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.
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