Shashi's Work

Shashi has been teaching Nutrition around the world since 2002. Her main base is the Wellness Centre of The Sanctuary in Koh PhaNgan, Thailand. http://www.thesanctuary-thailand.com/. When she is there, she offers one to three-day workshops called "The Tao of Diet", introducing principles of Taoist Nutrition.

Talks, lectures, workshops and sessions have also been offered in London and Oxford, UK. Shashi has also shared her knowledge with the Universal Tao, a system founded by Master Mantak Chia.

Shashi is a practitioner of Chi Nei Tsang, or Taoist Abdominal Massage. This is part of the Universal Tao. It is a massage centered around the navel, treating the organs and tissues of the abdominal area. It is extremely effective for organ detoxification, for digestive disorders and also treats on the emotional level. Shashi has been using CNT in conjunction with Taoist Nutrition for the past three years.

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Shashi has a degree in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University.

She has diplomas in Nutrition, Macrobiotics and Homeopathy.

She has studied Chi Nei Tsang, Ayurvedic Yoga Massage, Indian Head Massage, Aromatherapy Massage, Shamanism and Basic Shiatsu.

Diet and Climate

The first rule of Taoist Diet is to eat wholefoods, to find one's center.

The next step is to notice which foods suit which climate. Intuition and common sense are important here. Your body had its own infinite wisdom, and will usually crave more salads and fruits in the hot summer months, and more soups and casseroles in the winter. Nature also has her infinite wisdom, and the fruit and vegetables that grow at a certain time in a particular climate suit the body at that time. Thus eating parsnips and potatoes in winter suits the body, and tomatoes and lettuce are good in the summer.

With modern supermarkets it can be difficult to know what is in season- it is now possible to eat watermelon in December in the UK, but doing this frequently would drastically cool the body and make it less able to cope with the cold weather. Local produce shops, farm shops and organic box delivery are better ways to make sure you are eating with the climate. You will find if you do this that your body suffers much less with seasonal illnesses, such as coughs and colds.

Once this is in flow, if you are still feeling out of balance, you can look at your own body using the seasonal pattern. Observe your own internal climate! Does your body always feel too cold, or too hot? Is it too watery, too damp, too dry, or too windy? For example, if your body is too cold even in summer, then you may need to eat more wintery foods such as soups and warm foods. The following table gives some example of possible imbalances and foods to help:










If you have difficulty balancing your patterns, there are experts who specialize in Oriental Nutrition, who are able to help you assess your internal climate and find foods to suit you.

Because Oriental Nutrition is about balance, using this system gently restores health by finding harmony. Thus each individual can find the foods that reduce symptoms of illness, can eat to flow smoothly with seasonal change and will find a harmonious state of health to be in. This harmony is different for each person, and thus will have a bodyweight that suits, an ideal energy level, a certain requirement for sleep etc. Health is not measured by reaching a certain measurement, but by the absence of illness and a feeling of wholeness and balance.

© Shashi Solluna 2006

Refined vs Processed

There is much confusion over the words "Refined", "Processed" and "Whole Foods".

Here is a simple guide:

Whole Food: this is one that is still as complete as when it came from the Earth. Therefore, nothing has been taken away from it, even if it has been processed in some way. It does not mean that the food is in one whole piece! A pile of grated carrot is as whole as a carrot in one piece.

Processed Food: this means that the food has undergone some sort of process. This may be a relatively harmless process, such as being chopped into small pieces. Other processes are more harmful as they may have changed the nature of the original food, such as microwaving it. Therefore Processed Food is neither good nor bad. Some foods are easier to digest after processing. For example, wheat groats are quite hard to digest, but after the process of crushing them between heavy stones and grinding them into flour, they become easier to digest.

Refined Foods: refined foods are these that have been processed in a way that removes some of the elements of the original food. Often it is valuable nutrients that are lost in favour of flavour, appearance or durability. Fibre, vitamins and minerals are the usually the first to be lost! For example, whole wheat groats may simply be ground into a wholewheat flour. This is processed but not refined. Or they may be ground with the fibre discarded, creating white flour. This is refined. The main problem with refined foods is that because they are de-mineralised, our body seeks to readdress the balance after we ingest them. It may do this by taking minerals from our precious storage in our bodies.

Non Foods: these are simply not recognisable as foods, and may be completely made by a chemical process. Margarine is one such example, as are many additives and flavourings. Often they are treated by the body as toxins.

Junk Foods: these may have once come from nature (but are usually grown/reared with chemicals), but has been heavily refined, processed, had additives put in, often deeply fried in poor-quality oil….


Healing is about trying to become whole. We cannot become whole is the food that we are eating is not whole. After all, we are what we eat!

©Shashi Solluna 2007

Introduction to the Tao of Diet

Many people have noticed that the foods that they eat affect the way that they feel. However, following modern nutritional advice can be a confusing experience. One week we hear that tomatoes will lower out cholesterol but next week we are being told that they will contribute towards arthritis… How are we meant to know what foods are good for us?

Part of the problem comes from just this: that we are trying to labels foods and “good” and “bad” foods. This is known as dualism, trying to put things into two distinct categories. However, this does not serve us to understand nutrition, because no food is intrinsically “good” or “bad”. Hence we see someone eating salads and fruits who is sick all the time, whilst the lad next door wolfs down steak and chips and never even seems to get a cold. But as Hippocrates said:

“One man’s medicine is another man’s poison”

In the Western world we are constantly being bombarded with the latest “Super Diet”. One week we are told to eat high fiber; then we are told to become vegetarian. Next we are told to eat predominantly meat. And then "raw food" hits the headlines. With so many conflicting dietary programs, how are we supposed to know which one to follow?

Oriental Nutrition is an ancient system used by the Taoists in China, and spread throughout Asia, which takes a different approach. Rather than trying to find one diet that fits all, Oriental Nutrition looks at each person as an individual who suits certain foods. They also take into account changing circumstances, such as the climate. We may feel great eating salad all summer, but sometimes we become cold and tired if we continue to eat only salads through the winter.

Although this system has been developed to a huge degree of complexity in Chinese Medicine, it is based upon some simple premises that everyone can understand.

Firstly, we can see life as a flow of ever-changing energy, or Qi. This energy flows between expansive and contractive states. You feel expansive when you feel elated, high and vibrant, like on a bright summer’s day (too much expansion can make you feel light-headed and unable to sleep). You feel contacted when you feel introspective, quiet and still (too much contractiveness can make you feel depressed and tired). To feel healthy, whole and complete, we need to feel both states; and to flow easily from one to the other.

Let’s look at this flow in Nature. Every morning there is a feeling of emergence as the sun rises. Birds begin to sing. Animals begin to stir. We may get up and stretch…we are starting to expand. By midday we are fully expansive: the sun is high in the sky, there is heat and we are busy doing our day’s work or activities. As we reach sunset, things begin to contract. The sun is sinking to the horizon, we are returning from a day’s work. By midnight all is fully contracted: we are lying still in our beds, the birds are silent, the world becomes more still.

This flow also occurs in the year cycle: all the flowers and leaves emerge for Spring. By summer there is heat, fullness, vibrancy and expansiveness. Autumn brings the start of contraction, leaves begin to fall, the heat declines. By Winter, all is contracted: animals hibernating, trees devoid of leaves. The stillness of Winter, ready to emerge again in Spring.

The Taoists observed that when humans flow with this cycle, we feel well. When we resist it, we become sick. For example, if you are constantly working night shifts, even if you sleep 12 hours in the daytime, this basic movement against the natural flow (i.e. working when Nature is sleeping, and sleeping when Nature is awake) brings exhaustion and sickness if it is continued for too long. Another example of going against the flow is to eat Summer Food in the Winter: too many cold raw foods in winter can create imbalance in the body. Oriental Nutrition seeks to understand how nature’s foods fit into this cycle.

Taoists say that eating non-natural foods will always create an imbalance, because they are not whole in themselves. Natural foods are wholefoods. This does not mean eating a whole carrot in one go! The carrot may be chopped or grated, steamed or stir-fried and still be a wholefood. Wholefoods are foods that have had nothing taken away from them (refined foods) and nothing artificial added (artificial foods). Thus wholefoods may have been processed (e.g whole wheat ground into wholewheat flour), but not refined (whole wheat with the husks removed and then ground into white flour). As a general rule, white foods are refined! White sugar, white flour, white rice etc.

So the simplest rule of Oriental Nutrition is to eat only wholefood. If you only want to understand good nutrition in a nutshell; remeber this! When buying food, just stop for a moment and contemplate how much processing and refining this food has undertaken from the earth to the shelf. The closer to Earth, the closer to Whole.

© Shashi Solluna 2006