Chinese Methods for Weight Loss

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Chinese Methods for Weight Loss
Jun 21, 2007
Dawn M. Smith
Suite101.com

Traditional Chinese Medicine's Approach To Dieting
Optimizing weight loss using herbs and a food system developed over centuries. Why Traditional Chinese Herbalists don't expect the latest fad diets to work for everyone.

Controlling weight can be a frustrating process. Especially when there are so many different weight loss diets with conflicting information about what works and what doesn’t. Each weight loss program has its proponents but no diet plan works for everyone. Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine has long been helping people lose weight. Following the philosophy of bringing the body into balance, foods are used as another tool to enhance wellness while individual differences are taken into account.

Salads May Not Be Right For Everyone
Salads are a staple of a number of weight loss diets and raw foods in general are growing in popularity for various health reasons. But these choices may be wrong for some people, especially those who tend to feel cold and fatigued.

Viewed from the Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, the digestive system is like a wood burning furnace. If the fire in the furnace is low, putting cold, wet wood on it will damp it further, perhaps even put it out. For people with poor digestion, raw foods are like that damp wood. The furnace has to work very hard to burn them. Warming or partially cooking foods may help tremendously in these cases. It isn’t necessary to cook things to death, simply sautéing or lightly steaming vegetables can enhance the ability to digest them. Most herbs and spices are warming according to TCM theory. Adding them to foods will also aid in the digestive process.

For non-vegetarians with poor digestion, it is important to cook meats well and keep the quantity low and quality high. Think of that furnace, partially burned wood is easier to burn. Hardwoods burn more slowly-meats fall into the hardwood category. Soups and stews are a staple of Chinese diets and are especially useful for those with weak digestive systems. The food is cooked slowly so less nutritional value is lost and yet the end product is easy to digest. Marinating meats is another way to ‘season the wood’ so it burns more readily.

Some people will, however, benefit tremendously from a raw food diet. Those with strong digestive systems tend to feel warm and have more energy than those with poor digestion. They are the ones likely to do well on raw diets according to Traditional Chinese Medical theory. Ideally those who decide to pursue the raw food diet for healthy weight loss should use locally grown organic vegetables where possible so that the quality and safety of the food can easily be monitored. It is important to remember to wash raw vegetables before eating no matter what the source.

When an Herbal Formula May Help
For some, these basic tips will not be enough. If the body has gotten too far out of balance it help to work with a Chinese herbalist who will provide an individual formula to enhance weight loss with herbs. The herbalist will also work with the person on specific foods that may benefit their overall health. But resist the temptation to just pick up an OTC Chinese herbal weight loss preparation. These are some of the Chinese medicines that have been contaminated often with western drugs.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine there is no magic weight loss diet but there are ways of enhancing healthy weight loss utilizing Chinese herbs and food theory.



The copyright of the article Chinese Methods for Weight Loss in Chinese Medicine is owned by Dawn M. Smith.