Hello and welcome to Medical Mondays! I’m back with another alternative medicine/health post, also in the form of a book review–this time, it’s on nutritional healing with Chinese Medicine!
In Chinese culture, medicine and food share the same origin–I’m a big advocate of food as medicine, so I was really intrigued by this book!
Nutritional Healing with Chinese Medicine
By Ellen Goldsmith
Genre: Health, Alternative Medicine, Nutrition
Pages: 480
Part 1: Foundations of Chinese Medicine
The use of food for nutritional healing in Chinese medicine is classified according to yin and yang, the “thermal nature” (qi), and the classification of flavors in food. Yin is the energy of the moon and night, so it’s thought of as cooling, moistening, and nourishing. Yang is the energy of the sun–warming, motivating and energizing.
Part 2: Foundations of Chinese Dietary Therapy
In Western medicine, we tend to look at the disease mechanisms and find the parts of the body that are affected to treat the symptoms, which is especially useful in acute situations. Chinese medicine focuses more so on identifying patterns of “disharmony” and working on intervening with what’s causing it in order to stimulate healing, making it potentially helpful as an adjunct to treatment of chronic lifestyle conditions.
It goes into a lot more detail than the above, but I figured just scratching the surface might be a good way to start!
Part 3: East Meets West in the Kitchen
This section goes over how to clear out your kitchen, look at food labels, what food additives to avoid for better health, equipment needed, and also includes examples of what to stock your kitchen with in a variety of different food types (whole grains, beans/pulses/legumes, nuts/seeds, culinary herbs/spices, medicinal herbs, sweeteners, salt, dried vegetables).
One example in here is bitter melon, which has been used to stabilize blood sugar in diabetics–during our culinary medicine didactic a few months ago, one of the chefs told us about how she made a drink out of bitter melon juice, okra, lemon, and cinnamon sticks and how it’d been helping her keep diabetes in check!
Recipes For Every Season
The recipes are divided out into:
- Spring Recipes
- Summer Recipes
- Seasonal Transitional Recipes
- Autumn Recipes
- Winter Recipes
- Blood Tonic* Recipes
- Condiment Recipes
*If you’re wondering what blood tonic is, don’t freak out yet! These are basically dishes that are typically made for women after childbirth or for anyone recovering from surgery.in order to help replenish health and vitality.
I don’t know how to make too many Chinese recipes (not that all of these are Chinese recipes), but I’m excited to try a lot of em’, including the Fresh Fish Ball Soup with Napa Cabbage (I grew up having that one!), Ginger and Tangerine Peel Tea, Coconut Tapioca Pudding with Mango, and Walnut Chai, just to name a few. (There are a tonnnn of recipes that sound super good!)
There are over 175 recipes in this book! Each one includes a short intro, serving size, equipment needed, the ingredient list, instructions, and health tips associated with the ingredients used in the recipe! The only downside is that this book doesn’t include any photos at all–I’m a fan of food photography so I was a little sad about that, but I guess that just means I’ll have to make the recipes so I can add my own photos! :P
- Have you ever heard of traditional Chinese medicine? My advisor did acupuncture on me earlier this year when my face was super swollen and painful and it helped a lot! I’m not sure if I ever shared any photos from that
gloriously wonderfultime in my life, but here you go!
Check out my other book reviews!
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I don’t really know anything about Chinese medicine; sounds like an interesting read! And I hear good things about acupuncture but I’ve never done it.
-Lauren
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I hadn’t ever tried it til this year but I’ve always been curious! :]
I know close to nothing about Chinese medicine.
I don’t know that much about it either, but I’ve always been curious, so this was an interesting read!
I’ve tried acupuncture but don’t know much else about Chinese Medicine This looks interesting
I’ve always been curious about acupuncture so I’m kinda glad I got to try it this year! It definitely seemed to help for me!
Looks like a very informative book! Always nice to learn about a different perspective when it comes to medicine!
Agreed! :]
This book sounds like a great reference tool. That acupuncture looks painful (on your face!), but I’ve heard that the needles are so tiny, there’s not much of a sensation…true?
It actually didn’t really bother me much! There was an initial pricking sensation that wasn’t comfortable in the places where I had a lot more swelling/inflammation, but overall, after they were in, I didn’t feel it at all! :o
I don’t know anything about Chinese medicine but now my interest is piqued!
I’ve always found it interesting, so it was cool to read about! :]!
My family has always advocated preventative care over treatment, so this is great. My son is very literal about the Apple a day keeping the doctor away, and I’m glad of it. My husband has also been having acupuncture to help with sinus issues and it’s been fairly effective. Great stuff.
I’m glad it’s been helping! I feel like there’s definitely a place for alternative/complementary medicine, and preventive care makes such a big difference!
I used to be skeptical of food-based treatments, but the more I understand the more it makes sense. I’d be afraid to try a cookbook with no pictures— how would I know if I did it right? ;-)
I definitely wouldn’t make it the end-all-be-all of a treatment, but it can for sure make a difference! :]
hehehe, I do like having photos too, but I guess it’ll be inspiration to try em’ out so I can have my own photos for it!
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I love learning about holistic healing! That Goji Berry Wine recipe sounds easy too! Thanks for sharing this! I might check it out!
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Hope you like it if you have a chance to check it out! :]
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I’ve had good luck with acupuncture so I’d be very interested to learn more about Chinese medicine! Food really can heal!
Agreed! I’m glad you’ve had good luck with acupuncture too!
Sounds interesting! I don’t know anything about Chinese medicine. I’ve only had acupuncture once and really disliked it.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but I’m glad it exists as an alternative that works for some people! :]
super interesting. i do believe in the healing power of food. a long time ago I tinkered with an ayuvedic diet and it really helped relieve mostly the antacid and “burning” feeling I had a lot after eating certain foods. Lately I’ve been also supplementing with natural anti-inflammatories like ginger and turmeric. I would much rather get something out of my food than have to take western medicine to solve my problems. I’m also a HUGE fan of acupuncture and dry needling. I think from this book you really can’t go wrong to try some of the recipes and get a bit more knowledge about how food can help you naturally!
I’m glad that that really helped! I’ve never tried the ayurvedic diet but have definitely heard positive things from some of the people who’ve tried it! No medication is without side effects, so I’m an advocate of changing lifestyle/diet prior to starting any medication whenever possible too! I recently learned how to dry needle so I’m hoping I’ll be able to incorporate that into my future practice as well! :]
That looks like a very informative book. I haven’t tried Chinese medicine or acupuncture yet, but I’m for whatever works! :)
Agreed! :]!
Sounds like an interesting book for sure. Love learning more about western medicine.
It was definitely an interesting read! :]!