“We don’t need special appliances, trendy knives, or refrigerators that send shopping lists to our phones. What’s important is to return the preparing of our own food to its sacrosanct position. Treat making a meal like a visit to a medical office when a child is sick: full attention, deep gratitude, love in all directions.."
Food at the centre of healing
To bring food to the center of our healing practice is to redeem what seems ordinary to its natural significance. More than just the complex science of nutrition, our way with food is how we return the significance of small actions to our lives, bringing us vitality and the resonance of meaning. Our chosen diet is central here, as cooking and sharing food gives rhythm to our day while bringing the outer world to our inner body, with real consequences for health and happiness.
A living philosophy of chinese medicine
The Chinese medicine tradition is above all a collection of ways of seeing. It is the personal application of brilliant and ancient philosophy. Not abstract or dusty thinking, but the philosophy of Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu), the Dao De Jing, the philosophy of qigong and the internal cultivation arts: If you can’t live it out, it’s not yet yours.
And nowhere is this more true than in the kitchen. Kitchen?? Yes, we need to renew our relationships with our kitchens. Studying with master Jeffrey Yuen, I always loved it when he arrived at this point, slowed, smiled, and said, “There is a saying in the medicine that to be healthy you must spend two hours each day in your kitchen….” Pause for effect, more smiling. “Okay, modern times, so let’s say one hour!” The kitchen is the center of your health practice. It is where raw materials become golden, an alchemical transformation in everyday life.
Our kitchens needn’t be fancy. We don’t need special appliances, trendy knives, or refrigerators that send shopping lists to our phones. What’s important is to return the preparing of our own food to its sacrosanct position. Treat making a meal like a visit to a medical office when a child is sick: full attention, deep gratitude, love in all directions.
Assemble a simple kitchen. A stove (today a countertop induction unit will do), one good knife, a sharpening stone, a wooden cutting board, one large pot, one smaller pot, a sauté pan, and if you like, a wok or wok-like vessel. A strainer can be nice, and a wooden spoon or two for stirring. Always have on hand some real olive oil, some good butter, an oil for hi-heat cooking (these days I’m enjoying avocado oil or ghee), some toasted sesame oil, sea salt, basic kitchen herbs (refresh your old herbs at least once a year, please!), a couple of vinegars, a truly brewed soy sauce or tamari. Keep on hand basic pantry items such as a variety of grains and beans…, rice and lentils to start.
Cooking simple meals that support health
With these basics, great meals are easy to make at home. Shop for fresh greens and the daily protein (could be those lentils, or meats, fish, poultry, tofu, etc.) If you enjoy bread, it should be fresh and real; if that’s hard to find in your area or too pricey, make your own, it’s far easier than we’ve come to think. Noodles are nice to have now and again (pasta or gluten-free noodles), and simple sauces can be made with just olive oil, fresh lemon, salt, and a crack of fresh peppercorns, or for an Asian soba, just good soy sauce, a squeeze of lime juice, toasted sesame oil, and crumbled nori. Add a small piece of steamed or grilled fish on the side, or some seasoned adzuki beans, along with steamed greens such as broccoli, bok choy, or string beans. Great meals that truly support health are easy to make at home, once we get the knack of it: a healthy carb, plenty of greens, and a protein. Side dishes as you like. Use good quality ingredients (not necessarily expensive), cook simply, season well but not too much.
And of course, there is the aspect of specific health needs. We all have some health things going on, and our “things going on” shift and change, like weather or the tides. But when they seem to linger, or begin to identify our daily experience, we definitively need to shift our diet to loosen their grip. Our bodies will return to better health if we support the right changes. For this we need to learn about food energetics, at least the specifics that are important for us individually.
For a nourishing meal you can make right away, try White Fish & Mushroom Broth—a deeply restorative soup that rehydrates your body, supports your energy, and strengthens digestion.
becoming your own health director
This, then, is the lay of the land. It begins with learning the basics of food energetics and understanding the story of where we find ourselves. With this knowledge, we make strategic decisions about what to avoid and what to add. We manage our habits and we tailor our meals. If needed, we learn to spend time in our own kitchen, to remove the old tax returns from a never-used oven, to renew our spices, toss the expired grains and the teas we will never brew. We learn to cook new things, and to return simplicity to the kitchen. As we renew our cooking, as we become our individual and family health directors, we are returning a sense of home ritual to our personal health care. We are returning food to its sacrosanct place as the nourishment of life. We are redeeming what had seemed ordinary back to its true significance. The beginning of a new road.
Andrew Sterman,
NYC, July 2025
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.
