Chinese food therapy: Difference between revisions
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==Precepts== |
==Precepts== |
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Although the precepts of Chinese food therapy are neither systematic nor identical in all times and places, some basic concepts can be isolated.{{sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=259–260}} Food items are classified as "heating" ({{zh|s=热|t=熱|p=rè|labels=no}}) or "cooling" ({{zh|s=凉|t=涼|p=liáng|labels=no}}). "Heating" food is typically "high-calorie, subjected to high heat in cooking, spicy or bitter, or 'hot' in color (red, orange)", and includes red meat, innards, baked and deep-fried goods, and alcohol.{{sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=259–260}} They are to be avoided in the summer and can be used to treat "cold" illnesses like excessive pallor, watery feces, fatigue, chills, and low body temperature caused by a number of possible causes, including [[anemia]]. Green vegetables are the most typical cooling food, which is "low-calorie, watery, soothing or sour in taste, or 'cool' in color (whitish, green)". They are recommended for "hot" conditions: rashes, dryness or redness of skin, heartburns, and other "symptoms similar to those of a burn", but also sore throat, swollen gums, and constipation.{{sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=259–260}} |
Although the precepts of Chinese food therapy are neither systematic nor identical in all times and places, some basic concepts can be isolated.{{sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=259–260}} Food items are classified as "heating" ({{zh|s=热|t=熱|p=rè|labels=no}}) or "cooling" ({{zh|s=凉|t=涼|p=liáng|labels=no}}). "Heating" food is typically "high-calorie, subjected to high heat in cooking, spicy or bitter, or 'hot' in color (red, orange)", and includes red meat, innards, baked and deep-fried goods, and alcohol.{{sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=259–260}} They are to be avoided in the summer and can be used to treat "cold" illnesses like excessive pallor, watery feces, fatigue, chills, and low body temperature caused by a number of possible causes, including [[anemia]]. Green vegetables are the most typical cooling food, which is "low-calorie, watery, soothing or sour in taste, or 'cool' in color (whitish, green)". They are recommended for "hot" conditions: rashes, dryness or redness of skin, heartburns, and other "symptoms similar to those of a burn", but also sore throat, swollen gums, and constipation.{{sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=259–260}} |
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==Criticism== |
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There is little medical evidence or research supporting the concept of food therapy. Similar to food therapy, [[herbalism]] has been criticized for unreliable product quality, safety hazards, and potential for misleading health advice.<ref name="quackwatch">{{cite web|url=https://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/herbs.html|title=The herbal minefield|author=Barrett, Stephen|publisher=Quackwatch|date=23 November 2013|accessdate=25 February 2017}}</ref> Globally, there are no standards across various herbal products to substantiate safety or efficacy, and there is generally an absence of high-quality scientific research on product composition or therapeutic effectiveness.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/92455/1/9789241506090_eng.pdf?ua=1|publisher=World Health Organization|title=WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy, 2014-2023; page 41|date=2013|accessdate=25 February 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmid=22305255|year=2012|author1=Zhang|first1=J|title=Quality of herbal medicines: Challenges and solutions|journal=Complementary Therapies in Medicine|volume=20|issue=1–2|pages=100–6|last2=Wider|first2=B|last3=Shang|first3=H|last4=Li|first4=X|last5=Ernst|first5=E|doi=10.1016/j.ctim.2011.09.004}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmid=13129992|year=2003|author1=Morris|first1=C. A.|title=Internet marketing of herbal products|journal=JAMA|volume=290|issue=11|pages=1505–9|last2=Avorn|first2=J|doi=10.1001/jama.290.11.1505|url=http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/197309}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmc=3325194|year=2012|author1=Coghlan|first1=M. L.|title=Deep Sequencing of Plant and Animal DNA Contained within Traditional Chinese Medicines Reveals Legality Issues and Health Safety Concerns|journal=PLoS Genetics|volume=8|issue=4|pages=e1002657|last2=Haile|first2=J|last3=Houston|first3=J|last4=Murray|first4=D. C.|last5=White|first5=N. E.|last6=Moolhuijzen|first6=P|last7=Bellgard|first7=M. I.|last8=Bunce|first8=M|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1002657|pmid=22511890}}</ref> |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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Revision as of 00:53, 4 August 2017
| Alternative medicine | |
|---|---|
| Claims | Health claims relating to Chinese diet |
| Related fields | Traditional Chinese medicine |
Chinese food therapy (simplified Chinese: 食疗; traditional Chinese: 食療; pinyin: shíliáo; lit. 'food therapy', also called nutrition therapy and dietary therapy) is a mode of dieting rooted in Chinese understandings of the effects of food on the human organism,[1] and centred on concepts such as eating in moderation.[2][3] Its basic precepts are a mix of folk views and concepts drawn from traditional Chinese medicine. It was the prescientific analog of modern medical nutrition therapy and now qualifies as alternative medicine.
Food therapy has long been a common approach to health among Chinese people both in China and overseas, and was popularized for western readers in the 1990s with the publication of books like The Tao of Healthy Eating (Flaws 1995a) and The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen (Young 1999),[4] which also cites Flaws 1995b, Zhao & Ellis 1998, and Simonds 1999.
Origins
A number of ancient Chinese cookbooks and treatises on food (now lost) display an early Chinese interest in food, but no known focus on its medical value.[5] The literature on "nourishing life" (养生; 養生; yangsheng) integrated advice on food within broader advice on how to attain immortality. Such books, however, are only precursors of "dietary therapy", because they did not systematically describe the effect of individual food items.[6]
The earliest extant Chinese dietary text is a chapter of Sun Simiao's Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold (千金方; Qiānjīn fāng), which was completed in the 650s during the Tang dynasty.[7] Sun's work contains the earliest known use of the term "food (or dietary) therapy" (食疗; 食療; shíliáo).[1] Sun stated that he wanted to present current knowledge about food so that people would first turn to food rather than drugs when suffering from an ailment.[8] His chapter contains 154 entries divided into four sections – on fruits, vegetables, cereals, and meat – in which Sun explains the properties of individual foodstuffs with concepts borrowed from the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: qi, the viscera, and vital essence (精; jīng), as well as correspondences between the Five Phases, the "five flavors" (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty), and the five grains.[9] He also set a large number of "dietary interdictions" (食禁; shíjìn), some based on calendrical notions (no water chestnuts in the 7th month), others on purported interactions between foods (no clear wine with horse meat) or between different flavors.[10]
Sun Simiao's disciple Meng Shen (孟诜; 孟詵; 621–713) compiled the first work entirely devoted to the therapeutic value of food: the Materia Dietetica (食疗本草; 食療本草; Shíliáo běncǎo; 'food therapy materia medica'). This work has not survived, but it is quoted in later texts – like the 10th-century Japanese text Ishinpō – and a fragment of it has been found among the Dunhuang manuscripts. Surviving excerpts show that Meng gave less importance to dietary prohibitions than Sun, and that he provided information on how to prepare foodstuffs rather than just describe their properties.[11] The works of Sun Simiao and Meng Shen established the genre of materia dietetica and shaped its development in the following centuries.[12]
Precepts
Although the precepts of Chinese food therapy are neither systematic nor identical in all times and places, some basic concepts can be isolated.[13] Food items are classified as "heating" (热; 熱; rè) or "cooling" (凉; 涼; liáng). "Heating" food is typically "high-calorie, subjected to high heat in cooking, spicy or bitter, or 'hot' in color (red, orange)", and includes red meat, innards, baked and deep-fried goods, and alcohol.[13] They are to be avoided in the summer and can be used to treat "cold" illnesses like excessive pallor, watery feces, fatigue, chills, and low body temperature caused by a number of possible causes, including anemia. Green vegetables are the most typical cooling food, which is "low-calorie, watery, soothing or sour in taste, or 'cool' in color (whitish, green)". They are recommended for "hot" conditions: rashes, dryness or redness of skin, heartburns, and other "symptoms similar to those of a burn", but also sore throat, swollen gums, and constipation.[13]
See also
- Shennong Bencao Jing, a text from the late Han dynasty that discusses several medicinal herbs, including several food plants and animals.
- Hu Sihui, a dietitian from the Yuan dynasty, and author of Yinshan Zhengyao ("Important Principles of Food and Drink")
- Bencao Gangmu, a materia medica compiled by Li Shizhen during the Ming dynasty.
- Ch'ang Ming, a series of dietary and lifestyle recommendations adapted to Western eating habits
References
Citations
- ^ a b Engelhardt 2001, p. 173.
- ^ Whang J (January 1981). "Chinese traditional food therapy". J Am Diet Assoc. 78 (1): 55–7. PMID 7217561.
- ^ Shen, CuiZhen; Samantha Mei-Che Pang; Enid Wai-Yung Kwong; ZhiQing Cheng (April 2010). "The effect of Chinese food therapy on community dwelling Chinese hypertensive patients with Yin-deficiency". Journal of Clinical Nursing. 19 (7–8): 1008–1020. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2009.02937.x. PMID 20492045.
- ^ Barnes 2013, p. 339–341.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, p. 174–175.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, p. 175–176.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, p. 176.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, p. 177.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, pp. 178–181.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, pp. 181–183.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, pp. 184–187.
- ^ Engelhardt 2001, p. 187.
- ^ a b c Anderson 2013, pp. 259–260.
Works cited
- Anderson, Eugene N. (2013), "Folk Nutritional Therapy in Modern China", in TJ Hinrichs and Linda L. Barnes (ed.), Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, pp. 259–260, ISBN 978-0-674-04737-2.
- Barnes, Linda L. (2013), "A World of Chinese Medicine and Healing: Part Two", in TJ Hinrichs and Linda L. Barnes (eds.) (ed.), Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, pp. 334–378, ISBN 978-0-674-04737-2
{{citation}}:|editor=has generic name (help). - Engelhardt, Ute (2001), "Dietetics in Tang China and the first extant works of material dietetica", in Elisabeth Hsü (ed.) (ed.), Innovation in Chinese Medicine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 173–191, ISBN 0-521-80068-4
{{citation}}:|editor=has generic name (help). - Flaws, Bob (1995a), The Tao of Healthy Eating: Dietary Wisdom According to the Traditional Chinese Medicine, Boulder, Colorado: Blue Poppy Press.
- Flaws, Bob (1995b), The Book of Jook: Chinese Medicinal Porridges—A Healthy Alternative to the Typical Western Breakfast, Boulder, Colorado: Blue Poppy Press.
- Simonds, Nina (1999), A Spoonful of Ginger: Irresistible Health-Giving Recipes from Asian Kitchens, New York: Knopf.
- Young, Grace (1999), The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing, New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Zhao, Zhuo; Ellis, George (1998), The Healing Cuisine of China: 300 Recipes for Vibrant Health and Longevity, Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press.
Further reading
- Lu, Henry C. Chinese system of Food Cures (1989, Pelanduk Publications Malaysia Sdn Bhd, ISBN 9789679782530)
- Kastner, Joerg. Chinese Nutrition Therapy: Dietetics in Traditional Chinese Medicine (2008, Thieme Medical Publishers, ISBN 3131309628)