Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

It may come as a surprise to some that many of the medicines used at home and in their doctor?s office were originally derived from plants or animals. Research the origins of aspirin and you will find it derived from willow bark. Penicillin, a drug that treats bacterial infections, might be growing in your house at this very moment on a moldy piece of fruit. And morphine, lidocaine, and hydrocodone are all derived from the opium plant.

Yet most of us grow up here never giving much thought to the notion of food as medicine. Sure, you may have heard ?milk does do a body good? (lactose intolerant excluded), or oatmeal, eaten regularly, will lower your cholesterol. But in [tag]traditional Chinese medicine[/tag] (TCM), your diet may be (and usually is) a big part of your treatment. Last month I mentioned how a TCM practitioner might be able to help you without using herbs or acupuncture needles. Dietary advice is one of those ways.

Let?s start out by making clear the idea of ?all men (and women) are created equal? only applies to rights, not physical bodies. What we?re born with (and without) varies greatly. With respect to food, some folks can eat pretty much anything, where others have food allergies that can be life threatening or even fatal, like peanuts. Then consider the possibility of life long dietary habits and influences along with environmental influences, and you can start to imagine how these variables influence your health in the present.

Even those who already feel good can benefit by focusing on their diet, as a well constructed diet will combat fatigue and improve one?s energy level. Simple changes to your diet such as adding a warm breakfast in the morning to kick start your metabolism can prevent latter day fatigue. Not eating late at night can often help you sleep better. Eating too much strains your system and makes you tired. And as the seasons change, so too should your diet. If you like ice cream, eat it on a hot summer day, not in the middle of winter.

Dietary intake becomes much more sensitive when you?re not healthy, and a TCM practitioner can be of great service in identifying good foods for you to eat as well as those to avoid. Solutions from the clinic vary according to the individual and are based on a specific pattern identified during the intake portion of the treatment. To encourage the appetite in the morning for someone waking without hunger, I might recommend ginger tea made with fresh ginger. For agitation and feelings of heat they may be instructed to incorporate dark leafy vegetables like kale into their diet and source their carbohydrates from steamed rice rather than bread or pasta.

Yet the same solutions are inappropriate for others despite having the same individual symptom. This is because the treatment is based on what causes the lack of appetite or agitation, not on treating the symptom, and that varies greatly from person to person. If you want to experiment with your diet on your own, try keeping a accurate and honest food diary. Write down everything you put in your mouth, when, and how much. Alongside this keep track of how you felt after you ate. Keeping an hourly journal should suffice. Do this for a month and look for patterns. More often than not, persons who do this tend to lose weight and improve their diets without effort simply because they develop an increased awareness of what they eat.

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