diet

[Guest guest]

, " yehuda frischman " <@j.

...> wrote:

I

> am absolutely convinced that we need to place much emphasis on

> healing ourselves and our patients COMPREHENSIVELY with foods, using

> our differential diagnoses to plan specific diet recommendations, and

> not take a one shoe fits all approach, as an important complement to

> herbs and acupuncture.

 

While I agree about the fundamental importance of diet to healing and do

not believe in a one size fits all approach in general, my experience in

this area may be helpful. Nutrition was my first interest in the world of

healthcare and it remains a major concern of mine. I constantly tell my

students that it is not a vacuity of acupuncture that causes illness. It

is emotions, climate and diet. Unless one attends to those, no lasting

healing can occur.

 

However, when one looks around at the average american, it is clear that

tremendous gains in health could be made just from losing weight by

limiting portion size. If no other change was made but that, our health

statistics would look a lot more like Japans and frances than they

currently do. In order for this to happen, a few general changes have to

occur, mainly centered around the use of whole grains, quality animal

foods and fats, elimination of sugar and white flour, increasing vegetable

and fiber intake. These general changes are hard to make but essential

regardless of what else a person might do that is more specific. I

believe the vast majority of one's benefit from dietary changes comes from

such GENERAL changes. In addition, if one follows the GENERAL chinese

admonition to not eat excessive amounts of spicy, greasy, cold or raw

foods there is further benefit. And if one does some tailoring like

decreasing damp foods in the obese or increasing blood nourishing foods

and digestive condiments in those who are vacuous, then even better.

 

On the other hand, compliance for anything more detailed than what I have

mentioned above drops to about zero within a month for all but the most

dedicated. For example, once you start telling people they can eat

broccoli but not spinach or some such thing, you disrupt their lives way

too much. I think its better for my patients to eat lots of veggies

regardless of what veggies they are. There may be some minute benefits

from extreme micromanagement of the diet, but I do not believe they are

generally worth the effort. I have certainly not seen such precise

dietary regimen make the decisive difference in either major or minor

complaints.

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre

minds " -- Albert Einstein