 How should you really be eating according to traditional or classical Chinese medicine? Now in this video, I want to introduce you to not only the foundations of dietetics or the traditional Chinese medicine diet, but also the overall encompassing theory of how diet plays into the underlying Chinese medical theory. Hey guys, I'm Alex Hein, author of the book Master of the Day and current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. So there's a little bit of background theory we need to go through to talk about how diet is approached in classical Chinese medicine. So the very first thing is that organs are associated with certain natures and flavors. So what that means is, for example, the spleen and the stomach are an organ pair that are linked, and they are associated with the flavor of sweet. The long and large intestine, they are an organ pair, and they are associated with the flavor of spicy or acrid. The kidney and the bladder are considered an organ pair, and they are associated with salty. The liver and the gallbladder are an organ pair, and they are associated with the flavor sour. And then the heart and the small intestine are an organ pair, and they are associated with the flavor bitter. Now what this means is that the ancient physicians observed that there was a relationship between certain foods and certain organs. So for example, with spicy or acrid and the lung, it might be like, why is this some hippy stuff? But if you think about what happens when you eat some really spicy chilies, what's the first thing that happens? Well, first of all, your nasal passages open up like this. Mucous starts coming out of your nose and your throat and starts salivating. The lungs open up more. It's because of the spicy nature of that food. And this is what the ancients observed regarding how food affects physical organs in the body. But the first concept here is understanding the energetics of food. So really what this just means is understanding the chi and the flavor. So the chi is typically the temperature of the food. And the flavor is the five flavors that we just talked about. So the chi could be, for example, hot, warm, neutral, cool, or cold. And the flavors are typically sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, salty. So some examples of the chi or the temperature are something that's hot would be something like alcohol or ginger, chilies, or peppers. Cool could be fruit juices or tomatoes, bananas. As far as meats go, warmer meats are beef and chicken. And then grains, for example, are typically on the cooler side of the spectrum, like barley, tofu, and wheat. So now when we expand this a little bit, and we associate certain flavors and foods with certain organ systems, this is what this begins to look like. You have the spleen in the stomach, which are associated with sweet, and are also associated with bananas, chicken, milk, pork, potatoes, and wheat. The lung and large intestine are associated with spicy or acrid, and are associated with things like garlic, ginger, or chilies. The kidney and the bladder are associated with salt, like salt, crayfish, or oysters. The liver and gallbladder are associated with sour, like apples, grapes, plum, and even some cheeses. The heart and the small intestine are associated with bitter, with things like celery root, coffee, some tea, and some lettuces. All right, so what does all this actually have to do with illness and with medicine? There are two really important concepts that it comes down to when it comes to what to eat based on your body, your constitution, your body's preferences, which one could call constitution, and if you already have an illness or not. So the first habit is to balance flavor and nature inside your own body based on where your body currently is. So let's say, for example, you have heat symptoms in your body. You always run hot, your face gets flushed easily, you sweat easily. The foundational principle is to avoid eating too much hot and spicy food. Pretty obvious, right? If you're already that hot, you probably don't even crave eating spicy foods to begin with. But you can also add in the addition of more cooling foods, cucumber, fruits, some of the grains that we mentioned before, as well as a whole list of cooling things. The second habit is to basically eat in certain ways that are associated with the health of the organ that you may have out of balance. So again, this is not necessarily something that would show up on a biomedical blood test or an exam from your physician. This is a Chinese medical diagnosis. So let's say, for example, like me, you have something called spleen chi deficiency. You show symptoms of bloating, of constipation, or even loose stools. You look pale, you're kind of low energy, you feel weak and tired sometimes. This would be a dietary approach for someone with spleen chi deficiency. And some of the key habits would be, for example, avoiding having larger meals, because that by itself puts more stress on the digestive process. Avoiding the overall flavor of excessive sweet, sugar and sweet things, because if you have a weak spleen, your body's already having a hard time digesting those. Avoiding too many cooling foods, because again, your digestion overall prefers warmth, but especially in the case of a spleen chi deficient person. The fourth would be avoiding dairy, because it's considered cold and damp. And cold is bad for the spleen when there's already weakness in this case of a person that has a weak spleen and dampness is you can associate it with phlegm, for example, like if you have a whole bunch of yogurt, and you have mucus and saliva, that's bad for a person with an already weak spleen. And then finally, you should eat more meat and fish because we talked about that are more warming. And then have more warming vegetables, warming teas and warming spices and flavors. And this is considered what's called a constitutional approach to wellness, the overall management of your unique body over the length of your lifetime. These are specific processes and recommendations you should follow in addition to obviously medical treatment. So I hope that helps. That's kind of a rough introduction to how to balance what to eat and what Chinese dietetics really looks like in regard to your unique constitution. So I hope that helps. The best way to stay in touch is grab my free guide on my website on how to add 10 years to your life with classical or traditional Chinese medicine at alexhine.com forward slash free. And you can watch my most recent videos here and here on similar subjects.