The principles of Chinese Medicine tell us that a human being comes into the world with Pre-Natal Jing (Pre-Birth Life Essence) and Post-Natal Jing (Post-Birth Acquired Essence). Pre-Natal Jing determines the individual’s constitution basis, strength, vitality and its amount is finite; which means that we can’t choose what kind of genetics we get from our parents as well as ancestors, and what amount of “good” Essence we possess. Post-Natal Jing comes from us eating food, drinking fluid and breathing air, which our Spleen, Stomach and Lungs extract as well as refine the Essence of food, fluid and air for its creation. In contrast to Pre-Natal Jing, Post-Natal Jing is deeply rooted in our choices; we may not be able to change our genetics but we are able to choose the foods, drinks and environment that we live in as well as with our everyday habits. In fact, if we understand and accept the boundaries of our constitution, we will be able to influence the unfolding of our Jing, both Pre and Post-Natal, that we may flourish and thrive in this lifetime.
 
One of the pillars of Chinese Medicine is Chinese Nutrition and Dietetics. It is a part of the medicine that requires action and/ or modification in habits from the individual; hence, is challenging. Many a time, patients come in with an enthusiasm to change the way they eat and often ask me what they should or shouldn’t eat, as they want to lose weight. Often times, they are looking for a “simple quick fix.” Then we discuss strategies from the Chinese Medicine perspective and they realize that it isn’t going to be as simple as they had imagined. Why is this? I believe one of the reasons is because food is related to culture and social conditioning, which we inherited from generations that came before us and the patterns that shape its production as well as availability are dictated by what is around us. So it is not just the individual constitution that we need to look at, but the environment, the practices of the culture, the emotional connection of this particular individual to food, their habits with food shaped early on in their lives by upbringing, etc. Short answer - THERE IS NO QUICK FIX. Food and nutrition shouldn’t be a quick fix. If we understand that food shapes our Post-Natal Jing and therefore the development of our being, then we realize that it is essential for survival and living a life of quality. Is this not worth time and effort, instead of a look-like-simple diet fad that we saw on some social-media post which may help us lose a few kilograms of weight today but gain it all back next week and some, as it was never really addressing our true essence?

I recently came across a treatise on Daoist practice by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart, Daoist-Buddhist and Chinese Medicine practitioner, which I find gives a good summary to Daoist Nutritional Therapy. First and foremost, moderation, flexibility and a diet that matches your constitution; this also means you should get to know your body well, in order for you to know your constitution. Eating and drinking in excess “dulls the mind and strains the body.” He discusses a way, and there are many other ways, to classifying food into building foods and cleansing foods:

“Building foods are those that help build the body’s substances; foods such as meats, grains, and the more starchy vegetables and fruits are building foods. Cleansing foods are the more watery fruits and vegetables; foods such as green leafy vegetables, celery, bok choy, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and the like. In general, a diet should be made up of both categories to stay in balance, with a higher ratio of building foods eaten during the fall and winter to provide warmth and energy, and a higher ratio of cleansing foods eaten during the spring and summer for cooling and flushing.”   

Another theme that often comes up for many patients I treat is that they eat healthy but are still feeling unwell. Mackenzie Stewart distinguishes between a mountain yogi and a city Taoist.

“The mountain yogi, undisturbed by the hectic pace of the city, living in the pure air and sun with few distractions to stir the passions and emotions, usually eats a pure and light diet of simple vegetables and fruit, and eventually consuming only tonic herbs (…) If a city person tries to eat too rarefied and pure a diet, he or she may become overly sensitive to the gross influences of the city environment and may be too easily thrown out of balance and become ill. Thus city dwelling Taoists often practice “strategic impurity,” ingesting moderate amounts of meat, alcohol, caffeine, white flour or sugar in their diet. Again, moderation is the key word, and this is never to be construed as advice for those with a propensity for addiction.”

Many, if not most of the people I know and treat are city or at least urban dwellers. As such, I believe this view provided above is very applicable. Until we, including myself, city-dwelling Taoist can retreat into the mountains, it would be beneficial for us to be moderate in our intake of food as well as information, if I may add.

Many blogposts ago, I mentioned that cooking our food is actually the beginnings of the digestive process. Mackenzie Stewart supports this by providing an analogy that I find is very appropriate for our current entry into Spring. “Lightly cooked foods are preferred to raw foods. Eating raw foods is compared to burning green wood: hard to burn, lots of smoke and waste, and little heat.” As Spring arrives and the warmth of the Sun returns, our beings will show us the need for more cleansing and lighter foods, maybe even a fast. We’ll get into that in further blogposts, stay tuned. Until then, stay warm, eat in moderation, be well.
 
 
Reference
Jampa Mackenzie Stewart: Foundations of Taoist Practice. E-Book on www.holybooks.com.




Image by Ruttikal Chularom on pixabay

​A few days ago, I looked into a book that was passed on to me and extremely invaluable as I attended university in the 1990s - an English dictionary. Since my last post about Sweet Potatoes and Roots, I have been contemplating this word "Root." So I looked in to find the definition of Root and I find 12 different possibilities as a noun and as a verb. Most of them have something to do with having a "base" or "core" or "source," whether referring to human, plant, language or mathematics, and even to encourage. Fascinating, isn't it? 
 
Many of the Herbal Medicines in the Chinese Materia Medica are Roots. One that particularly stands out is Ginger and is listed in a few different forms. They are fresh Ginger (Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜 Shēng Jīang), Ginger peel (Cortex Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜皮 Shēng Jīang Pí), dried Ginger (Rhizoma Zingiberis Officinalis, 干姜 Gān Jīang) and quick-fried Ginger (Zingiberis Rhizoma Praeparata, 炮姜Páo Jīang).
 
In its fresh form, just like we get them here in the normal grocery store, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜 Shēng Jīang, is a food-grade herb. As such, one can cook it with other ingredients to enhance the taste of that particular food, like fish, meat or vegetables. In some Asian supermarkets, you may find young ginger, that which is yellowish in color with a green stem protruding out of the rhizome. This form is a little less warming than the older brown version. Herbal decoctions regularly containing multiple Herbs, prescribed by a Chinese medical practitioner, often includes Ginger to harmonize the Herbal Formula combinations; aiding better absorption of the Herbs into the body and to prevent possible toxic side-effects from other potent Herbs. In fact, I have read that Ginger can be used as a remedy for food poisoning, and in fact is cooked with fish in order to neutralize toxins in many traditions. 
 
In the everyday, we can grate it, make an Herbal infusion out of it just by adding hot water and letting it steep for 10 minutes just as a beverage. This can be very helpful too if you had symptoms like chills and/or fever caused by the common cold virus. In fact, making a foot-bath or a whole-body-bath with this infusion till one gets warm and sweaty would also help expel what we call "Wind-Cold Invasion" in Chinese Medicine. If you wanted to enhance the digestive effect of Ginger, then you can throw in a couple of slices of Ginger into a pot with water and cook it for at least 15 minutes. This infusion would be less spicy but more warming for the Stomach, good for stopping nausea and vomiting in pregnancy or otherwise, help relieve bloating and digestive distress. Shēng Jīang enters the Lung, Spleen and Stomach, is spicy and warm. In contrast, Shēng Jīang Pí, Ginger Peel is spicy-cool and is good for edema and promoting urination. 
 
As with anything, too much of a good thing transforms it to a hindrance. If you tend to heat in your system, then too much Ginger will overheat you. A spicy flavor will circulate Qi and too much circulation will dry out the body. Use moderately or speak with your practitioner, if Ginger is appropriate for you. I find that this is one of the many simple Herbal foods that I almost always have at home or with me when I travel. One of our favorite meals is rice with chicken, cooked with Ginger, soya sauce and Sesame oil; a simple but scrumptious recipe passed down to me from my mother. Like so much around the world, people have used food as medicine since time in memorial. It is only us modern urban-dwelling, city-folk, who are often times disconnected from nature, who question the validity of food as being able to affect our health or never really realizing that what we put into our bodies might affect who we are. Just because something doesn't come in a form of a pill, doesn't make it less potent. In fact, it is this that I challenge; something in its purest form, like the Ginger Root, may be the strongest medicine as it is whole. In its wholeness, it helps us to find unity in ourselves, to reconnect us to our source, to our core. 
 
 
 
 
Image Ginger Root by Engin Akyurt on pexels.com
 

This past week, we experienced what it is like to have summer after a cool, wet Summer; it was scorching hot and humid. It reminded me a little, and I mean really just a little ;-), of the tropics. We were all feeling the heat as well as heaviness, sweating, and it felt like no one really had an appetite. This is what we call Summer-Heat in Chinese Medicine.
 
Growing up, I never really thought about how food affected me. I remember my mother making foods to cool us down, due to the ever-constant warm temperature in Malaysia. We ate and drank lots of fruit/ juice in general. I never really thought about it until I began studying Chinese Medicine. Fruit in general has a cold temperature and is often sweet in flavor, as they ripen in the heat of Summer. This means most fruit will cool down heat and influence the Spleen and Stomach, as the sweet flavor is associated with the Earth element.
 
One fruit that comes to mind for this season is the Watermelon, Fructus Citrullus vulgaris. It's juicy, refreshing and cooling. This is one of the most common fresh-made juices one can get when you are in Malaysia, because it cools Summer-Heat. It grows locally all-year round there and in the Summer in most warm-weathered countries. One of my teachers called it the "Chinese aspirin," as it clears heat from the body like when we experience feverishness, though I must emphasize it's not the best herb for fevers. The Chinese call it Xī Guā, 西瓜 , which translates as "Western Gourd/Squash/ Melon." This was because in ancient China, Watermelon grew in its Western regions. Interestingly, I found out that Watermelon has been found to have originated in North Africa, possibly Sudan, and even in ancient Egypt there were seeds found in the pyramids and references in carvings dated 2000 BCE. Africa is West of China and it may be that it made its way to China through trade. 
 
Watermelon is one of those fruit that almost all parts can be eaten and act as medicinal food. The part which we all eat is the red-juicy-sweet core enters the Urinary Bladder, Heart and Stomach channels in Chinese Medicine. Hence, it functions to cool the Summer-Heat, generate fluids, expel jaundice and promote urination. The peel is used for its stronger effect on promoting urination. Watermelon seeds are eaten regularly as a snack in Asia; it is first sun-dried and roasted with salt. The skin of the seed is peeled off and the inside is eaten. This is said to help clear urinary tract infection and lower blood pressure. Watermelon is sweet in flavor and cold in temperature. Therefore, if one has blood sugar imbalances or a cool digestive system, tending to loose stools/diarrhea, then be careful to keep the Watermelon intake to a minimum, or for that matter fruit/juice as well.
 
Like so many of our foods, Watermelon's journey on the Earth from Africa and its transformation from a water-bearing possibly bitter/bland fruit into sweet, red nectar is a fascinating story of migration and resilience; just as us humans migrating to greener pastures, surviving and adapting. It not only nourishes and heals us but also inspires our creativity. I watched the famous jazz musician and composer, Herbie Hancock describe how and why he wrote his famous song, "Watermelon Man" in 1962. So as you eat your Watermelon next time, listen to the Mongo Santamaria's version of the song and get into the Watermelon groove.
 


Image Watermelon by Jorge Furber on Pixabay
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