“Nothing Always Good, Nothing Always Bad”: The Magical Nature of Food in Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM)

“Doctors should first understand the cause of disease, then treat it with diet. Medicine should only be used if diet fails.” Sun Si Miao

When I work with people to build an individual diet for them, I love to quote the phrase, “nothing always good, nothing always bad.” * It’s a potent reminder that captures the individual needs of a person and also the specific moment in which we are working. The foods that served us well at 20 years old may not do the same when we are 40 or 60. Likewise, the foods that are best for us during a cold are not the same when we feel well. This is why a single dietary approach doesn’t fit everyone and also why handing out a list of certain foods for fall or spring or any season, like many TCM practitioners do, does not always apply to everyone.** Our individual needs are truly unique when it comes to diet.

With all of the different information about food and diet that comes through the socials and the news, it’s easy to see why people are confused about what and how to eat. This information seems to change daily, if not hourly. One of the greatest aspects of Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) is that the ideas about food are not based on fads but on time-tested uses and approaches to eating as it evolved over 5000 years of human history.

This time span is well before refrigeration techniques ensured we had lots of leftovers or icy cold beverages whenever we want them, to say nothing of storing things like ice cream. It is a period when you could only get fresh fruit or vegetables during their growing season. And it is a time before supplements, smoothies, and low-fat diets, to be sure. Grains were not vilified, nor genetically modified, or grown with pesticides.

CCM food wisdom includes the appreciation of and acknowledgment of where food comes from and its magical nature. Why magical? Whatever you eat becomes you. Your body, mind, some might include spirit, is kept alive and functioning because of that handful of pecans you just ate. Think about it: the turkey sandwich, the boiled egg, the slice of pepperoni pizza, the grilled salmon filet or the tower of tiramisu. The body takes in these wildly different things and reproduces itself—amazing! Our overall nourishment depends on food and the quality of what you eat informs the quality of your system and how well it functions.

Food is magic and it is medicine. Learning to eat well and prepare foods for yourself and people you love is one of the most important skills you can have to maintain your health. I believe deeply in the power of food for healing and have been cooking since I was eight years old. My kitchen is one of the places I am happiest. While my training comes directly from my mother and grandmothers, I have also trained more formally in the culinary arts. Prior to becoming an acupuncturist, I worked in professional kitchens and owned my own catering business.

As part of the my practice at CWA, offering dietary consultation and cooking instruction is one of the most valuable things that I can provide for you. While I don’t expect people to become chefs, I am happy to help them make these daily acts (cooking and eating) easier and more nourishing. Honoring the tenet of “nothing always good, nothing always bad” is one of the places we begin.

If you would like to book this service, please contact me via email: contact@commonwayacupuncture.com or phone, call or text: 562-477-5045.

*Much of my dietary training is from Andrew Sterman, who first shared this statement with me; it arises out of the oral tradition from his own teacher Jeffrey Yuen, an 88^th generation master of the Jade Purity School and descendent of Sun Si Miao.

**TCM stands for Traditional Chinese Medicine, an approach that’s not truly traditional at all, as it came about with Mao’s Communist regime. Most TCM schools only offer a single course in nutrition that involves students memorizing lists of foods related to seasons.