General Dietary Advice and Research
As a further aid to incorporating TCM dietary guidelines into your life, there are some useful guidelines that come to us from historical texts as well as modern research. They are listed below in historical order.
- Written in 203 AD, the Taisho Tripitaka contains a buddhist sutra entitled "Sutra Containing Pronouncements of Buddha on Buddhist Medicine" (adapted from Paul Unschuld's "Medicine in China: A History of Ideas"
- "Buddha says: There are nine causes for the premature, unexpected end to human life" The first five of these are related to ones diet and are listed below, the others are related to proper conduct:
- eating what should not be eaten - foods which are out of season or bad for you as an individual
- immoderate eating - consumption in excess of one's needs
- eating contrary to custom - eating at odd hours and eating a variety of foods which are new to your body without adjusting
- failure to discharge the old before the arrival of the new - eating before you have finished digesting the previous meal, eating when you are not hungry
- intentional retention of digested foods - basically this means suppressing natural processes such as belching, vomiting and gas as well as urination and bowel movements
- Ed Bauman, Ph.D a noted nutritional therapist and founder of Bauman College provides the following clear and concise guidelines for a healthy diet:
- Vegetables: 2-4 cups/day, raw, cooked or fermented
- Fruits: 1 cup/day, fresh, seasonal and ripe
- Seeds: 2 tablespoons/day, soaked, raw or roasted
- Whole Grains: 2 cups/day, soaked and cooked
- Legumes: 1 cup/day, sprouted, soaked and slow cooked
- Booster Foods: fish, seaweeds, herbs - garlic, ginger cayenne
- Occasional Foods: poultry, eggs, oils, avocado, olives, yogurt
- Denny Waxman, a macrobiotic counselor and educator provides the following "10 Steps to Strengthening Health":
- Sit down to Regular meals every day
- Eat slowly and chew your food well
- Stop eating at least three hours before bedtime
- Eat cereal grains and vegetable dishes with every meal
- Regularly incorporate a variety of natural, healthy foods into your diet
- Have 1 or 2 bowls of vegetable soup every day
- Give yourself a daily body rub with a hot, damp cloth
- Walk for 30 minutes every day
- Wear pure cotton clothing next to your skin
- Surround yourself with green plants
Sources and resources for further study
There are many resources which discuss nutritional theory and dietary therapies. Our nutrition resources section includes a comprehensive list of texts and websites related to nutrition. The following lecture notes were consulted for this article:
The following lecture notes were used within this section:- Garvy, J.W.: Health Zone Foods By Phase, Desert Institute of Healing Arts Eastern Medicine II handout
- Kramer, Warren: New England School of Acupuncture, Nutrition Lecture Notes
Along with the following texts:
