"In order to cultivate this level of health, one of the essential factors is a balanced diet. Balanced not in materialist terms, but energetically. Here is a basic guide:..."
Chinese Medicine Nutrition: Living in an Energy World
We live, as the iconic 80’s pop song says, in a material world. And yet, we don’t. The fundamental physics from the ancient Greeks through Newton eventually yielded to the curvy view Einstein shared, and then to the mysterious vision of modern physics. As Niels Bohr wrote, "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real…” As it turns out, we live in an energy world.
In the world of health and nutrition, however, the standard advice remains firmly materialistic. “These specific foods contain these material nutrients, and we need them in these specific amounts.” If we are missing some, or someone asserts the amounts are below optimal, we are advised to supplement. In this view, we indeed live only in a material world. It is wholly Newtonian. The standard thinking is behind the times.
The Limits of Materialist Nutrition
In the material world, foods are reduced to substances: proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, oils, and so forth. This sends our minds speeding as if on a bobsled run to the idea that “more is better.” Our culture acts in fear of undernourishment, even as most modern health conditions are results of excess. The key to a new way of thinking is that we don’t absorb or assimilate all the nutrients that we eat. The materialist view ultimately fails here. We may eat sufficient dietary iron, for example, yet remain iron deficient. Our focus needs to be on absorption, and that brings us to organ function.
Chinese Medicine Nutrition and Food Energetics
In the dietary tradition of classical Chinese medicine, nutrition is not defined by what we eat, but by what we ultimately assimilate and utilize. This shifts the focus from the material food to the function of digesting. To be truly nourished, our focus needs to be on the health of our digestive system. Start with constitutional energy (called source qi and associated with the kidneys), then move to the organs of digestion that create qi, (the stomach, spleen-pancreas, and small intestine). From there, focus on the way blood is built and circulated up to the chest (the organs that manage our sense of spirit—heart and lungs), and then the complex functions of the liver and gallbladder (the organs that govern the smooth circulation of overall vital energy). If all goes well, we have enough energy to “repay” the spark from the kidneys that starts this cycle, every single day. When this is in place and well harmonized, we wake with an appetite, eat well, digest comfortably, go about our activities with sustained focus, relax well in the evening, enjoy work and non-work activities, then sleep deeply. This ideal is as rare as it is simple. In order to cultivate this level of health, one of the essential factors is a balanced diet. Balanced not in materialist terms, but energetically.
A Guide to Eating for Energetic Balance
Here is a basic guide:
• We need to include foods in our daily diet that support the energetics of digestion, and these foods are the healthy carbs: good quality grains, sweet potatoes, and gourds such as butternut squash. These are best steamed or baked, to support digestion itself.
• We need to include wet-cooked foods that nourish our fluids, such as soups, stews, broths, and morning porridges.
• We should have blood-building foods daily, including dark berries, red meats, root vegetables, dark leafy greens, richly colored beans, and so forth.
• We need healthy oils every day, of varying kinds, including olive oil, avocados, eggs, butter, and/or nuts and seeds.
• We benefit from skillful use of kitchen herbs and spices to ensure good digestion of these real foods.
• We benefit from foods that help the liver and gallbladder work well, for example, string beans, bean sprouts, lentil soups, and herbs such as fresh dill, parsley, cilantro, and dried herbs including rosemary, oregano, cumin seed, and so forth.
• The heart doesn’t need direct help, but it’s good to protect it by not hurting it with sticky, sludgy things like processed foods, deep-fried foods, piles of refined carbs, excess sugar, and of course, stress-eating, which is a type of self-medication aimed at sedating the pains of life that we don’t yet have the courage to face and resolve squarely.
• We benefit from foods that strengthen the kidneys and our constitutional health, such as mushrooms, seaweeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, and shellfish.
• And since each of us has certain energetic ruts and health conditions, small or large, we need to eat in a way that stops holding us in place and supports resolving problems so as to open to a new level of health and vitality.
Balancing Organ Systems Instead of Nutrients
The energetics of food can feel complex. It’s very good to begin broadly, refining our skill as interest and experience grow. Just as experimental physicists find stunning common ground with meditation masters rooted in age old systems of insight, so the new way of balancing diet harmonizes easily with classical medicine teachings from millennia ago. Some of the foods are different, but the way of seeing is familiar deep in our bones, deep in our hearts. We don’t need to balance nutrients, we balance by providing support for our major internal organ system functions. Think simply: what am I eating today that supports my kidneys, my spleen-pancreas-metabolism, my stomach, lungs, liver, gallbladder, large and small intestines, my blood and other fluids including my complex of hormones, and perhaps above all, am I nourishing myself in such a way that my heart is free and unencumbered?
To explore these ideas further, see my book Welcoming Food for practical guidance and delicious recipes.
Real Food for Energetic Balance
And if we eat real foods instead of ultra-processed industrial food-things, if we eat richly colored vegetables, healthy grains, good oils, some animal food, some nuts, seeds, mushrooms, and if we encourage good land use through supporting organic farmers, our diets will be automatically well-balanced from not only the materialistic view, but in the curvy and mysterious ways of the world as energy.
For examples of meals designed to support digestion, organ health, and overall vitality, see recipes like Small Yellow Beans with Kale and Brown Rice with Tahini Sauce
Welcoming Food Books
The two-volumes of Welcoming Food by Andrew Sterman explains Chinese medicine food energetics in clear, practical terms, with simple recipes and step-by-step guidance for using food to maintain or return to optimal health.
