poorly functioning Large Intestine leads to feeling quite unwell, from constipation to diarrhea. Both extremes can lead to poor nutrient assimilation, dehydration, and internal toxicity.
In an esoteric sense, the Large Intestine can become imbalanced when one has difficulty letting go—either of past experiences and/or traumas or longstanding belief systems that are not benefiting you.
The Lung/Large Intestine systems are represented by the Metal element, and the flavor is pungent, spicy, or aromatic (such as ginger and cayenne). These flavors help to clear mucus from the body, remove excess gas from the large intestine, and support healthy immune function.
THE HEART/SMALL INTESTINE SYSTEM
The Heart system correlates to the hypothalamus in Western medicine, both of which preside over the body as the governor of the emotions and hormonal function. This relationship to hormones is connected to what we call the Heart and Kidney axis, which is roughly equivalent to the HPO axis (hypothalamus/pituitary/ovarian axis).
When emotions are disturbed, hormonal messages can be impacted. For example, we frequently see delayed ovulation in women under severe stress. As you know by now, hormone imbalance can throw off reproduction, metabolism, and virtually every other bodily function, as well as lead to mild to severe Shen disturbances—including insomnia, anxiety, depression, and mania.
The Heart is represented by the Fire element, and the flavor is bitter. The bitter flavor is not favored by the Western palette and for this reason is highly underutilized. The bitter flavor has a cooling effect on the body, can treat inflammation and excess dampness (such as mucus or cysts), and clears stagnation from the liver. Examples of bitter foods include dandelion greens, bitter lettuces, and citrus peels.
Equal to or more important than bitter foods, people with Shen imbalances related to the Heart must strive to regulate sleep patterns and create a regimen of self-care that promotes inner harmony.
A Deeper Look at Food as Medicine
Now that we’ve broken down the primary functions of each organ system in regard to fertility, we are going to look more deeply at how we can correct imbalances through food. Please remember that these are general guidelines, and you don’t necessarily need to eat all of the recommended foods to experience healing.
FOODS TO TONIFY THE SPLEEN (AND HEAL DIGESTION)
We’ve already discussed in depth that in Chinese medicine, the Spleen system rules digestion and that healthy digestion plays a central role in overall health, including your fertility. Before we can assimilate any nutrients, your gut must be healed from any imbalances such as candida overgrowth or leaky gut syndrome. Nourishing the Spleen with foods for intestinal recovery and health should be the first stop on the road to optimal health through food sources.
There are different degrees to which digestion needs to be healed. Do you have food sensitivities, skin issues, or seasonal allergies? Do you get stomach pain or digestive upset or heartburn when you’re stressed? Do you have a slow metabolism in spite of regular exercise? These are just some of the indicators that your intestinal microbes are out of whack and need some attention.
To restore and support healthy digestion, your diet should provide you with beneficial microflora, not be too cold, nor too sweet, and include foods that help to heal digestion along the way. Let’s examine these elements one at a time.
GOOD FLORA
On the simplest level, your digestion needs an army of healthy microflora in order to properly digest food. To support this, probiotic foods such as these are essential:
Yogurt, kefir, and raw milk
Fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchi
Cultured condiments such as ketchup and lacto-fermented mayonnaise
Fermented beverages such as kombucha and ginger bug sodas
NOT TOO COLD
When it comes to supporting a deficient Spleen, it’s important to avoid and/or limit raw and cold foods. This means saying no to a salad for lunch followed by a frozen yogurt or smoothie. Not even one of those things is a great idea if you have any weakness in the digestive department, let alone piling them on top of each other.
If you can’t greatly limit raw veggies and cold smoothies, be sure to pair them with warm foods. For example, have a cup of bone broth–based soup with your salad, or enjoy some scrambled eggs alongside your smoothie. Eating cold foods at midday is also a method for mitigating some of the effects, as it is the most Yang time, when digestion is likely working at its peak. Still, if you find yourself feeling bloated, gassy, or uncomfortable after ingesting cold things, it’s best to avoid them altogether until your Spleen is in better shape.
NOT TOO SWEET
The Spleen system has an affinity for the sweet flavor. While this is true, a careful balance is in order. Too many sweet things, especially sugary foods, can damage the Spleen. Candida overgrowth is an excellent example. People prone to intestinal flora imbalances will find their situation worsened considerably by consuming sweet foods, including whole grains, fruits, and baked goods or candies. This is due to the fact that Candida albicans, a naturally occurring gut bacterium, thrives on sugar, causing it to grow out of balance with other bacteria. Cutting out sugary foods and complex carbohydrates, while replenishing your intestinal flora through cultured foods, will provide an opportunity for the restoration of microbial balance.
HEALING YOUR METABOLISM
If you have a history of restrictive dieting and/or excessive exercising, experience difficulty maintaining a healthy weight, or have symptoms of fatigue, cold limbs, and depression—you may have a damaged metabolism.
Dieting, fasting, and restrictive cleansing can lead your body down a path of metabolic confusion, often erring on the side of caution by holding on to fat stores and metabolizing food slowly. While trying to conceive, it’s never a good idea to severely restrict calories, fast, or eliminate macronutrients (fat, carbs, and protein).
Help your brain by sending it the message that there is no famine in sight, and it doesn’t have to spend energy stressing about the availability of resources. It might sound silly, but it’s crucial to remember that the part of the brain that governs metabolism is primal; it can’t reason that skipping meals or restricting calories is for the sake of slimming your waistline and wearing a smaller dress size.
Aside from taking measures to heal your metabolism, the Spleen loves foods that are easy to digest, including the following:
Soups, stews, and congees
Cooked vegetables with saturated fats (butter, coconut oil, etc.)
Root vegetables including potatoes and yams
Properly prepared grains (soaked, soured, or sprouted)
Chinese herbal formulas to tonify the Spleen
FOODS TO TONIFY KIDNEY JING
As we’ve discussed, Jing is the finite and precious material that we inherit from our parents at birth—a divine trust fund, if you will. While you’re not meant to squander your trust fund, it inevitably becomes depleted over time from environmental toxicity, stress, drug and alcohol abuse, and even too much sexual activity (yup, you read that right). Jing is housed in the Kidneys, and Jing foods are often salty, watery, and from animal sources.
Jing holds within it all of the potential that exists for our lives. It may be squandered or activated based on the choices we make. The bad news is that the Jing we inherit at birth is irreplaceable. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Luckily, you can add what we call post-heaven Jing to your trust fund to make up for and enhance the pre-heaven Jing you lose as time passes. Jing foods have been considered sacred in traditional cultures throughout the world for all recorded time. They include the following:
Organ meats including liver, heart, and kidney—preferably from pasture-raised animals
Bone marrow—preferably from pasture-raised animals
Oysters, clams, mussels, and roe
Homemade bone broth—from chicken, beef, lamb, or bison
Eggs—from pasture-raised chicken (second choice—free-range organic)
Human placenta (your own, after giving birth)
Deer placenta (available in capsule form, close in structure to human placenta)
Raw dairy products, particularly milk, cream, and butter
Royal jelly and bee pollen
Nuts and seeds, including black sesame, walnuts, and chia seeds
Chinese herbal formulas to build and protect Jing
YIN FOODS
Yin deficiency is a very common problem among women in their 30s and 40s, generally becoming progressively more pronounced with the privilege of aging. Because Yin is fluid or watery by nature, symptoms of Yin deficiency tend to involve dryness—both internally and externally. This can manifest as dry skin, vaginal dryness, decreased estrogen levels leading to light menstrual flow, and dry or brittle hair—to name a few.
Because everything in the body has both a Yin and Yang component, severely Yin-deficient folks may find themselves showing heat symptoms. This is not because Yin deficiency causes heat, but rather that the relative dominance of Yang energy leads to a kind of internal fake-out, with Yin deficiency as the true culprit underneath. Once the Yin is adequately restored, heat symptoms will resolve or be reduced.
People with Yin deficiency should avoid activities that lead to loss of excess body fluids through sweat, including saunas, hot yoga, and other forms of overexertion.
Foods that nourish Yin include the following:
Fruit—including melons, apples, mangoes, and pineapple*
Shellfish and their brine
Fish
Eggs
Pasture-raised organ meats
Soaked, soured, and sprouted grains, including rice and millet
Gelatin, from pasture-raised animals
Kelp and seaweed
Chinese herbal formulas to tonify Yin
High-quality sea salt—a moist gray Celtic salt is full of essential minerals, which help the body absorb water (Yin) and maintain healthy balance of body fluids. These healthy salts do not contribute to health issues like powdery, white processed salts do.
*Pineapple contains a nutrient called bromelain, which is purported to aid implantation when consumed for five to seven days after ovulation or following embryo transfer.
YANG FOODS
In opposition to Yin deficiency, Yang deficiency creates common health issues for many women in the prime of their childbearing years. Key symptoms include feeling cold, weight gain, painful period cramps that feel better with a heating pad, sluggish metabolism, and low energy despite sleeping enough.
It is important for folks with Yang deficiency not only to eat warming foods, but to stay warm too. Warm baths, hot water bottles, foot soaks, and generally keeping covered up are all good ideas. This is especially important with anyone diagnosed with a “cold uterus.” For this condition, include Yang warming foods throughout the day, and be sure to keep your abdomen covered up and warm—especially around ovulation and menstruation.
Yang foods include the following:
All the foods for Jing deficiency
Root vegetables
Pasture-raised red meat and game
Pasture-raised organ meats
Walnuts
Onions, leeks, and garlic
Herbs and spices including: ginger, paprika, garlic, cinnamon, clove, and cayenne
Chinese herbal formulas to tonify Yang
FOODS TO CLEAR EXCESS HEAT AND TOXICITY
You can be hot from excess (think hormonal teenager) or from deficiency (think menopausal woman). Excess heat can wreak havoc on fertility, leading to heavy periods, short menstrual cycles, insomnia, and agitation. Choosing cooling foods can help steer the body back toward a neutral state. Some of these include the following:
Watermelon and pears
Cucumbers and jicama
Dark bitter greens—especially dandelion
If you suffer from excess heat and toxicity, it is also helpful to avoid alcohol, spicy and greasy foods fried in PUFA oils, hot baths, saunas, whirlpools, and heated yoga classes.
EATING TO SOOTHE THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
The smooth flow of Liver Qi is necessary for an optimally functioning nervous system. It is not unusual for the fertility journey to lead to periods of anger, depression, frustration, and even harbored resentment. Help your nervous system along by doing all you can to keep your Liver Qi flowing smoothly:
Eat small, regular meals, working to keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day.
Stop what you are doing and eat mindfully, avoiding working or talking on the phone while you eat.
Eat a balance of macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates, and protein).
Consider amino acid therapy (explained on page 147) to deal with cravings and emotional imbalance.
Avoid alcohol and caffeine in excess.
Get plenty of exercise and enough rest.
Engage in stress-relieving activities, such as meditation, yoga, and deep breathing.
Support your Spleen through diet and overcoming worries.
FOODS TO BUILD AND HARMONIZE THE BLOOD
According to Chinese medicine, Blood is made by the Spleen from the food we eat. The health of your gut determines its capacity to assimilate nutrients, which then pass through the small intestine, into the bloodstream. From there, these nutrients make their way to every cell in your body, including the bone marrow, where blood cells are made. The Chinese medical diagnosis of Blood Deficiency is extremely common, especially among women. This is due in part to the fact that women lose blood every month through their menstrual cycle.
Once again, the health of our intestinal bacteria sets the stage for the production of vital components of our bodies, which are deeply impacted by the quality and type of food we consume. You’ll see below that many of the foods for building Blood also build Jing. This is because bone marrow, the source of our blood cells, is pure Jing.
Blood-building foods include the following:
Meat—especially pasture-raised beef, bison, lamb, and wild game
Homemade bone broth—from pasture-raised chicken, beef, lamb, or bison
Liver—probably the single most helpful food for building Blood
Eggs—from pasture-raised chicken (second choice—free-range organic)
Gelatin from grass-fed cows
Dark leafy greens—rich in essential minerals
Chinese herbal formulas to build Blood
The quality of your menstrual cycle provides a pretty good gauge of the health of your Blood, especially in terms of its relationship to fertility. Women with severe menstrual irregularities will likely require additional medical support, including acupuncture, herbs, supplements, and possibly biomedical intervention. Nevertheless, including foods in your diet to support your Blood can only serve to improve upon any treatment you might undergo.
EATING TO RESOLVE BLOOD STAGNATION
Blood stagnation shows up in the body as pain and inflammation. A common example of chronic Blood stagnation is endometriosis, a condition where extra tissue grows and implants on the outside of the uterus causing extremely painful menstrual cramps, digestive issues, and other adverse symptoms caused by inflammation.
Women with Blood stagnation should do the following:
Avoid processed foods, which make inflammation worse
Determine if you are allergic to common inflammatory foods (such as wheat and pasteurized dairy)
Increase consumption of foods that are rich in antioxidants, such as berries, grapes, and wild-caught cold-water fish
Support the detoxification process of the liver with lemon water and leafy greens daily
Consume plenty of unrefined salt—which will help your body maintain electrolyte balance and avoid dehydration
FOODS FOR RESOLVING DAMPNESS