TCM (traditional chinese medicine)

[FLuwrchLd]

I am just curious anyones opinion on this. I read that in Chinese medicine they state that too many raw fruits and veggies can cause an imbalance of yin and yang in the body?

[lovenlife]

My naturopath spoke of this to me as well.

[Revvell]

What's "too many"?

I've studied TCM and, much of it is valid yet, understand where it's coming from... China? What's a "too many" to them as opposed to those of us who live here in the States, especially the warmer climates?

You've got to look at the bigger picture. There's more involved in TCM than that one statement.

[RawKnitster]

There are other ways to balance yin and yang. Sunlight on your skin can be used to increase the body's internal fire. Some raw foods are warming and can be used to find balance. Hot spices and gingerroot. I put fresh gingerroot in salad dressing. And I have at least one cup of hot herbal tea every day, usually with fresh ginger added.

[green jeanie]

hi there

tcm acupuncturist/raw foodist here

i've got a long post on this somewhere.....hope you can find it :D

[MrsJohnnyG]

I posted about this last year when my acupuncturist mentioned this to me. RawKnitster's reply sums up perfectly the solution I decided upon:

There are other ways to balance yin and yang. Sunlight on your skin can be used to increase the body's internal fire. Some raw foods are warming and can be used to find balance. Hot spices and gingerroot. I put fresh gingerroot in salad dressing. And I have at least one cup of hot herbal tea every day, usually with fresh ginger added.
Now that cold weather is here, I am obeying my body's cry for warmer foods by consuming hearty raw soups warmed in the Vitamix and sometimes food warmed in the dehydrator. I do drink more than one cup of herbal tea each day, though (at least during winter -- but I steep it longer in not-as-hot water), and sometimes miso soup (made from organic adzuki, not soy) with kelp... in warm, not hot, water of course.

[Shine]

From Green Jeanie...


100% RAW FOOD ACUPUNCTURIST/HERBALIST here

(bastyr grad, trained in china, 12 years experience etc etc etc)


i have a lot to say about this and of course not any time to say it as i am in the office right now


much of what is taught in acupuncture schools across the country on this topic comes from literally one sentence in a book over 3,000 years old. Clearly, translation and context can often be overlooked and simplified. IMO this advice for warming / dry foods is in the context of exhaustion of the digestive system.....these are MEDICAL texts after all. The prescription that would follow would be for well cooked foods that are often blended and therefore very easy to digest..........ahem.....similar to green smoothies and juice

one may also stop and consider that 3,000 years ago bacteria and food born pathogens were an entirely different thing....ever wonder what a 3,000 year old refrigerator looks like....??
to this day in china all water HAS TO be boiled to be consumed....ever wonder how a culture becomes the conoisseur of tea?

there is an epidemic of hepatitis and they use human feces on vegetables...so, yes i think cooking the hepatitis out of your breakfast is a good suggestion for long life


on the flip side: where were the oil spills, gas leaks and pesticides....do you ever wonder how you would be respond to raw food if you hadn't been exposed to a single mcdonalds birthday party or easter bunny???
would you need to detox if you had been eating whole organic food everyday forever?? wouldn't you warm up your food if you lived outside in the winter or choose ginger roots instead of watermelon ??

have you ever seen an obese asian person????

makes you think the standards/needs may be a little different
The concept of damp/cold really does refer specifically however to sugary fruits and as we all know too much simple sugar is NOT HEALTHY and must be balanced with greens and other foods. However, again, these texts are specifically advising on no cold/damp for people with pathology and disease in their spleen/pancreas function. aka diabetes aka the no diabetes RAW protocols of gabriel cousens which exclude all sugary fruit for up to 3-6 months!

what i observe in this topic is that there is a glitch in thinking in both the acupuncturist world and in the raw food world. And yes as posted above, certain diets are more appropriate for specific people and individual health concerns

Now I know as post modern /industrialist /techies we are never satisfied with ANYTHING and tend to have sentimental value for "ancient tradition" or be looking for the "next best thing"

but unfortunately, we have to think

andfortunately, we live at a time when we are blessed with abundance of information, resources and choice

xooxxo gj

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49346

Still looking for more as this has interested me for a couple years now.

[Revvell]

Still looking for more as this has interested me for a couple years now.


One of the books I've studied in the topic ~ "Chinese Medical Qigong Thereapy ~ A comprehensive Clinical Text" by Jerry Alan Johnson.