Functional eating according to Traditional Chinese Medicine

Introduction to the Nutrition Principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
In this upcoming series of columns, I want to provide you with insights into the nutritional principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM is a comprehensive philosophy with various interpretations and applications. It's important to understand that it will never be entirely complete and may sometimes conflict with your own beliefs. This approach is not a diet; instead, it focuses on simple adjustments to your eating habits that can alleviate symptoms or protect you from illness.

Chinese dietary therapy can be viewed as a Functional Food System, which simply means that no two individuals are the same and that health varies from person to person. It is functional and applicable to everyone. My goal is to demonstrate simple adjustments through short practical examples, allowing you to become curious and playfully explore what works for you—or what doesn’t.

Holistic Approach to Health
Traditional Chinese Medicine is a 3,000-year-old healing practice based on the holistic principle that everything is energy and that body and mind are inseparably connected. Physical ailments often have a mental cause, and conversely, physical issues can lead to emotional and energetic blockages. Life energy, or Qi (known as Prana to yogis), plays a central role in this. Qi consists of the movement of Yin and Yang forces, which must work harmoniously together. This balance can be disrupted by emotions, lifestyle, thoughts, diet, and environment.

The search for balance is the fundamental principle of TCM, emphasizing the balance between Yin and Yang. An excess of one or a deficiency of the other can lead to symptoms of imbalance or even illness. The most well-known treatment method in TCM for restoring this balance is acupuncture. Less well-known are herbs, moxibustion, and cupping, but perhaps the Chinese dietary principles are the most unfamiliar. This theory is based on the idea that one can be independent of doctors and medication. Through insights and adjustments in your eating habits, patients gain control over their health, potentially leading to a reduction or avoidance of symptoms.

The Energetic Components of Food
In the nutritional principles of TCM, we look at the Yin and Yang components in food. Is something Yin (cold) or Yang (warm)? Important aspects of nutrition also include the energetics of food, the climate from which a product originates, the cooking method, and the climate or season in which the product is consumed.

How to Determine the Energetic Temperature of Foods
It’s simpler than you might think, though it requires a different perspective. You can use some guidelines:

• Vegetables that take longer to grow, like carrots, beets, and parsnips, are warmer than quick-growing products like lettuce and cucumber.
• The more moisture a product contains, the cooler it is. For example, a pumpkin has less moisture than a zucchini.
• Products from warm climates are often cooler, such as bananas and oranges.
• Cooking techniques also affect temperature: raw food is cooler than cooked food.

With this knowledge, you can qualify foods and apply them to your own dietary habits. If you have too much Yin, it's good to eat more Yang foods, and vice versa. But how do you know if you have too much Yin or Yang? This can be a challenge, but I hope to help you with some examples.

A Practical Example: Maartje
Let’s look at a brief case that I frequently encounter in practice:

Maartje struggles to get going in the morning. She hits the snooze button at least three times, dresses at a snail's pace, and skips breakfast. At work, she only feels better after two cups of coffee. She looks forward to lunch, where she eats a healthy salad and some crackers to maintain her figure. By the end of the afternoon, she feels tired, lacks motivation for her yoga class, and her body feels heavy. She often feels cold and worries about potentially embarrassing moments during class. Maartje wonders if she has irritable bowel syndrome, as she frequently has loose stools.

Diet plays a significant role in her energy deficiency. Skipping breakfast is not a good strategy if you feel tired for an extended period; we need fuel to function. The diagnosis here is a deficiency of Qi (Yang). The system does not receive enough nourishment to function well.

Maartje would benefit from starting her day with breakfast, preferably warm food. Eating warm foods is essential for digestion, as they require less energy to digest than, for example, cold yogurt with fruit. She can have oatmeal with warmed fruit or a bit of cinnamon.

Her lunch consists of a salad, which is also cold in nature. A soup would be more beneficial for her. Even cooled cooked or roasted vegetables added to the salad can provide a warming effect if she doesn't want soup.

The spleen, the Yin counterpart to the stomach, is sensitive to worries and overthinking. Insufficient nourishment can lead to a weakened spleen/stomach, which can result in concentration problems and a feeling of heaviness. With long-standing issues such as irregular bowel movements and gas, you might speak of a Qi deficiency of the spleen/stomach.

Functional eating is one of the methods within TCM for preventing or combating diseases. Often, a combination of methods is used.

Also, see my other column on the Chinese diagnosis of "damp" in our digestive system, which also influences our thinking and sense of heaviness. Read it here.