Diet for Health CareDiet therapy has long served as a cornerstone of Chinese health care. The Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor's Book of Internal Medicine), thought to originate in 300 B.C.E. contains the following passage: "In ancient times, people lived simply. They hunted, fished, and were with nature all day. When the weather cooled, they became active to fend off the cold. When the weather heated up in summer, they retreated to cool places. Internally, their emotions were calm and peaceful, and they were without excessive desires. Externally, they did not have the stress of today. They lived without greed and desire, close to nature. They maintained jing shen nei suo, or inner peace and concentration of mind and spirit. This prevented pathogens from invading. Therefore they did not need herbs to treat their internal state, nor did they need acupuncture to treat the exterior. When they did contract disease they simply guided properly the emotions and spirit and redirected the energy flow, using the method of zhu yuo to heal the condition." From this passage we know that Chinese physicians have long known a) that their ancestors were hunters, and b) that those ancestors were healthier than the agricultural Chinese. In his book Taoist Body, Kristofer Schipper, an ordained Taoist priest, states that early Taoists very well understood that agriculture caused a decline in health (as well as liberty). They noticed that once the Chinese people started eating a grain-based diet, they started suffering from many diseases. To explain this, early Taoist physicians hypothesized that eating grains fed "grain worms" that destroyed health. To preserve health, these physicians advised "bi gu" -- avoid grains. On the other hand, traditional Chinese medicine highly values animal products, particularly internal organs, for their nutritional and medicinal effects. Chinese medicine recommends an omnivorous diet. Lack of sufficient meat in the diet will cause blood deficiency, especially in menstruating women. From my training as well as personal and clinical experience, I have found that I agree with the early Taoists who essentially recommended what today we call a paleo diet. Paleo diet consists of eating from the four food groups of hunter-gatherers, while avoiding or minimizing foods that hunter-gatherers rarely or never consumed, primarily those introduced to human diets by agriculture or industry, but including some (like honey) that hunters-gatherers only rarely tasted. What To Eat The food groups consumed by observed hunter-gatherers include:
1. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and natural animal oils (e.g. fish oils) and fats (e.g. lard). 2. Vegetables, including roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, and seaweeds. 3. Fruits and berries, including olives and avocadoes. 4. Nuts and fats and oils derived from nuts.
I recommend that these foods make up 90% of your diet. What To Avoid With few exceptions, observed hunter-gatherers do not eat the following items:
1. Cane sugar (all versions), grain malt syrups, agavé syrup, maple syrup, honey (eaten by hunter-gatherers only occasionally). 2. Oils extracted from grains, legumes, or seeds (e.g. corn, canola, flax, soy, etc.). 3. Cereal grains and grain products (pasta, bread, etc.), especially those from the gluten-containing grains wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, or barley. 4. Legumes, beans, and pea, including peanuts. 5. Dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.)
We have many good reasons to believe that these ancient people (before 10K years ago) did not eat these foods in any significant amount, and modern scientific data indicating that the first four of these five food groups contain components harmful to human health. Sweeteners contain concentrated fructose, vegetable oils contain excessive omega-6 fatty acids, and cereal grains and legumes contain toxic proteins (e.g. gluten) and other components (e.g. lectins). For these and other reasons I recommend you avoid sweeteners, oils from grains, legumes, or seeds, cereal grains and their products (e.g. flour), and legumes at least 90% of the times that you eat. Dairy foods (milk products) lie in a gray area. Although hunter-gatherers did not eat milk products (hard to milk a wild buffalo!), humans have always consumed mother's milk. All mammal's milks share similar composition, so humans have a pre-adaptation to consumption of milk in infancy. This makes dairy foods more acceptable than the other foods on the list. Conventional cow's milk, yogurt, and cheeses all contain several problematic components (casein, lactalbumin, hormones, betacellulin, and others), and they stimulate increases in insulin release that can exacerbate disorders linked to excessive insulin, including for example obesity, acne, polycystic ovaries, and endometriosis. Thus I generally recommend minimizing intake of these dairy products. If you eat milk products regularly, you can avoid some of the drawbacks of milk by getting higher quality unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk products from grass-fed cows. Butter on the other hand has little of the problematic components but lots of good quality fat that in some ways resembles the storage fat of wild game eaten by hunter-gatherers. Generally I suggest using butter liberally, and by experiment deterimine how you respond to other dairy products. Further Reading I recommend the following books to learn more about Chinese medicine, paleo diet, or modern milk.
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