To Vinod and Amy ...weak stomach in TCM ??

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " victoria_dragon "

<victoria_dragon wrote:

>

> Chinese Traditional Medicine , " Mrs. Barley "

> <chosenbarley@> wrote:

> >

> > I predict that in due course the prescribing of strange, highly

> > restrictive diets (low glycemic foods only/no grain at all is one

> > example of such a diet) will be laughed at. It is a crude " cure "

that

> > requires endless self-denial.

>

 

The excellant posting of Victoria's inspires me to answer a letter

that was sent in private a few days ago. That poster asked me - Why

do you recomend diets like South Beach Diet and no-grain diets -

surely you do not consider this to be TCM. In the case of no-grain

diets I would disagree - no grain diets have been advocated for

health recovery and spiritual development for hundreds of years - in

fact there is a very old philosophical school in China that

advocates eating no-grains - we have the same thing in India - many

in the Yogachara schools do not eat grains except for uncooked

sprouted grains. These are the basic low carbohydrate diets so

popular among some western people.

 

The South Beach diet is another thing. My experience (over 40 years

in the medical profession) is that one of the most difficult things

for people to do is to change their diet and other deeply ingrained

cultural patterns. In fact for a very large percentage of people

this acts as as an absolute obsticle to health recovery. Even small

changes are not possible for many. So when I am talking about diet

to people I realize that I am speaking to a wide audience. So to

simply advocate TCM, Ayurveda, or Yoga diets to the general

population is a waste of time for a large percentage - they will

never be able to follow such diets. Even those who want to follow

these types of diets - of those who were not raised in cultures

where these diets are a part of common understanding - the process

of learning to eat this way will take some time even for the most

committed. Changing diet is a process - a process of learning what

to eat and how to prepare it and how to eat it. It is a process and

an adjustment - a physiological and psychological adjustment - many

start on the path but never achieve their goals - such a large

percentage of people who start down a certain dietary path end up

failing and going back to their old dietary patterns.

 

With these facts in mind I try to find the middle ground - a way for

people to eat in a healthier way and at the same time not feel 'like

a stranger in a strange land' - dieting is a stress and the more

familar the foods are the easier it is for people to eat them. In

India people can move much more easily (although they have all of

the same problems as westerners - like sweet cravings etc.) from

ordinary traditional diets to healing diets - because the transition

is not as unfimilar. In the west eating simple foods for many seems

unbearably boring and unfimilar - because they are addicted to

strong tastes and qualaties in foods.

 

This is why they are in trouble because of eating foods that because

of their unbalanced quality have created imbalance in them. The

poster who started this thread said that how can diet be the answer

to disease processes that diet did not cause. She could not be more

wrong - the number one cause of acquired disease is WRONG DIET - and

stopping wrong diet and starting 'natural' diet will solve most

disease processes in short time. As I said this is not easy to do

and will be achieved by a very few. Natural life has become unatural

for millions and it is impossible for them to return to their

biological roots - these patterns are why we are in a world wide

health crisis. It is a crisis of poor diet and other unatural living

patterns. Many styles of modern eating create both excess and

defeciency diseases. People who eat huge amounts of non-nutrious

food have diseases caused by excess calories but because the food is

defecient in nutrients - they will simultaneously be undernourished -

and because of excess qualaties in foods - like sweet taste or sour

or bitter the organs are damaged and can not be healed until these

excess qualaties are removed from the diet.

 

Western science dietary concepts based on traditional western diets

have generally not achieved the level of sophistication of Eastern

concepts. But they are developing new concepts that even if they are

not based in firm natural law - still they are not contrary to many

TCM concepts - in fact some important issues are completly

consistant with Eastern ideas. One of these scientific pathways - is

the Zone Diet concept of Berry Sears - this started a whole movement

in dietary theory - many diets have come out of these ideas - one I

like is the South Beach diet because it seems like the easiest for

many to follow. Without going into the complicated science behind

this diet - suffice it to say that it is a simple one to follow -

the more simple the greater chance of compliance - it is basically

the modern western diet with the majority of carbohydrates removed.

Eat all of the meat - vegetables (excluding root vegetables like

potatos) and low glycemic fruits as you want. Eat these foods

basically the way every body else does -meaning you can go to

restuarants or to a friends or a family dinner without seeming wierd

by everyone elses standards. Just cut out the starches and sugars.

Plenty of salads and vegis and a few fruits - with meat, fish, eggs -

as you can see this is getting close to traditional healing diets.

This is in no way my idea of a perfect diet - but it is a diet that

a larger percentage can follow. Anyone following such diets will

lose weight relatively rapidly and in the process break their

Insulin Resistance.

 

My personal ideals in diet are differnt from these diets - but I do

not advocate my ideals to most people because they would not be able

or even interested in following them. I advocate my ideals in diet

in public and to general audiences but on an individual basis I try

to undestand what is possible for this individual.What one is trying

to get others to achieve is something that will be consistant with

their own model of reality - because it is not possible to get most

of them to understand or accept your model of reality - and even if

they do understand the likelihood that they will take it up and

start eating that way is very slim. Practice of medicine is dealing

with the real world and with real people not abstract theories of

healing.