Because of this, food is one of THE vital components that must be studied in Chinese Medicine. After all, it is food that is one of the ingredients to create Qi (chee), the source energy that governs life itself. Organs connected to the creation of Qi are the center of the human body universe in Chinese Medicine.
In Western Medicine, food is looked at like it is a step child in the health care world. It is almost as if it is just a necessary ingredient, but one that is not THAT important. (Have you ever eaten in a hospital cafeteria? You can see what I mean).
Food in Western Medicine is always broken down to calories, carbohydrates, and fats. There may be a bi-line thrown in with the instruction to "eat more greens" as if that is the panacea to cover good nutrition. But overall, it leaves you with an impression that one food can easily be swapped out with another if you know how to substitute the caloric value, or the fats, or the carbohydrates in the equation. For example, you can maybe swap out a spinach salad for a glass of wine and with a bit of tweaking here and there you may even come up with the same caloric value and then call it "good enough".
This concept of food swapping is not part of the Chinese Medicine's health care process.
In Chinese Medicine, EVERYTHING is seen as having value and has a job to do. One would never consider the organs as being expendable and disposable like we do in Western Medicine. In Chinese Medicine, things are just not seen as chemical compositions; everything is part of FLOW and BALANCE.
The way Chinese Medicine uses food and values food is quite the eye opener for me. Just as every organ has value and a job to do, EVERY food has a specific job to do, too. Even different flavors, and even the color of the food, can play different roles in keeping a body healthy. Even the way you prepare the food can impact the body differently. EVERYTHING about the food is important in Chinese Medicine.
This whole concept surrounding food is causing me to pause. I can no longer think that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie because now, every morsel of food can have a different job to do and can have a different responsibility to keep someone healthy. Food is now medicine!
In Chinese Medicine the spleen and stomach are the center of the human body universe, and because of this, food plays one of the most important roles to maintaining someone's health.
Pretty interesting, huh?
True as nature
ReplyDeleteYup. :-)
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