CHAPTER 3
LET FOOD BE YOUR MEDICINE
The Power of Nutritional Healing
The source and preservation of health come from the five flavors of food in the diet. When the body is imbalanced, the physician should use dietetics to harmonize and fortify. The five grains are used to nourish, the five fruits to assist, the five animals to fortify, the five vegetables to fulfill. Combining the energetic properties of these in one’s diet can reinforce the essence and energy. One should utilize the methods of dietetics as an indispensable tool to nourish and sustain one’s health, and treat illness.
—THE YELLOW EMPEROR’S CLASSIC OF MEDICINE
WHAT YOU EAT PROBABLY AFFECTS YOUR HEALTH more than anything else you do. Countless studies have confirmed the healing powers of food—ordinary foods that we eat every day and extraordinary foods that possess powerful compounds that prevent disease and improve organ functioning. In the Chinese medical tradition, diet and nutrition are the cornerstones of healing. Over several millennia, the knowledge of nutritional healing has accumulated and has been passed down through generations, creating the vast tradition of folk medicine. And thanks to the huge amounts of research conducted on food and its healing properties in recent years, we can further verify the usefulness of food in self-healing. As the medical system in the West moves further down biochemical and technological paths, we would be better served by advice from Hippocrates, the founding father of Western medicine: “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”
Western nutrition tends to be mechanical and biochemical, concerned with adequate units of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid has been revised several times over the years to keep consumers educated about what makes up a healthy diet. The pyramid was recently revamped into the Food Guide Rainbow to reflect the importance of vegetables and fruits, beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds. The new Food Guide replaced the one-size-fits-all version with a more individualized approach to improving diet and lifestyle. The new symbol is a rainbow-colored pyramid called MyPyramid, which represents an all-new “interactive food guidance system.”
The pyramid emphasizes four areas:
1. Variety—eat a variety of healthy foods.
2. Proportion—eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products, and reduce intake of foods high in saturated or trans fats, sugar, cholesterol, salt, and alcohol.
3. Moderation—choose portion sizes appropriately.
4. Activity—be physically active every day.
Prehistoric humans determined which foods were healthy and unhealthy based on their reactions—as well as the reactions of others—to what they put in their mouths. If they ate something and fell ill soon afterward, the food was deemed poisonous. Once in a while a symptom or some kind of physical suffering was relieved after eating a certain food. That food was noted as healthy, and even therapeutic. Over time patterns emerged and were combined into principles governing healthy diet and nutrition. In ancient China, the yin-yang principle of energetic polarity has proven to be an accurate observation of the universal law. Health and wellness depend on the balance between these two energetic extremes. As we’ve seen, everything in the universe can be categorized as possessing yin or yang characteristics.
THE ENERGETIC PROPERTIES OF FOODS AND PERSONALIZED NUTRITION
DIET AND NUTRITION ARE ESSENTIAL AND FUNDAMENTAL to promoting wellness and correcting disharmonies within one’s being. Individualization and balance are the key concepts. The one-size-fits-all diet fads that come and go sow confusion among consumers and neglect each person’s individual needs. Selection of foods should be based on the energetic qualities of the foods, such as warming, cooling, drying, or lubricating. Thus you would seek to warm the coolness, cool the heat, dry the dampness, and lubricate the dryness by what you choose to eat.
By understanding your own needs, you can choose the appropriate foods to bring about a balanced state of health. For instance, if you are an excess type who exhibits conditions of heat in the body, like overheating easily, dry mouth, and red face, cooling foods like cucumber, watermelon, and peppermint may be your cup of tea. If you are a deficient type who tends toward coldness—if you get chilled easily, are often tired, and run to the bathroom frequently—warming foods such as ginger, roasted chestnut, and fenugreek may be appropriate for you. In this way health is achieved through balance and personalization.
All foods have inherent healing qualities. On the basis of these qualities, foods are broadly categorized into hot and warming, cold and cooling, and neutral, which is neither hot nor cold. Generally, animal products like poultry, other meat, eggs, and dairy are warming, while vegetables, fruits, and liquids are cooling. Whole grains, beans, legumes, deep-sea fish, and most nuts and seeds are neutral. There are, however, exceptions to the rule. For example, cherries are warming even though they’re a fruit, and pork is cooling even though it’s an animal product. Neutral-property foods are appropriate for all people except those who have allergies to certain foods. People who are of the excess or hot type will benefit from eating fewer animal products, while those of the deficient or cold type will benefit from adding animal products to their diet. Interestingly, warming and cooling foods correlate with acidic and alkaline foods, as we shall explore next.
THE ACID AND ALKALINE BALANCING ACT
THE ACID-ALKALINE (OR ACID-BASE) BALANCE of the human body is critical for healthy functioning, and pH is a measurement of the acid to alkaline ratio. The scale goes from 1.0—extremely acidic—to 14.0—extremely alkaline. Human blood pH should be slightly alkaline, at about 7.3 to 7.4. Values above or below this range can lead to discomfort and disease. If blood pH moves below 6.5 or above 8, cells and tissues stop functioning, which can lead to death if the abnormal pH is persistent over time. Consequently, the body is constantly attempting to balance its pH. When this balance is compromised, many problems can occur. Research shows that a prolonged acidic environment can give rise to inflammation and cancer and can lead to premature aging from free radical damage. For example, Norwegian scientists have confirmed that acidic pH can induce metastatic cancer growth of human melanoma cells.
A diet high in acidic foods including animal products, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and processed foods exerts pressure on your body’s balancing systems as it strains to maintain pH neutrality. The process of counterbalancing the acidity can deplete the body of alkaline minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium, making the person prone to chronic and degenerative disease. Minerals are borrowed from vital organs and bones to neutralize the acid. Because of this strain, the body can suffer severe and prolonged damage, leading to an unhealthy condition that may go undetected for years.
In general, it’s best to favor alkaline foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, some whole grains such as millet, quinoa, and amaranth, and to eat a smaller proportion of acidic foods such as meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. Heavy meat eaters tend to be too acidic, and their bodies become overactive, while vegetarians tend toward being too alkaline, rendering their bodies underactive. A balanced diet is essential for functional equilibrium.
THE BALANCING SCALE OF YIN-YANG, ALKALINE-ACIDIC
SO HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR NEEDS ARE and what your diet should be? First, you must discover whether your body is in underdrive or overdrive, alkaline or acidic—yin or yang, respectively. The table below will allow you to figure out your symptom pattern. Health is reflected in the middle zone, called the balanced optimal performance (BOP) zone. To the left is the yin, or underdrive or alkaline zone, to the right is the yang, or overdrive or acidic zone.
Our bodies perform best in the midrange between yin and yang—the BOP zone. If you end up to the right of the BOP, you’re in the yang or acidic zone. Many studies show that acidic mediums can promote cancerous growth. Not surprisingly, cancer is a phenomenon of excessive or abnormal cells, or overgrowth of cells, so you have to move away from the side of overdrive or yang.
What if you find yourself to the left of the BOP zone, on the yin or alkaline zone? The yin zone represents a weakening of your body functions—in other words, underperformance, which may predispose you to colds and flu, lowered metabolism (and, therefore, overweight), anemia, and lower-than-normal bone marrow function. These conditions may stimulate slow-growing fibroids or cysts that over time may turn cancerous. The bottom line is to avoid extremes and maintain yourself within the BOP zone.
SYMPTOM PATTERNS OF
THE THREE HEALTH ZONES
You may find that you have symptoms from both the yin and yang zones, but see which one you fit into predominantly. Of course, you may find out that you’re already in the BOP zone.
THE ENERGY PROPERTIES OF FOODS
THE KEY PRINCIPLE OF RESTORING YOURSELF to the BOP zone is to counter your imbalances by eating more foods with the opposite properties.
A female patient of mine determined that she was in the yang zone, with symptoms of being easily agitated, thirsty for cold drinks, and constipated. She decided to change her diet to include more foods from the yin zone, with cooling properties. She increased her consumption of vegetables, fruits, juice, tea, seaweed, and microalgae, as well as BOP-zone foods. She decreased her consumption of yang or warming foods, such as meats, sweets, spices, eggs, and dairy products until her symptom pattern returned to the BOP zone. Sure enough, within two weeks she felt calmer and was no longer constipated.
Another female patient determined that she had been manifesting the yin zone symptom pattern. This wasn’t a surprise, since she subsisted on salads, fruits, some occasional pasta, and fish. In order to correct her imbalance, she increased her consumption of foods with warming properties in proportion to her consumption of fruits and vegetables by adding chicken, turkey, and eggs, along with spices such as ginger, fennel, basil, and coriander, as well as some BOP-zone foods such as beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Contrary to her worries about gaining weight, she lost the water weight she had been carrying around and felt much more energetic and spry.
One of my male patients found himself in the BOP zone, so his challenge was to make sure he ate balanced proportions from all three zones. He noticed that he was leaning a little too heavily into the warming foods, found himself getting irritable, and developed recurring little canker sores in his mouth. When he slightly adjusted his diet to include more yin, or cooling, foods, his canker sores disappeared and he felt more relaxed.
COLORFUL FOODS
MANY STUDIES SHOW THAT THE DIFFERENT PIGMENTS in the skins of fruits and vegetables are potent antioxidants critical for maintaining health, preventing cancer, and protecting against toxins from the environment. The natural colors of foods correspond to the elements of the five-element energy evolution and their associated organ networks discussed in Chapter 1. White foods, such as cauliflower, daikon radish, water chestnuts, cabbage, and turnips, contain isothiocyanates, which support the immune system—part of the lung–large intestine network. Black, purple, and dark red foods, such as blueberries, black currants, blackberries, and beets contain anthocyanins, which support the hormonal system that is part of the kidney-bladder network. Green foods, such as asparagus, spinach, and lentils, provide rich chlorophyll and lutein, which are useful for the nervous system and help with the detoxification function of the liver-gallbladder network. Yellow and orange foods, such as pineapple, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and apricots, are high in carotenoids, which support the digestive system, part of the spleen-pancreas-stomach network. Red foods, such as tomatoes, red peppers, and strawberries, are rich in lycopene, which provides excellent antioxidant support for vascular health and the heart–small intestine network.
HEALTHY DIET AND NUTRITION GUIDELINES
EACH PERSON IS UNIQUE, SO A DIET SHOULD ALWAYS be planned according to individual needs. Below are ten basic guidelines that can be followed within the scope of your healthy diet.
1. Eat mindfully. Most people eat too quickly, putting an unnecessary burden on their digestive systems. Your frame of mind is of utmost importance at mealtime; relax and slowly chew your food for optimal digestion and assimilation. The dinner table is not the place to discuss the day’s problems. Chewing is a major part of digestion—remember, your stomach does not have teeth. The digestive process, particularly the digestion of starches, begins in the mouth, where enzymes are produced to help break down and absorb nutrients. Foods that are difficult to thoroughly masticate, such as sesame seeds, should be ground before eating. Chew each bite of food twenty times and savor the flavor with joy, repose, and gratefulness.
2. Take care with food preparation. The best ways to prepare foods so that nutrients stay intact (or, at least, are minimally lost) are steaming, stir-frying in water, stewing, and baking. Even the best quality oils become carcinogenic when heated. So if oil is desired, drizzle and stir it into the food after turning off the heat. The best utensils for cooking are glass, earthenware, enamel-coated, or stainless steel cookware. Avoid cooking in aluminum, copper, and Teflon-coated pans—these materials can easily leach into the food. Stay away from irradiated foods and avoid using a microwave oven for cooking whenever possible. (Irradiated foods carry a symbol on their packaging that looks like a flower inside a circle.)
3. Favor whole foods. Foods should be eaten in their wholeness whenever possible. Only peel fruits or vegetables with peels that are hard to digest, like papayas or bananas, or if they are sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Search out organic foods to avoid the toxic chemical residues of commercially grown produce. Wash nonorganic foods in salt water or with a vegetable and fruit wash to eliminate or neutralize the toxins. Avoid highly processed and refined foods—they’re stripped of critical nutrients and then the nutrients are added back into the food after processing.
4. Say no to genetically modified food. GM plants have been genetically manipulated to make them more productive or more resistant to pests, or so the food will contain higher amounts of a certain nutrient. This is similar to the way growth hormones are used to make a chicken lay more eggs or a cow fatten up quickly. It’s also similar to an athlete taking steroids—rapid growth is promoted, but there are side effects down the road. It is too early to know the full scope of the impact of eating GM foods—it will take several generations to see how the human body adapts.
5. Eat locally and in season. Your diet should follow the seasons, and you should eat what grows locally. Nature has the perfect plan for providing appropriate foods for each season. The fruits and vegetables that ripen in the summer, like watermelon, collard greens, and zucchini, tend to be on the cooling side to counter the heat of the season. In winter you’ll tend toward a warming diet, including leeks, onions, and turnips. And by eating locally produced foods you are lessening global warming by not buying foods that have been transported many miles to get to your dinner table.
6. Support your digestive system. Try to stay away from cold, icy foods and beverages. Body temperature is around 98.6 degrees, and ice cream or cold beverages with ice are often around 30 degrees or lower. Imagine running outside naked in the near-freezing temperature. How do you think your body would react? You could get sick and catch pneumonia! Likewise, the shock your digestive tract experiences from the sudden drop in temperature from cold foods may cause gastric juice imbalance, decreased blood flow through your gut, and spasm and pain of the bowels, to name a only a few side effects. Try to eat your food at or above the ambient body temperature of 98.6 degrees.
7. Eat regular meals. Your body functions best when fed at regular intervals. Eat breakfast before 9:00 A.M., lunch before 1:00 P.M., and dinner before 7:00 P.M. You may want to snack between meals to keep your metabolism going. Nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and vegetables with healthy low-fat dips like hummus or black bean dip are good snacks to help you maintain your energy level. Eating smaller meals more frequently is what I call just-in-time nutrition—eat just enough to propel you for the next three to four hours so that you don’t store more than half of a big meal as fat. And don’t eat right before bedtime unless you want your stomach to be working all night long!
8. Eat to live. You have the power to choose what you put into your mouth. Ask whether your food choices will contribute to your health and well-being or cause future problems and suffering. It’s easy to eat that awfully tempting ice cream sundae, but it’s difficult to work it off by exercising for an hour. Many people live to eat instead of eating to live—they eat lavishly and decadently, falsely fulfilling their bellies in place of their hearts. Eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables to provide your body with more age-reversing antioxidants is an excellent example of eating to live.
9. Find sweetness in life. Many people lack happiness and sweetness in their lives, so they turn to food to fill the empty space within. Eating poorly as a response to feeling depressed and anxious is highly destructive to your health, and can be life threatening. The average American consumes more than 200 pounds of sugar each year. Besides being addictive, sugar and artificial sweeteners can negatively affect your behavior and personality, and overconsumption increases your risk for inflammation and degeneration. Rather than looking to food for sweetness, seek sweetness from your life by being kind to yourself, by forming meaningful relationships, and by being grateful for what you have.
10. Eat less, live longer. Eating less is generally better for your health, unless you are underweight or suffering from a medical condition such as anorexia. When you overeat, you stress your digestive and other organ systems, and you consume precious energy and produce more waste products and toxins. Many studies show that less food—calorie restriction—increases life span in animals. For example, excess animal protein increases the risks of developing cancer and kidney disease; excess fat leads to obesity and a higher threat of heart disease and stroke. So enjoy your food, but a little at a time. However, make sure to eat a minimum of 1,600 calories a day in normal circumstances.
All foods possess healing properties. Nature is abundant with substances that restore health and well-being. Cranberries, for instance, contain antioxidants including catechins, anthocyanins, and triter-penoids, and they have traditionally been used for preventing and treating urinary frequency as well as urinary tract infections. Studies show that the hippuric acid in cranberries inhibits the growth and attachment of bacteria such as E. coli to the bladder. Other studies show that cranberries improve dental health by helping prevent gum inflammation and tooth decay and heal stomach ulcers by inhibiting H. pylori, a bacteria responsible for weakening the protective lining of the stomach.
I recommend that patients with a history of bladder or urinary tract infections consume cranberries or their juice on a preventive basis. At the onset of infection, as a home remedy I recommend four to six glasses of cranberry juice a day, along with vitamin C and lots of water. Often the home remedy will do the job if it is put into action right at the start of the infection. If the infection persists, you should always contact your physician for medical treatment in order to prevent a kidney infection from developing.
Eating well and eating for your unique needs are the bases for good health. Arming yourself with knowledge of healing foods is the first step toward taking responsibility for and participating in self-healing. In the following pages you’ll find many nutritional home remedies to help you get started. Always practice self-healing responsibly by working in conjunction with your healing team of doctors, teachers, and trainers. To learn more about healing foods, I recommend that you refer to my book The Tao of Nutrition. Happy eating!