How Can Traditional Chinese Medicine Improve Digestion?
Anyone who’s had a stomach ache or frequent diarrhea knows that digestion can have a huge impact on daily life. One of the most frustrating parts of living with poor digestion is it’s often challenging to pinpoint the cause of our symptoms. With so many possible variables factoring into the way we digest food, it’s hard to know where to look when attempting to identify the root of our discomfort. Fortunately, traditional Chinese medicine allows us to isolate digestive symptoms that might be missed otherwise. And what’s more, it can reveal the causes of indigestion and lead us to effective solutions. Read below to find out more about how traditional Chinese medicine can help your indigestion symptoms.
How does traditional Chinese medicine view diet and digestion?
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that a wholesome, balanced diet is essential to overall wellbeing. Food can serve as a medicine for the body, offering much-needed nutrients, energy, and nourishment. Hippocrates, known as the father of modern medicine, famously said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Traditional Chinese medicine views food as therapy, a way to protect our health and treat disease. Just as with medical therapies like prescription drugs, food can have side effects, including inflammation, allergic reactions, and poor digestion. Traditional Chinese medicine aims to understand not just the nutritional makeup of a food, but how it affects a specific individual’s body and composition.
Unsurprisingly, the types of foods we consume play a large role in digestion. Organic, locally grown foods contain less chemicals, are unprocessed, and also abide by the traditional Chinese medicine principle of eating what’s in season. Consuming healthy, natural foods is important, but it’s not the only thing that matters when it comes to good digestion. The times of day you eat, whether you’re multitasking during a meal, the size of meals, and snacking habits can all play a part in how you digest food. Science proves that optimizing not just the type of food we eat, but the manner in which we eat it, can improve metabolism as well as overall digestion.
How can traditional Chinese medicine identify and help resolve my digestive problems?
There are many physical signs that we look for in traditional Chinese medicine when evaluating digestion. We’ll look carefully at the health of your hair, nails, and skin, as this can reflect your nutrition and ability to digest food. We also study your tongue and mouth, as these areas of the body link to particular organs in the digestive system. The color, shape, size of the tongue, as well as the presence of blemishes and discoloration, can tell us a lot about the overall health of your digestive tract. For example, a white or yellow coating and/or swelling could indicate problematic digestion and improper absorption of food and fluids. You will also share with us any noticeable physical symptoms of poor digestion, including:
Stomach aches
Fatigue
Gas
Constipation
Diarrhea / loose stools
Acid reflex
Abdominal pain
Frequent bowel movements
Bloating
Cramping
Gastrointestinal disorders
After identifying physical symptoms that correspond to dysregulated digestion, we’ll ask you to share details about your eating habits. These include the following:
Times of day for meals and snacks
Portion sizes
Activities accompanying eating (i.e. watching TV, driving)
Emotional stress while eating
Quality of food (i.e. processed foods, overly sweet/salty foods)
Snacking habits
Once we’ve discussed your physical symptoms and eating habits, we’ll develop an action plan for addressing your individual causes of digestive imbalance. These solutions may include:
Chinese herbal formulas for healing sources of digestive issues
Acupuncture treatments to relieve physical symptoms, like indigestion
Eliminating processed and/or sugary or sweet foods that may be aggravating symptoms
Cooking warmer foods that increase your “digestive fire,” improving overall metabolism
Avoiding iced beverages that can stall digestion
Exercise plans that improve digestive functioning
Addressing emotional stress
Shifting meal times to accommodate slower, smoother digestion
Improving sleep habits
Managing intake of irritants (i.e. caffeine, alcohol)
Traditional Chinese medicine is not a one-size-fits-all practice. We customize treatments for digestive problems to the specific causes of your symptoms, considering a holistic picture of diet, eating habits, and overall wellness.
How can I start improving my digestion this summer?
Sometimes the best way to embrace food as a “therapy” and shift unhealthy eating habits is to get curious about food itself. What better way than to try out a new recipe! “Congee” is a type of porridge made from rice, and has proven benefits to the digestive tract. This food is easily absorbed, improves your digestion, and increases your energy levels. Below is a simple recipe to try -- give it a shot and write to us in the comments to let us know what you think!
Congee Recipe (serves 6):
Ingredients:
1 cup of rice: white, basmati, sweet, long, or short grain.
8 cups liquid: water and/or stock (chicken, beef, pork, fish, or veggie)
Instructions:
Place ingredients in slow cooker, cover, and cook on low, stirring occasionally, until it reaches the consistency of porridge, 3–4 hours.
Add salt to taste.
Tips:
To make this a summer recipe, add ingredients that are more energetically cooling, such as:
Seafood, vegetables, and pork (chicken & beef are warming)
Cooling grains like pearl barley, millet, and buckwheat are a good alternative to white rice.
Congee is extremely versatile - you can literally put anything in there, sweet or savory!
You can boost up the congee with healthy minerals from a few strips of dried kombu, added when you combine the rice and liquid.
Experiment with incorporating sautéed or steamed vegetables and legumes, such as leafy greens, lima beans, carrots, beets, and medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, maitake, trumpet, or tasty cremini.
Enhance the meal with cooked protein (fish, pork, or eggs) to make for a more complete and filling meal.
Scallions and herbs such as sage, cilantro, thyme, or marjoram are tasty garnishes.
For a sweeter congee or healthy dessert, add a bit of ghee, cinnamon, and honey.
