“The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.” Hippocrates: Greek physician
(circa — 460BC – 377BC).
Creating and maintaining health occurs primarily as a result of our daily mental, emotional, and physical activities, and predominant among these activities is something we are fortunate enough to do regularly: eat. But what do we eat for good health and what information do we follow to guide us through the roller coaster of daily living?
Magazines, news reports, newspaper articles, and internet sources (excellent to suspicious) do their best to give us information we can use. But as well-meaning as the authors might be, the articles rarely go far enough. Most assume “one size fits all.” Most assume foods are just a conglomeration of “nutrients” as defined by bio-medicine. And, most don’t help us determine how much of the food to eat, what time of year to eat it, the specific health benefits it offers, how to prepare it, foods to combine it with, whether it’s best to purchase it fresh or frozen, where the food comes from, what pesticides are commonly used on it, how ripe it should be when picked, and how an individual’s digestive system digests, assimilates, and disperses the food.
Traditional Chinese Medicine takes the whole person into account, especially body constitution (gender, age, occupation, current balance of health, temperament, stress factors, climate, season, weather conditions at the time, along with other circumstances) before prescribing a healing diet or herbal formulation for an individual. It most certainly is not a one-size fits all program of eating, and tends not to view food mechanistically through the lens of protein, fat, carbohydrate, and vitamin content.
As in the West, the Eastern concept of temperature includes the physical temperature of the food — piping hot or ice cold. In the East, however, temperature also refers to a food’s thermal effects on the body, such as increasing metabolism until you break a sweat or cooling until you feel the tingle of chills.
Even for those unaccustomed to thinking in these terms, whether a food is classified as hot, warm, neutral, cool, or cold can be surprisingly intuitive. Warming foods include ginger, chili peppers, cinnamon, turmeric, nutmeg, green onions, and walnuts. Cooling foods and herbs encompass peppermint, citrus, tofu, milk, lettuce, celery, cucumber, and tomato. Neutral foods include rice and many types of grains.
Cooking methods also can affect the dish. In Asia, blanching, steaming, pickling, and boiling are understood to have a cooling influence, while grilling, frying, roasting, smoking, searing, simmering, and cooking with alcohol are thought to make a dish more warming.
Traditional Chinese Medicine speaks to us about food temperature — an important factor for keeping our digestion system working optimally for making Qi. Its recommendations also include eating a little of a lot of things each day, limiting alcohol ingestion (as it is so hot in nature that it does not freeze), avoiding greasy, fatty foods, and minimizing dairy products, to help keep our digestion strong enough to make enough energy to allow all our organs to work in harmony.
It is February and the organ correlation to this season is Kidney. The Kidney energy is deep and transformational. It is responsible for all maturation, so it is not surprising to see us want to move south as we age. The fire of the Kidney goes out bit by bit if we do not help to preserve it.
Foods and herbs that are warming are most needed during this time. Part of our Chinese herbology program is learning to individualize a tonic: something that we do or take to keep us well and never use if we are ill. The herbs/foods used in tonics are ginseng, dried ginger, cinnamon twig, lycium berries, astragalus and other herbs that meet individual needs. The herbs are placed in a brandy to cure for 1 month. Drinking 1 tablespoon a day will warm the kidney energy and keep us strong during this harsh season. Tea can also be a choice but remember how warming alcohol is, so therefore it is used most often.
I encourage you to explore the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine to find your path to wellness and balance in all ways. Educate yourself and pay attention to what your body tells you. If you have doubts or feel that you need more care than you can give yourself, then I recommend seeking out a practitioner who can develop a program to meet your needs. Enjoy the recipe below!
Warming Pumpkin Curry Soup
(Makes 2 servings)
Curry is a blend of spices, usually containing turmeric, coriander, cumin, and fenugreek, and sometimes also containing ingredients such as ginger, garlic, fennel seed, cinnamon, clove, mustard seed, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, and various types of pepper. Many of the ingredients in curries are considered warming in the East Asian and South Asian traditions, making them a good match for anyone who tends to run cold or for eating when the weather starts to turn chilly. Here, these warming spices are enhanced in a bowl of steaming soup.
Ingredients
10 to 12 ounces pumpkin or winter squash, such as the Japanese kabocha (about 2 cups when cubed)
2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola or olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder
A pinch salt
A pinch pepper
Directions
1. Chop the pumpkin pieces into 1-inch cubes, seeded and peeled. (Some pumpkins are quite tough, and are most easily handled by chopping the pumpkin into two, seeding it, then cutting it into wedges before peeling. A large, sharp cleaver can be helpful with this task. The seeds can be reserved for roasting.)
2. Place the pumpkin cubes and stock in a pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and curry powder. Cook until the onions are translucent and soft (about 5 minutes).
4. When both the onions and pumpkin are done, combine them in a blender or food processor. Whir into a smooth puree. You can also use a hand blender or immersion blender for this task.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Laura is a Nationally Certified Chinese Herbologist, director of the Connecticut Institute for Herbal Studies since 1992 and is both Western- and China-trained. The integration of Western and Chinese medicine as it is practiced in China today inspires her yearly travel to Beijing and allows others to view the culture from a holistic perspective.
Laura’s work with major hospitals and holistic practitioners since 1995 enhances her teaching and healing skills. She was enlisted as a co-investigator on a clinical randomized trial study for UCONN Medical Center utilizing Chinese Herbal Therapy to help with the symptoms of menopause in breast-cancer patients in 1996. Today, Laura works closely with Western medicine oncologists and other doctors to help with the side effects of some strong Western medications.
Laura also was the founding Vice-President of the Connecticut Herb Association and maintains a strong relationship to this group by lecturing on Chinese Herbs at their Annual HerbFest. She also was the founding Educational Co-Chair for the Greater Hartford Holistic Health Association (which is now the CT Holistic Health Association) and enjoys networking with both Western-trained medical persons and holistic health practitioners.
As a professional Chinese Herbologist, she uses only safe hospital-grade herbs which are certified against contaminates, pesticides and heavy metals. Her private practice is maintained at the school where appointments for care are taken.
Laura Mignosa, Nationally Certified Chinese Herbologist
Connecticut Institute for Herbal Studies
900 Wells Road (Route 175), Wethersfield, CT 06109
(860) 666-5064 E-Mail: laurachina@aol.com
Website: www.CTHerbschool.com