Chinese nutrition is based on the same principles that apply to Chinese medicine (TCM). How do you follow them? So much for now: it doesn't mean that we have to go out and buy Chinese food.
In China and large parts of Asia, life revolves around food. Since it is so important, it is logical that a lot is said, thought and written about it. Chinese guests are always surprised why socialising in pubs here is often limited to sharing drinks. In China, when people meet up with friends, they mainly eat and this is by no means a privilege reserved for older and wealthier people, but also applies to young students. But times seem to be changing a little.
For centuries, the Chinese have had clear ideas about what is healthy and what is not. This knowledge is still widespread among the population today and it is only the youngest generation that no longer seems to have this so prominently present. Western fast food chains have a magnetic attraction for many young people in China: iced coffee (Bing Ka Fei), bagles, burgers, chicken nuggets and wings, bubble tea: for some it is considered hip to consume such products. When I visited China in the 1980s, I swear I didn't see a single person who was overweight. Things are very different now. At least there is a certain counter-trend to the new influences from the West. This is good from a nutritional point of view, but perhaps it has grown out of the new ideological campaign, according to which everything that comes from outside is bad for China. Isolationism, revisionism and patriotism are dictates right now.
In our country, 'regional' is also increasingly trumps, but for different reasons. We want to consume food that has been grown here, because that makes ecological and climate-related sense, at least most of the time.
Local products can also be prepared and enjoyed from the perspective of traditional Chinese nutrition. So we don't necessarily have to go to Asian shops to buy foreign vegetables or even exotic animals.
Chinese dietetics divides all foods into certain categories.
The first criterion attributed to each food is its temperature behaviour: There are warm or hot products, such as chilli or ginger. Then there are cold or cooling products such as peppermint. Finally, there are also those with a neutral temperature behaviour. Rice is one of these.
The next classification categorises all foodstuffs into one of the five functional circles, also known as elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The organs and their functions correspond to each element. The kidney, for example, belongs to water. Foods that are assigned to the element water therefore have an effect on the kidneys. Pungent substances influence the lungs, neutral substances have an effect on the digestive tract, which in China is assigned to the 'spleen', whereby this does not mean our western organ spleen, but the digestive tract, which includes saliva, stomach, gall bladder, pancreas and small intestine.
The five-element doctrine is therefore a system of correspondences. Just as each element is assigned an organ, a flavour, a colour etc., every vegetable, every fruit, every type of meat, every drink and every grain is also assigned to an element. The conclusion from this is that a food and an organ assigned to the same element go together. We can now counteract certain disorders by choosing the right foods and thus restore harmony in the body and provide building blocks (yin) and energy (yang/qi) in the event of a deficiency in a functional circuit or organ.
Fünf-Elemente-Lehre
The whole thing is based on an individual categorisation. Not everyone is the same. One person tends to be cool and freezes all the time, while the other gets hot and cold quickly. The former therefore needs products that warm his body and the latter those that cool him down or at least don't heat him up any more. Because we always have to look at everything from the individual's point of view, we should never make generalised judgements about the qualities of a food. In concrete terms, we should therefore not make a general judgement on whether a particular food is good or bad, regardless of where it comes from. It is more appropriate to make a judgement that characterises the food as suitable or rather unsuitable for an individual. Even dairy products, which are generally labelled as bad by some, should not be treated in this way. There are big differences: milk is very different from cheese and hard cheese that has been aged for a long time is very different from fresh cheese. And yes, many dairy products such as yoghurt or fresh milk are actually not good for many people, especially if they are consumed cold straight from the fridge or if yoghurt is even mixed with sugar and fruit, but there are people whose constitution is so strong by nature that they can tolerate some things that others have major problems with.
In the age of globalisation, the current crisis (2022) with supply chain problems is making us think about regionality and short transport routes. Nevertheless, we want to add a little spice to our food and it doesn't grow here. Or should I say, in view of global warming: not yet? And if everyone only wanted to source their risotto rice from Ticino or the Po Valley, that would also go beyond the limits of what is possible.
The fact that our regional range of food products is smaller than in other parts of the world is largely due to the fact that we live in a climate zone where frost occurs in winter. It's good to think about where we source our food from. To eat according to the principles of Chinese nutrition, we don't necessarily need to frequent Asian grocery shops. We go there for other reasons, probably similar to when we grab a rack of lamb from New Zealand from the local wholesalers.
The clothes come from Bangladesh, the cotton from India, the iPhone is assembled in China, the microchip comes from Taiwan, the rare earths in the e-bike battery from the Congo or Mongolia - ah, life has become complicated. It certainly doesn't have to be strawberries from South Africa in winter, but rice and tea and coffee do, and sometimes chocolate from cocoa from far away.
To summarise once again: every food, no matter where it comes from, can be classified according to the criteria of traditional Chinese nutritional science and every person in their current situation can also be assessed according to the rules of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and from this we can then derive what is good and healthy, or better or worse, for each person.
Patients who visit a TCM practice because of a health problem and receive treatment with acupuncture and/or Chinese herbal formulas are well advised to discuss their eating habits with the TCM specialist, as their daily diet should not run completely counter to the herbal formulas. Simple changes in eating behaviour are often enough, such as no longer eating food straight from the fridge, but only eating warm meals. Or even simpler: no cold drinks from the fridge, but drinks at room temperature or even better, warm.
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