Daniel P. Reid: Quack or Not?

[Guest guest]

I keep running into him as a source while I try to track down the

source of the " avoid nightshades " dietary rule that macrobiotics and

some TCM practitioners have latched onto, which appears to be an

invention of the 1970s.

 

From what I have been able to cobble together, Daniel P. Reid was

supposedly born in San Fransisco, holds a Master's degree in Chinese

Language and Civilization, and has lived in East Asia for over 30

years, over 20 of which were spent learning various aspects of

Traditional . He was also apparently a restauranteur

based in Taiwan at one time, but currently lives in Byron Bay,

Australia.

 

He seems to have a reputation as being a respectable source of

knowlege, and he does publish under Shambhala, which generally puts

out reasonable stuff, but what I've read of his doesn't seem to live

up to his reputation.

 

He seems to mix and match his own ideas, Indian and other Eastern

miscellanea, 19th century European quackery with actual useful

Chinese information, calling it all Traditional .

 

Has anyone else read any of his works? Am I jumping to conclusions?

I've only read a couple of his books, and they do seem to have a

reasonable amount of good information in them, it's just the bizzare

excesses that makes me suspicious.

 

Mbanu

[Guest guest]

Daniel Reid's books seem to be pretty close to the

" money " to me. I haven't found anything factually

wrong in his books. He does seem to want to

communicate to his western audience using western

ideas.

 

> He seems to mix and match his own ideas, Indian and

> other Eastern

> miscellanea, 19th century European quackery

 

Which quackery is this?

 

> just the bizzare

> excesses that makes me suspicious.

 

Which bizarre excesses?

 

I really am curious!

Bye!

Hugo

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

> > He seems to mix and match his own ideas, Indian and

> > other Eastern

> > miscellanea, 19th century European quackery

>

> Which quackery is this?

>

> > just the bizzare

> > excesses that makes me suspicious.

>

> Which bizarre excesses?

>

> I really am curious!

 

A couple examples:

 

This is taken from the Shambhala Guide to Traditional Chinese

Medicine, by Daniel Reid:

 

" The most basic principle of proper food combining is to avoid

conflicts of yin and yang in the stomach. In Western terms, this is

known as alkaline and acid, or pH balance. When foods that require

an acid medium of digestive enzymes in the stomach- such as meath,

eggs, and other concentrated proteins- are eaten together with foods

that require an alkaline medium, such as bread, rice, noodles, and

other carbohydrates, the two types of digestive enzymes conflict and

neutralize each other, forming a neutral medium that digests

neither type of food. Instead, the carbohydrates ferment and the

proteins putrefy... " (pg. 88)

 

He will often explain Chinese advice while giving his own unrelated

reason, as opposed to a explaination from a TCM viewpoint. He also

doesn't seem to distinguish his own personal commentary from

established theories and facts. Food combining does play a role in

TCM dietetics, but the correlation of it to his personal ideas about

pH balance, and alkaline digestion occuring in the stomach seem

unfounded, even from a purely Western viewpoint.

 

In the translation of the Yinshan Zhengyao at least, most food

combining rules seem to center around avoiding eating different

sorts of meat together, or certain meat vegetable combinations, such

as pork with beef, or beef with chestnuts. However, even these are a

bit shaky, as modern research into combining many of hese " forbidden

foods " has show them to be no more accurate than the admonishment

not to fall asleep on millet stalks while drunk, lest one contract

leprosy.

 

A bit later on, he uses the section on Chinese nutrition to push his

own ideas about " enzyme energy " , using verification from a Taoist in

Taiwan (as opposed to say, a Chinese Medical Doctor?) as

justification for including it:

 

" ...regarding enzymes and energy, Master Luo Teh-hsiou, a Taoist

practitioner in Taiwan, remarked:

 

This energy contained in enzymes is chee at work in the human body,

and it is contained only in fresh unprocessed foods. Whenever you

eat inert foods devoid of the chee-power of enzymes, your body is

robbed of vital energy in order to digest and metabolize the

stagnant food in your system, and this causes a constant drain of

energy from the body. " (pg. 93)

 

Reid is also particularly big on pushing fasting and enemas as part

of Traditional . In

_A_Handbook_of_Chinese_Healing_Herbs_ for instance, he states:

 

" Purifying the bloodstream, detoxifying the tissues and cleansing

the internal organs of metabolic wastes and digestive debris

accumulated from decades of wrong food, medicine, and habits is by

far the most important first step on the path to renewed health and

rejuvenation. Toxic tissues, impure blood, clogged colons, and

swollen livers release a constant stream of poisons that pollutes

the entire system... The only way to eliminate these toxins is by

fasting at least once or twice a year for 3-7 days each time. During

the fast, you can use either pure water or freshly extracted fruit

juice diluted by half with pure water. It is most important to use a

high-grade psyllium-husk preparation four or five times daily

throughout the duration of the fast in order to sweep the bowels

clean of all toxic debris. If you also do daily colonic

irrigations... you will at least triple the quantity of toxic waste

eliminated from your system during any fast. " (pg 39-40)

 

From what I have learned, I was under the impression that 'fasting'

was treated much like starving in TCM, being a source of Qi

Deficiency and not usually a good idea. Most fasts that were

practiced in China as far as I am aware of were for specific medical

conditions, or more commonly for religious observances, not for

general bodily maintainance. Although I am familiar with the use of

enemas in TCM, I was under the impression that they too were used

for specific cases only, not as a general health tonic, and in some

cases (such as in problems with obesity) were even recommended

against. In this particular book, he doesn't go into any detail as

to the sources behind his ideas, although going back to

_Shambbhala_Guide_to_Chinese Medicine_ he uses a quote

from a Chinese physician named Chai Yu-hua (I am unfamiliar with

this name. Has anyone else ever heard of this person?) to justify

his ideas about fasting and enemas. Chai Yu-hua stated " Purging the

bowels eliminates the source of poisons, thereby permitting blood

and energy to regenerate naturally. By cleaning the bowels we repair

the body. " He also goes on to talk about Chang Tsung-cheng (another

unfamiliar name... can anyone help me identify it?) who " used

fasting and colonic cleansing therapy to cure his patients of dozens

of seemingly unrelated symptoms, including respiratory ailments,

chronic constipation and indigestion, headaches and fevers,

arthritis and rheumatism, as well as mental and emotional

disturbances " (p. 96) which to me personally, sounds somewhat as

though he was curing people by pattern, and not implying that

fasting and colonic cleansing are reasonable for all cases, as Reid

seems to imply.

 

This is not to say that his books are useless, they are often filled

with accurate and valuable information, it's simply that oftentimes

he seems to slip in his own extra information without

differentiating from the established Chinese theory.

 

On the third hand, he does have a respected reputation, and I

haven't read all of his books, nor have I been studying TCM for

nearly as long as he supposedly has, maybe ideas such as alkaline

digestion, enzyme power, fasting and colonics really are part of

TCM... it just seemed kind of odd to me.

 

Mbanu

[Guest guest]

Hi Mbanu...your point is very clear now, thanks for

the time spent writing.

 

> This is not to say that his books are useless, they

> are often filled

> with accurate and valuable information, it's simply

> that oftentimes

> he seems to slip in his own extra information

> without

> differentiating from the established Chinese theory.

 

Well, that's what I have found to some degree as

well. There is a shade of something in his books which

is not quite TCM, and certainly not exactly western

medicine either. I've always taken it to be an example

of the difficulties in trying to bridge the two,

rather than as out and out errors. I admit that one

thing I do _not_ like about his books is the depth -

the ones I've read are full of info, but one can only

get to a certain depth of understanding because of the

way the information is presented...almost a

pop-science sort of way.

 

> On the third hand, he does have a respected

> reputation, and I

> haven't read all of his books, nor have I been

> studying TCM for

> nearly as long as he supposedly has, maybe ideas

> such as alkaline

> digestion, enzyme power, fasting and colonics really

 

What do you think, if anything, about the yin and

yang aspects of digestion? What is an acid? What is a

base?

 

See you later,

Hugo

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

> What do you think, if anything, about the yin and

> yang aspects of digestion? What is an acid? What is a

> base?

 

I don't think that I have the thourough grounding in both Western and

Eastern ideas of nutrition that I would need to bridge the gap

sucessfully between different ideas regarding digestion and pH

levels, so I haven't really spent that much time trying to.

 

My understanding of the TCM process of digestion leads me to believe

that it is Yang in nature; It relies on quite a bit of transformation

and separation in transmuting food into the various forms of qi.

Transformation, especially of a denser form of energy (food) into a

lighter form (qi) seems Yang to me.

 

The Yin aspects of digestion seem to be most strongly linked with

elimination. However, my understanding of this process is still

somewhat shaky. It mostly seeems to involve filtering the

denser " turbid " energy from the lighter, and eventually expelling

the " turbid of the turbid " energies the form of urine and feces. This

process of downward filtering and condensing makes me consider this

portion of digestion Yin.

 

I haven't really thought about acids and bases to any great degree,

although I have been looking into the macrobiotic explaination for

this. Macrobiotics also makes a correlation between yin/yang and

acid/alkaline. Although this seems like an odd idea to me, I thought

I would give it a deeper look. Compared to Reid's theories of

alkaline digestion, the macrobiotic theories that yin or yang foods

can raise the pH level of a persons blood seem a bit more reasonable.

I am currently awaiting a book on the macrobiotic acid/alkaline

viewpoint called _Acid_and_Alkaline_ by Herman Aihara that will

hopefully shed some more light on the subject.

 

Mbanu

[Guest guest]

> I haven't really thought about acids and bases to

> any great degree,

> although I have been looking into the macrobiotic

> explaination for

> this. Macrobiotics also makes a correlation between

> yin/yang and

> acid/alkaline.

 

If I may make a suggestion; try to not look too much

into macrobiotics since it uses a backwards

interpretation of yin/yang theory from the TCM point

of view. It may just make your life that much more

confusing for a while. I have also found that it is

much more rigid in its interpretation.

 

I think that one of the clearest correspondences

between yin and yang function lies with alkaline and

acid balances, probably because it's such a basic

(haha ... get it? yin, basic, foundation? sheesh)

level of functioning.

 

Ok, bye,

Hugo

 

 

 

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