Western “expert” advice about nutrition tips for weight loss is significantly different from Eastern advice. Here’s what traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) recommends for maintaining good digestive health and a strong metabolism function. Over time, these TCM-based eating habits can help keep off excess weight by optimizing metabolism function!
Tip # 1: Eat only warm, cooked vegetables and roasted nuts.
TCM’s cardinal rule: only give the Stomach warm things. Eating raw vegetables and nuts is supposedly healthier because they contain more vitamins and minerals that haven’t been broken down by the cooking process. In actuality, your Stomach has a more difficult time unlocking the nutrients and healing essence of raw veggies and nuts. Because these foods carry a cold temperature, cold essence, or both, the Stomach has to work overtime breaking down and warming them for proper digestion. Over time, this puts a lot of stress on how efficiently your Stomach works and uses up vital energy or Qi.
Tip #2: Drink only room temperature or warm/hot beverages and eat warm, not cold food.
If you constantly bombard your Stomach with things that are cold, such as ice water or refrigerated leftovers, you’re definitely not keeping the Stomach’s essential fire going. What happens? Your Stomach has to spend precious Qi restoking that fire and warming itself up again and again. Imagine the continual wear and tear on your Stomach function.
Tip #3: Drink only when you’re thirsty!
Another TCM rule: conserve your Qi; drink only when you’re thirsty! Drinking eight glasses of water a day is not essential for your body’s health and to stay hydrated or flush out the body’s wastes. It’s not necessary or healthy to use up your Kidney and Bladder Qi like this. Trust your body’s wisdom, it does know when you should drink. It also has the skill to maintain a healthy fluid and electrolyte balance. Listen to your body and not your mind.
Tip #4: Eat only until you are about 70-80% full.
By reducing the amount of food you eat, you can save a lot of energy that can help support your digestive organs and not cause them to work overtime by breaking down large quantities of food. This improves metabolism function too. Then you can extract more nutrition from what you eat. It’s not just about cutting calories! Be kind to your Stomach today by following these simple TCM tips!
For more ancient wisdom for today’s health and how to maintain healthy metabolism function, visit our website at www.tcmworld.org/dragonsway.
I have stomach heat, so I am interested in this topic.
Great to hear of your interest Deniese! Thanks for your feedback.
For a while I have had a feeling that #1 was right. Even when I was little I didn’t like eating salad and wanted to eat warm soup. I will use this to help me overcome the information that fresh, crisp veggies are the best for me, and somehow stop drinking cold Kombucha 🙂 Thanks!
Thanks Jessica, your body always tells you what it needs!
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Wonderful. Glad it’s helpful. There’s lots more coming!
Great website but not sure if I agree with tip #4. I had read on other TCM websites that you should eat until your full but not to the point of being stuffed and nauseous. But you should eat until you feel satisfied. When the food is healthy (example: stir-fry stream beans with ground free-range chicken and brown rice) you should always eat until satisfied but alsobe sure to incorporate exercise in your lifestyle.
Thanks for your comments. Our take on eating until our 70-80 percent full is based on saving energy. If the body does not have to use a lot of energy during the digestive process, that energy can then go towards rebalancing the body overall. Often, we eat much more than is necessary and we are not even aware of what it means to be satisfied. When you pull back a bit, you build a relationship with the body’s needs. In the mean time, this allows the body to go to fat reserves and “burn” that for fuel.