Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin famously wrote in 1826 ”Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es”, which translates to ‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are’ and this mantra has been altered and used ever since, the most famous version being “You are what you Eat”.
Good nutrition is vital for our bodies to work to their maximum potential and to take that further, in order for our food to become our medicine, nutrition needs to be better than good, it needs to be exactly what our individual needs require. My needs are not the same as yours, or the next persons, and my needs are definitely different to my husbands needs. Our systems are different, firstly because he is a man and I’m a woman, secondly because of my changing hormones; my food needs to change according to my needs. This can be a change from week to week, month to month, season to season.
As we live longer and our body changes the way it processes food and produces hormones, our dietary intake needs to change with it. No longer can we abuse of the carbs or alcohol in the same way as we used to. Some studies say that we need to eat more protein to counteract the increased pace of muscle loss which is part of the ageing process and hormonal decline. Whilst protein can be found in plant food, meat and fish continue to be an important part of our diet. Some people tolerate better beef, others lamb, others can’t take pork. We must start looking at our diet with what our body will tolerate and process best. From there we can choose which meat will benefit us from a Chinese medicine point of view.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the major imbalance that affects our hormones when we hit menopause is due to a decrease in the digestive system function, therefore it stands to reason that if we can help our digestive system work better and help not overload an already weakened system, then diet is the way to do this. I have been researching different types of food and how they can help us rebalance our hormones to at least help us calm the ails that appear with menopause.
Food has different natures. These natures can be cooling, warming, tonifying, moistening, sedating. Each flavour has an relationship with an element of the 5-element theory, which are Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.
TCM recognizes 6 flavours, 5 of which are related to the 5-element theory. The Fire element (heart & small intestine) has an affinity with foods that are bitter, the Earth element (spleen & stomach) has an affinity with foods that are sweet, Metal (lung & large intestine) has an affinity with foods that are spicy, Water (kidney & bladder) has an affinity with foods that are salty and Wood (liver & gallbladder) has an affinity with foods that are sour. The 6th flavour is bland. Bland is recognized as being a food or herb that can go places in the body where other flavours cannot reach and also it drains dampness. Some authorities differentiate between sour and astringent, and others put them as one and the same. Sour-tasting foods and herbs tend to be heating and moistening, whereas astringent foods and herbs tend to be cooling and drying. Foods and herbs can also have more than one flavour, they can be cooling and moistening, warming and drying, and they can also have more than two flavours! The herb Wu Wei Zi (Fructus schizandrae) contains 5 flavours and its name is translated as Five flavour seed.
Then you have foods that are more yin than yang, or more yang than yin. Frying tends to increase yang and steaming tends to increase yin. By changing the way you cook a food can make it more yin or more yang. This also works for cooked or raw food. By cooking food, it makes it warmer, and by eating it raw, it makes the food colder in nature. This is very handy when you want to increase warmth in a person’s nature for example if you suffer from cold sweats, or whether you need to cool them down for example when you suffer from hot flashes.
Just as menopause is a different journey for every woman, diet must be tailored to her needs.
There is no one size fits all, and no absolutely forbidden foods in TCM. For example, someone with high blood pressure should avoid salt, yet someone with an adrenal insufficiency or hypotension should have salt in their diet.
Diet needs to be based upon your symptoms, such as hot flashes, cold sweats, loss of libido, vaginal dryness, itchy skin, bad moods and depression. You may not have any of those symptoms, so why would you need a diet that is good for someone with some of those symptoms or none of those symptoms.
In the coming blogs I shall be writing about the different groups of food, such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables and pulses in an effort to clarify for you the types of food you should be eating to help you with your menopausal symptoms.
If I´ve totally confused you and now you aren’t sure what you should be eating at all to avoid those menopause symptoms, feel free to contact me for a chat by scheduling a time here:
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“We never know how far reaching something we may think, say or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow.” B.J. Palmer
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