Understanding Food as Medicine By Laura Mignosa, NCCH


“The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.” - Hippocrates


reating and maintaining health occurs primarily as a result of our daily mental, emotional, and physical activities, and pre- dominant among these activities is something we are fortunate enough to do regularly: eat. But what do we eat for good health and what information do we follow to guide us through the roller coaster of daily living?


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Magazines, news reports, newspaper articles, and internet sources (excellent to suspicious) do their best to give us information we can use. But as well-meaning as the authors might be, the articles rarely go far enough. Most assume “one size fits all.” Most assume foods are just a conglomeration of “nutrients” as defined by bio-medicine. And, most don’t help us determine how much of the food to eat, what time of year to eat it, the specific health benefits it offers, how to prepare it, foods to combine it with, whether it’s best to purchase it fresh or fro- zen, where the food comes from, what pesticides are commonly used on it, how ripe it should be when picked, and how an individual’s digestive system digests, assimilates, and disperses the food. Traditional Chinese Medicine takes the whole person into ac- count, especially body constitution (gender, age, occupation, cur- rent balance of health, temperament, stress factors, climate, season, weather conditions at the time, along with other circumstances) before prescribing a healing diet or herbal formulation for an individual. It most certainly is not a one-size fits all program of eating, and tends not to view food mechanistically through the lens of protein, fat, car- bohydrate, and vitamin content. As in the West, the Eastern concept of temperature includes the


physical temperature of the food — piping hot or ice cold. In the East, however, temperature also refers to a food’s thermal effects on the body, such as increasing metabolism until you break a sweat or cool- ing until you feel the tingle of chills. Even for those unaccustomed to thinking in these terms, whether a food is classified as hot, warm, neutral, cool, or cold can be surpris- ingly intuitive. Warming foods include ginger, chili peppers, cinna- mon, turmeric, nutmeg, green onions, and walnuts. Cooling foods and herbs encompass peppermint, citrus, tofu, milk, lettuce, celery, cucumber, and tomato. Neutral foods include rice and many types of grains.


Cooking methods can affect the dish. In Asia, blanching, steam-


ing, pickling, and boiling are understood to have a cooling influence, while grilling, frying, roasting, smoking, searing, simmering, and cook- ing with alcohol are thought to make a dish more warming. Traditional Chinese Medicine speaks to us about food tempera- ture — an important factor for keeping our digestion system working optimally for making Qi. Its recommendations also include eating a little of a lot of things each day, limiting alcohol ingestion (as it is so hot in nature that it does not freeze), avoiding greasy, fatty foods, and


22 Natural Nutmeg March 2012


minimizing dairy products, to help keep our digestion strong enough to make enough energy to allow all our organs to work in harmony. It is winter and the organ correlation to this season is Kidney.


The Kidney energy is deep and transformational. It is responsible for all maturation, so it is not surprising to see us want to move south as we age. The fire of the Kidney goes out bit by bit if we do not help to preserve it. Foods and herbs that are warming are most needed during this


time. Part of our Chinese herbology program is learning to individual- ize a tonic: something that we do or take to keep us well and never use if we are ill. The herbs/foods used in tonics are ginseng, dried ginger, cinnamon twig, lycium berries, astragalus and other herbs that meet individual needs. The herbs are placed in a brandy to cure for 1 month. Drinking 1 tablespoon a day will warm the kidney energy and keep us strong during this harsh season. Tea can also be a choice but remember how warming alcohol is, so therefore it is used most often. I encourage you to explore the world of Traditional Chinese Medi-


cine to find your path to wellness and balance in all ways. Educate yourself and pay attention to what your body tells you. If you have doubts or feel that you need more care than you can give yourself, then I recommend seeking out a practitioner who can develop a pro- gram to meet your needs. Enjoy the recipe below!


Warming Pumpkin Curry Soup


Curry is a blend of spices, usually containing turmeric, coriander, cumin, and fenugreek, and sometimes also containing ingredients such as ginger, garlic, fennel seed, cinnamon, clove, mustard seed, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, and various types of pepper. Many of the ingredients in curries are considered warming in the


East Asian and South Asian traditions, making them a good match for anyone who tends to run cold or for eating when the weather starts to turn chilly. Here, these warming spices are enhanced in a bowl of steaming soup. (Makes 2 servings)


Ingredients:


10 to 12 ounces pumpkin or winter squash, such as the Japanese kabocha (about 2 cups when cubed) 2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola or olive oil 1 small onion, diced 1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder. A pinch salt, a pinch pepper


Directions 1. Chop the pumpkin pieces into 1-inch cubes, seeded and peeled. (Some pumpkins are quite tough, and are most easily handled by chopping the pumpkin into two, seeding it, then cutting it into wedges before peeling. A large, sharp cleaver can be helpful with this task. The seeds can be reserved for roasting.)


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