Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) focuses on using food to prevent and treat disease. Instead of describing foods by how much protein, fat, or calories they contain, TCM focuses on the quality of the food.
All foods have a distinct energy and characteristic properties that either make us healthy, balancing and nourishing our bodies, or create imbalances that result in sickness. This is food energetics. Knowledge of food energetics can help one build a stronger sense of health and well-being by eating different foods that impose different effects. Hence the saying “you are what you eat.”
Eating from your own garden or buying produce from the local farmers market will leave you feeling more connected to your home or local community. When you eat seasonally and locally, the body is more in touch with the natural order of things and able to maintain balance from the inside out.
It is beneficial to take advantage of cooling fruits and lighter greens in the summertime, when they are at their peak in harvest. At the same time, heartier vegetables such as deeply rooted carrots and squashes grow more abundantly in the wintertime, and add warmth to the body.
Another food energetic tip to promote health and healing is cooking and eating mindfully – slowing the pace of your meals and eating in a relaxed setting. We absorb more of the nutrients from our food when we are mindful of our meals.
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As you increase awareness about the foods you consume, consider that each food has its own unique energy beyond vitamins, minerals, fats, and carbohydrates. When we eat, we assimilate not only the nutrients, but also the energy of the food. Food has distinct qualities and energetic properties, depending on where, when, and how it grows as well as how it is prepared. By understanding the energy of food, we can choose meals that will create the energy we are seeking in our lives.
Food prepared at home by a loving person has a different nutritional effect than the exact same food prepared in a restaurant. When we eat our mother’s or grandmother’s cooking, there’s love in the food and care in its preparation, which creates a higher quality of love and energy. Invisible forces are at work, and they have an alchemical effect on the food itself. It tastes differently. It feels differently in the body. It affects us differently.
Food that is cooked by someone who loves you, who is happy to be cooking and nourishing you, can be some of the best tasting food in the world. The energy of love is passed into the food and nourishes you in ways that go beyond micro-nutrients.
There is a wonderful movie that depicts this beautifully. It is called
“Like Water for Chocolate”.
Additional Topics in the May Newsletter Include:
- Refreshing Spring Recipes
- Free pass to the Breast Cancer Prevention Global Virtual Conference
- May Webinar with Dr. James Galgano: “How Advanced Spinal Care Can Help You Heal Naturally At Any Age”
