In today’s blog I am going to start by tackling the vast and important subject of food. Our diet has an enormous importance in Chinese Medicine. What we put in our bodies is used to build our tissues and to produce our energy. If we eat the wrong food for us, these two will suffer and we will feel unwell and will be more likely to develop diseases. It is, however, a complex issue and will take a few posts to cover. In today’s post I am going to try and explain why I trust the traditional Chinese understanding of healthy eating much more than the modern scientific research understanding of it.

In order to understand the depth of the problem with modern scientific research of nutrition, all we have to do is look at the papers. Almost on a daily basis we can find some sort of new research regarding food or supplements. Quite quickly we realise that more often than not the information emanating from this research is contradictory. For example: one day coffee is good for you, the next day it is bad for you. The same applies to other popular food items like chocolate, wine eggs etc. Now, how can something be good and then harmful again. All according to so-called scientific research. We tend to be in awe of every media piece that starts with the words ..scientists have proved that..

But of course wine or coffee or chocolate all cannot be good for you one day and then harmful the next. The truth is that scientific research can be designed and then analysed statistically in a way that will produce a result that will suit the researcher. This practice is completely routine and is not limited to the science of nutrition. It is widely used and abused in medicine science , particularly by the pharmaceutical industry. I am quite sure it is widely spread in other areas of science that I am not personally involved in. If you think that this claim is exaggerated then let me give you another example. In my former life as a junior doctor working in hospital it was a regular practice for a young doctor like myself to be asked to prepare a presentation on a certain subject. It was often to see if a certain treatment was effective or not. That young doctor had to go to the library (pre-internet days sound prehistoric now) and look at the research available about the subject. The presentation usually ended up something like this: eight studies say that this drug is effective in reducing blood pressure (for example) and four studies say that it isn’t and therefore, in conclusion, this drug is effective- and everyone went home happy.
I remember asking myself how is it possible that eight studies said one thing and four another when they were all talking about the same question. Something must surely be seriously wrong with the system as either the drug works for blood pressure or it doesn’t. Well, as a very busy and overworked young doctor, the thought about questioning a system that is so sure of itself , like modern medical science, was just too much and I quickly forgot about it. Only years later, after removing myself from the system, did I start to think about it again. Seeing things from the outside can often make them look much clearer. We have to look at modern scientific research regarding diet with very suspicious eyes. A very big part of it, to put it mildly, is fairly useless.

So the big question, I can hear you asking, is if I can’t trust scientific research then how do I know what is good for me and what isn’t? Personally I trust thousands of years of careful observation done by Chinese medicine practitioners. So what does Chinese wisdom tell us about what and what not to eat. In fact it is not that simple and, just like with Chinese medicine, Chinese nutrition should ideally be tailored to the individual according to his constitution and the condition of his body at that time. To try and make things simpler I’ll talk about general principles, or healthy nutrition according to Chinese medicine.

The understanding of healthy diet in Chinese medicine is based on accumulated wisdom over several thousand years of Chinese medicine. The main organ in charge of digestion in Chinese medicine is the spleen. The spleen in Chinese medicine is an energetic concept and refers to the area of the organs : spleen, pancreas, duodenum and part of the small intestine. The spleen functions are extremely important and include digestion of food, production of energy, function of the immune system and the ability to feel toned and functional physically, mentally and emotionally. Keeping the spleen strong and functional is as important to our digestion as what type of food we eat.

In my next post we’ll see how to keep the spleen strong and functional. Meanwhile have a good and healthy week.