Food as Medicine
Certain foods and methods of cooking can be used medicinally for specific conditions. While it's always important to have appropriate medical care, some dietary changes can have a big impact. Here's a look at some basics from Chinese dietary theory.
Bone Broth
Long cooking methods help extract valuable nutritional components like collagen and glucosamine from bones and connective tissue. While higher doses in supplement form can be more noticeable short-term, consuming bone broth regularly can contribute to a healthy lifestyle and potentially less need for supplements later in life. Click here for more info and a recipe.
Nourishing the Blood
In Chinese dietary (or medical) theory when we talk about nourishing or tonifying, we often refer to qi or blood (although there are other substances we can work with like yin or yang).
Most food gives us qi, that's why we eat it. Blood is a more difficult concept to the Western mind. To build the blood we are talking about some plants and animal products that nourish on that deep level. In a western sense they often replenish trace minerals like iron or sulfur or support our body's ability to make hemoglobin or new blood cells.
Lamb and grass fed beef are great animal sources for nourishing the blood, while beets and leafy greens are go-to's from the plant kingdom. Chinese dietary therapy does typically encourage a diet with some red meat, especially for menstruating women, but iron and iodine can also be found in seaweed and spirulina.
Female vegetarians of menstruating age may also be encouraged to try a blood building herbal formula, especially if there is discomfort present with the cycle. For more information or suggestions, please contact us.