Chapter 1 You Can Make Yourself Tall, Attractive, Fair-Skinned and Nice by Eating

1.1 Dietetic therapy of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is our “nutrition”

Teenagers have a strong demand for nutrition when they grow up in adolescence, thus parents often pay great attention to their nutrition. Like many families, mothers often make angelica ginger mutton decoction, barley porridge and so on for their kids. In fact, students may not know that such delicaciesserve as medicine and food with a good tonifying effect.

A saying in The Book of Changes goes like this: “Alternation between yin and yang is called the way. To spread and carry on it is of goodness and to perfect and persevere in it is of nature. A benevolent man who finds similarity between the way and benevolence calls the way benevolence, a wise man who finds similarity between the way and wisdom calls it wisdom, commonfolks are not aware of the existence of the way but make use of it in their daily life. Consequently, few understand the way in full as superior men do.”

This sentence means that the change of yin and yang is called the way. Being

Anecdotes about food-therapy one after another is good, and being perfect and continuous is of nature. From the perspective of the benevolent, it is called benevolence; from that of a wise man, it is called wisdom. Common folks stay with the way of yin and yang every day yet without knowing it at all, so it is no wonder that the way of gentleman remains unknown.

Every day, you students get in touch with such ingredients, and it is helpful for your diet if you can acquire more knowledge about medicine and food homology. Since Chinese food therapy is a great treasure of China, if we use it every day but just tell little about it , isn’t it a great pity? It is just the same as we are in a garden, but know nothing about flowers. That is why we wrote this book.

Food therapy of TCM originated from primitive society. In the process of fighting against mother-nature, our ancestors gradually came to realize that some animals and plants are not only available for eating but also for curing diseases, thus having accumulated experiences of food treatment.

With the emergence and use of pottery, food-processing is not limited to just “burn meat by fire” and “cook grain on stone”. Cooking methods turned to be more diversified and food tasted better. During this period, a book named Spring and Autumn Annals of Lu family recorded the appearance of liquor like “Yidi making liquor ”. But at first liquor was only made by natural fermentation of food-oriented crops and fruits, and then came the edible liquor and medicinal liquor with complex components.

Yi Yin, a minister of the Shang Dynasty, reformed the cooking utensils, invented food like congee and decoction et al, and created the eating ways like boiling and drinking soup by removing residues. The 5th century BC in the Zhou Dynasty saw the appearance of a special “food doctor” in charge of diet, nutrition and health-care, followed by physicians, surgeons (sore and wound doctors) and other practitioners, showing how people valued the food therapy at that time.

With the establishment of the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, dietetic therapy, as a branch of traditional Chinese medicine, was discussed by ancient doctors. Huangdi’s Internal Classic , the first medical canon in China, proposed in Plain Conversation. Major Discussion on the Administration of Five-motions: “To use medicine with great toxicity to treat a disease, the rule is to stop the use of it when 60% of the disease is cured; to use medicine with moderate toxicity to treat a disease, the rule is to stop the use of it when 70% of disease is cured; to use medicine with mild toxicity to treat disease, the rule is to stop the use of it when 80% of the disease is cure; to use medicine with no toxicity to treat disease, the rule is to stop the use of it when 90% of the disease is cure; then the patient should take food, meat, fruit and vegetables to build up health. Care should be taken to prevent excessive use of medicine lest Zhengqi (Healthy-Qi) be hurt .” The effect of dietetic therapy was highly valued in the book.

You students may know Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was respected as “A medical saint”. When treating exogenous diseases, he pointed out that after taking Guizhi decoction, some hot porridge should be taken to help the absorption of the medicine. He also warned that during the period of taking medicine , raw, cold, sticky and pungent food should be avoided. Now diet has been specifically applied in adjuvant treatment due to its effects.

The Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty witnessed the publication of many monographs on food therapy. Sun Simiao advocated in Volume 24 Valuable Prescriptions for Emergecy that: “A doctor must first understand the pathogen, know the types of the disease and treat it with food. If food therapy doesn’t work and then there should be medication.” In other words, people should rely on a reasonable diet rather than taking medicine to keep healthy. Doctors should first figure out the cause of the disease and treat it with food therapy. If the food therapy fails to work well, medicine can be a second choice. It was exactly under the guidance of this concept that Sun Simiao himself lived for more than 100 years, which made people at that time and in later periods accepted his theory of dietetic therapy and health preservation.

Anecdotes about food-therapy

In the Song Dynasty, the book Comprehensive Recording of Sage-like Benefit specially set up a part to introduce different methods of dietetic therapy for various diseases. In the Song Dynasty, Chen Zhi in his book Health Preservation by Diet for the Old put forward the idea about the health care for the elderly and emphasized the dietetic therapy. Hu Si hui, the chief physician of diet in the Yuan Dynasty, discussed a lot on diet for healthy people based on the heritage of food, nourishment and treatment in his book Principles of Correct Diet, the first monograph of nutrition in our country. The book Compendium of Materia Medica compiled by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty listed more than 300 kinds of cereals, vegetables and fruits, and over 400 kinds of animal-oriented medicine, all of which can be used in food therapy.

Now, with the enhancement of our national strength, Chinese food is becoming more and more popular in the world. However, for foreigners, they just enjoy the delicious food, but for us, we can enjoy the delicacies and take care of our health as well.

1.2 Food is the best medicine for human beings

Chinese ancestors obtained natural medicine from mother-nature and formed a unique theory of Chinese medicine which was closely related to our daily diet. Medicine can be taken as food which can also be used as medicine, thus having formed food therapy and medicated diet. There is a saying:

“Food therapy is better than

medicine.”

As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the idea of health preservation “medicine and food homology” and “food preservation and food therapy” was recorded in ancient Chinese medicinal documents. It is well known to all that daily dietetic material can prevent and cure diseases. If a family member catches a cold, normally drinking a bowl of soup boiled with several slices of raw ginger and shallot white with brown sugar works well.

In fact, in Chinese medicine and medication, there is no clear boundary between medicine and food materials. For example, hawthorn can promote digestion and invigorate spleen, activate blood and resolve stasis, with the function of astringent dysentery; when it is taken as food, it is sweet and sour. Mutton has the effect of warming yang, so its decoction can help students with cold hands and feet in winter.

Think about this question twice: in daily life, if such herbs or animal meats with medicine and food homology are taken as food to nourish our health, can we have the ability to fight against the disease before it happens? In this case, when we fall ill , it is unnecessary to take those bitter decoctions.

Food nourishment serves to help us to become healthy by combining the nutritional effects of food with our body to strengthen our capability of physical resistance and immunity. For instance, when we are ill , our families always prepare a bowl of nice chicken soup. In summer after school, mothers often make a cup of cool mung-bean soup for us in advance to clear our inner heat. Such actions may be interpreted as some casual care, but they are actually effective ways to treat diseases by food.

In contrast to medicine, the purpose of food is to correct our deviation and keep us in a long-term healthy state. However, medicine is the way for treating disease when we are unhealthy. So, food therapy is more fit for the health-preservation essence represented by “treat the disease before its onset but not after”. Medicine has failed on the starting line in the long-distance running to serve health for human beings.

What’s more, food is more natural, green and harmless compared with medicine . No matter how neutral the medicine is in nature, man is always worried about its least poison, but for food, we don’t seem to have this worry at all.

Take you teenagers as an example. You are at the peak time of study, so you can take more food like peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame, pine nuts, hazelnuts et al to invigorate the brain and calm your mind. Carrot, pork liver and muskmelon

Anecdotes about food-therapy are good to prevent shortsightedness. Such food can serve as food when you are hungry and medicine when you are ill, which was well expressed by Zhang Chunxi, a medical expert in modern times in his book Integrating Chinese and Western Medicine entitled “For a sick person, food can not only treat disease but also allay hunger.” It is convenient, affordable and less adverse.

As believed by modern medicine, food therapy is a most natural and gentle way among various measures for treating and preventing diseases ; It is the fundamental way to improve life quality. Hippocrates, Father of Western Medicine, used to say: “Food is the best medicine for diseases of human beings”. This shows that Chinese and Western medical sages reached an agreement on “Food has the functions and effects to prevent and treat diseases.”

1.3 People who know food well are not likely to become ill

Food is the material for man. It can satisfy our taste buds and nourish our body. H owever, as a saying goes: “Disease comes from the mouth.” Lots of diseases are close ly related to unsuitable diet. We eat every day, but it doesn’t mean we know the correct way of eating.

As remarked in Huangdi’s Internal Classic, a traditional Chinese medical canon:“ Five kinds of grain can be used to nourish the body, five kinds of fruit can be used to assist five kinds of grain which can be used to nourish the body, five kinds of domestic animals can be used to supplement Five Zang-Organs and five kinds of vegetables can be used to enrich the viscera. Harmonic mixture of proper flavors can supplement Jing (Essence) and nourish Qi. Take the foods when they are in harmony of smell to tonify essence and replenish Qi” and “ food, meat, fruit and vegetables should be taken to build up health; care should be taken to prevent excessive use of medicine lest Zhengqi (Healthy-Qi) be hurt.”

Foods are diverse and each has its unique function. Five kinds of grains refer to Shu (broomcorn millet), Jingmi (polished round-grain nonglutinous rice), Dadou (soy bean), Xiaodou (red bean) and Mai (wheat). They serve as the staple food to nourish the human body. Five kinds of fruits are Tao (peach), Li (plum), Xing (apricot), Li (chestnut), Zao (date or jujube), which can help preserve health and invigorate our bodies. Five kinds of domestic animals are Niu (cow or ox), Yang (goat or sheep), Shi (pig), Quan (dog) and Ji (chicken or rooster), which can tonify and replenish our bodies. They can also make up for insufficient nutrients of five staple food as the main supplementary food in balanced diet. Five kinds of vegetables include Kui (sunflower), Huo (leaves of beans), Xie (acrostem onion), Cong (scallion) and Jiu (Chinese chives), which can enrich health, as the important supplementary food in balanced diet.

It is not hard to find out from the statements of sages that the importance of five kinds of grains, five kinds of fruits, five kinds of animals to humandiet structure descended. Food like wheat, corn and rice are staple, while fruits, meats and vegetables are supplements. If we mess up their order and take the fish and meat as staple food, something may go wrong with our health. Many overweight pals around you students are good examples. If you are too overweighted, in the future you will have higher risk in suffering from such diseases as hyperlipidemia, diabetes and high blood pressure.

The final objective of food therapy in TCM is to keep our body in a state of balanced diet. Precious Mirror of Health said: “What matters about food is not the amount we eat but our self-control.” It is an ancient but not old view on food diet to insist on a proper combination of five grains, five fruits, five animals and five vegetables without food partiality, preference and overeating, which is also a balanced diet advocated by modern nutrition.

In addition, according to TCM: “Five flavors are harmonious and should not be partial.” Food obtains five flavors like sour, bitter, sweet, acrid and salty. These five flavors have their unique channels and preferable zang and fu which are there and not

Anecdotes about food-therapy because of five flavors. Too much intake of salty food stagnates the blood vessels and changes the countenances. Too much intake of bitter food makes the skin dry and bodyhair lose. Too much intake of sour food causes wrinkled thickness of muscles and the chap of lips. Too much intake of sweet food leads to the pain of bones and loss of hair. These are the impairments caused by too much intake of five flavors.”

The above statements mean that the fundamental principle of diet should follow: “Diet is organized and five flavors are harmonious.” You are not supposed to prefer a specific flavor to another just because of personal appetite. In addition, Zhang Gao in the Song Dynasty pointed out in On Medicine that human taste should be: “Throw away the fat and greasy, control the sour and salty”. We should center on light vegetarian food in daily life and eat less fat, sweet, greasy, sour and salty dishes.

In addition, as recorded in Huangdi’s Internal Classic : “Sages cultivate yang in spring and summer while nourishing yin in autumn and winter.” “So, sages preserve health b adapting themselves to the cold and heat.” Foodies know how to adapt themselves to the “ time of mother-nature” and center on food with different properties and flavors in accordance with different seasons, climates and time so as to adapt themselves to the changes concerning environment as well as yin, yang, Qi and blood of human beings.

For instance, in spring, with the ice and snow thawn , all creatures are awake and weed begins to sprout. This is what the ancients called “In the first three months of spring, all creatures on the earth begin to grow.” At this time, the corresponding changes also appear in humanbodies, so you had better take in some food to help promote the body yang, such as common yam rhizome, lotus seeds, euryale seeds, hyacinth beans, leek, crucian carps, water chestnuts, peanuts, dried longan aril and so on.

In spring, it is frozen with hard ice and thick snow. To adapt ourselves to such severe frozen setting and store enough energy to survive the winter, the tonifying diet should follow the warm-tonifying principle. Most of such products for winter tonifying are nourishing and slimy medicine, or fatty and greasy food, especially those so-called “animal medicinal and edible tonics” with the best nourishing effect.

Humans eat to live. Eating seems like a piece of cake, but it matters a lot because it is closely related to our health. The leading function of eating is to fill the stomach, then to satisfy our taste buds and to preserve health. A foodie is not likely to fall ill and good wish for all foodies after reading this book.

1.4 Ingredients have their own “properties”

You students may know the witticisms: “Doll clays also have a little bad-temper!” Both human beings and animals, large and small, have their own temper. But do you know this? The same is true of plants!

Facing the yummy hotpot, some people enjoy it very much while some do not. Because after eating, they might suffer from a red and swollen throat, or have acnes on the face, which all mean they have inner heat. The word “heat” refers to the “property” of pricklyash peel and chili. The hot and spicy hot pot is like a small buffalo with badtemper. If you pair with a similar temper, the result is that you can’t deal with it, on the contrary, you might even be bitten by it.

TCM holds that food contains four properties: cold, heat , warmth and coolness, which means food has four different features. If you know its properties and flavors well and take in properly, it can help a lot to nourish your body, if not, some side- effects would occur.

Generally speaking, warm and hot food has the effects of warming the middle , tonifying deficiency and eliminating cold, so it is fit for those people with deficiencycold constitution and better to be taken in winter. Such food includes beef, venison, chicken, eel, leek, walnuts, lychee, durian and so on. Food with cold and cool properties can clear inner heat, purge inner fire and remove toxin, fitting for people with inner-heat

Anecdotes about food-therapy constitution, reddish complexion and eyes, yellowish urine and dry excrement . Foods like cucumbers, bitter gourds, watermelons, pears, green beans, crabs, pork, beer et al belong to such category.

According to TCM’s principle of “Treat inner-heat with cold and treat cold with inner-heat”, people with cold constitution should nourish the body by eating warm and hot food, while those with hot constitution should cool their body with cold food. If a person with lots of sweat and inner-heat eats some over-nourishing ingredients like raw ginger, green onion, leek, chili, mutton, dog meat, it is undoubtedly like adding fuel to the fire.

Just like the way of how people get together. Only those people with complementary personalities can stay peacefully. Two strong persons , if put together, are doomed to fight against each other, just like Zhang Fei and Li Kui. It is the same case with man and food.

Further study on the food property uncovers that some kinds of food have their preferable organs, namely, they like to play wiith certain organs after entering the human body. For example, raw ginger, cinnamon and hawthorn are good for spleen and the appetite; persimmon and honey can nourish yin, moisturize dryness and stop coughs; mustard and water chestnuts can resolve phlegm and are good for lungs; wolfberry and pig liver can enhance vision and are good for liver. All these show the “little temper” of food.

Having known the “little temper” of food can consciously guide us to make good use of them to function on specific organs. For instance, you can choose hawthorns when you have no appetite because your spleen is weak in its functions . You can brew wolfberries for tea when you have dry eyes due to deficient liver blood.

Chinese food therapy stresses different properties, flavors and functions of food, that is to say, use food’s partial likes to adjust Qi, blood, yin and yang to reinforce healthy Qi and eliminate pathogen so as to reach the state that “only when yin at peace and yang is compact can Jingshen (Essence-Spirit) be normal.” Knowing and fully understanding food characteristics and choosing the ones suitable to our constitution can help to prevent diseases and preserve health. Knowing cold and hot properties of food, we can select suitable foods with the right seasoning and cooking-methods to adjust or even change their functions.

Then in daily life, what kinds of different properties do some common food have? Let’s see briefly:

Cold food: Commonly used ones are mulberry, purslane herb, dandelion, day lily, wax gourd, watermelon, bitter gourd, crab, seaweed, mung bean, kelp, mung bean sprouts, tomatoes, melon and so on.

Hot foods: Commonly edible ones include chili, pricklyash peel, pepper, cinnamon, dried ginger, wine vinegar, fennel, broad beans, coriander, mutton and so on.

Warm foods: Commonly edible ones are mustard, greens, onion, garlic, leek, carrot, raw ginger, peach, lychee, longan aril, citrus, papayas, brown sugar, dates, grapes, glutinous rice, walnuts, oolong tea, beef, chicken, goose meat, shrimps, crucian carps, eels and silver carps, etc.

Cool foods: Commonly edible ones are pear, banana, sugarcane, olives, chrysanthemum, loofah, cucumbers, rapeseeds, amaranth, celery, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, spinach, lotus roots, taro, egg-plants, radishes, spinach, tofu, fungus, rabbit meat, black fish, eels, frogs and turtles, etc.

Foods of nutural nature : The commonly edible ones are beans, sesame, yams, peanuts, lily bulbs, soybeans, corns, pea, sweet yams, lentil, wheat, japonica rice, apples, loquats, mushrooms, honey, sugar, carps, eggs, duck-eggs, pork, etc.

1.5 Does “tonifying viscera by eating offals” make sense?

Son: “Dad, what on earth is this black stuff you have cooked for me?”

Anecdotes about food-therapy

Dad: “Good boy, it is the pig-marrow specially bought for you. Eat it quickly! You can have your brain tonified by taking the marrow, then you will be much cleverer than before.”

Son: “……”

Many of you might have such similar experiences. Then is it really true by following the saying “tonifying viscera by eating offals”?

In fact , the idea of “tonifying viscera by eating offals” originated from traditional medicinal theory of “Tonifying the shape by shape, organ by organ”. The main concept is to use the food or the offal similar to that in the human body in shape to tonify human organs. For example, walnuts, being like the human brain, can tonify the human brain, and kidneys, or rather animal kidneys, can tonify human kidneys.

But, is this theory reliable?

The theory of “Tonifying the shape by shape, organ by organ” is the law of TCM through long-term observation of mother-nature. TCM is an empirical medicine which can only summarize the laws by looking for common grounds against the background of being unable to study things in a micro-way. This method may not always work, but in most situations, we may find it quite interesting or even magical.

As a folk saying goes: “Frequent intake of walnuts keeps the age away”.Ancient people discovered the effect of walnuts in invigorating brain, but they failed to analyze its ingredients. Noticing the similarity between walnuts and the human head, they took this common feature and formed the saying of “Tonifying brain by brain”.

Actually, modern research shows that the reason why walnuts can tonify brain is not because it looks like the humanbrain, but because it has highly unsaturated fatty acids, like linoleic acid and linolenic acid, which can improve brain function. Vitamins and lecithin in walnuts are beneficial for improving sleep, tranquilizing nervous tension and eliminating brain exhaustion.

For instance, when a carrot is cut into two parts , the middle of its cross section is like the human pupil, and it indeed functions on brightening vision. Tomatoes look like human heart, frequent intake of it is of great help to the heart. Raw ginger looks like the stomach and it indeed has the function of nourishing the stomach.

So even though the idea of “Tonifying the shape by shape” sounds somewhat awkward, “Tonifying organs by organs” in the theory of “Tonifying viscera by eating offals” is rational to some extent.

Sun Simiao, a great medical expert in the Ming Dynasty, discovered that animal offals are closely related to human inner organs in the functions of histology, morphology and physiology, so he brought forth the theory and treatment of “Tonifying organs by organs”. For example, kidneys govern bones, so mutton bones are used to make congee to tonify bone-Qi and strengthen sinews and bones; liver is associated with eyes , thus mutton-liver is used for treating night blindness; deer kidneys are used to cure kidney deficiency and impotence due to the decline of life-gate-fire and insufficient kidney yang. Besides, one can often read offals such as the pig heart and mutton liver in ancient decoctions, which proves that the preservation of tonifying organs by organs has been under application for over one thousand years. So, if they sound no sense, why do they have such a long-term practice?

Theoretically speaking, zang-fu organs are different between TCM and what is known to all in concept. They cover a group of certain synthetic functions. For example, “liver” in TCM has concepts different from those of the liver in Westerm medicine. “Tonifying organs by organs” in TCM doesn’t narrowly mean to tonify human liver by eating animal liver, but a group of synthetic functions related to liver and gallbladder.

In all, we cannot fully trust the theory of “Tonifying viscera by eating offals”. But partial trust in it is accepted. Anyhow, the theory has been handed down by experiences with high value to us. If you are interested in it, you can keep a close eye on such ingredients. That’s very interesting !