This is our first post to the blog on the new website. We have been meaning to get a blog up and running for years, and the new website format has finally given us the incentive to make it happen. We intend to post regularly on a variety of topics, both directly and rather indirectly related to Chinese medicine and the Chinese medicine lifestyle.
A new study demonstrates that the average American male has gotten even heavier—15 lbs. heavier than 20 years ago! The obesity trend continues despite decades of public health education and the introduction of low-fat, “healthy” foods. Over the last 40 years, Americans have shifted from beef to chicken, whole milk to low-fat, regular soda to diet soda, but we keep gaining weight. It is time to recognize, once and for all, that the theories of modern nutrition fall short of keeping us thin and healthy. If it is really all about the calories, then why do people get fatter drinking diet sodas? When is the change from fatty beef to lean chicken going to pay off in a thinner population less likely to die of heart disease?
Chinese medicine has good explanations for the areas where Western nutritional theory falls short. For example, the sweet flavor, in traditional Chinese thinking, moistens and creates fluids that, in excess, congeal to form adipose tissue, fat, in the human body. It does not matter whether or not the concentrated sweetener actually contains calories. So aspartame will make you fat despite the fact that it is not "a caloric food". And, while red meat may often be high in fat, it is a neutral food--meaning neither warming nor cooling--that is less indicated for building blood and qi than chicken. These surprises for Western nutritionists are just confirmation for the Chinese doctor that Chinese medical theory is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. For those who are interested, we recommend Blue Poppy Publishing's The Tao of Healthy Eating available through Amazon or in our office. Watch for our upcoming guide on eating right using Chinese medical theory!