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A Chinese Diet to lose weight & stay healthy
The Chinese approach to Health
健康
The Chinese philosophy of Body Image and LOSING WEIGHT
What you eat is fundamental to your health
If you are in good health and your body is neither too hot or too cold (see A brief introduction to Chinese Medicine), then it is best that the bulk of the foods you eat are neutral, neither hot or cold foods.
If you feel your body is too hot or too cold, then you should include some foods to bring your body back into balance. For example, in a hot climate eating some watermelon (a cold food) is good, it will cool your body down. In a cold climate eating watermelon is bad, as your body is probably already cool. This will decrease your qi (life-force, inner energy) and reduce the ability of your digestive system to absorb the nutrients in the food.
Another important factor to consider is how well you digest your food and make it available to your body to promote qi and health.
Humans have six basic stages to their life: baby, infancy, youth, adult, middle-age, old age.
A baby spends its first six months eating liquid foods and generally lying around. There is very little movement of the body, so there is very little qi developed from movement. The body needs liquid foods so it can absorb them easily, the stomach and digestive organs are not functioning fully for the first six months or so. A baby needs non-solid foods that are easily digested.
An infant is crawling around and eating more and more solid foods. An infant is active and its body is in an almost unspoiled condition. The movement of the body develops more qi and the digestive system is working well, so the infant is full of energy, bright and alert. If not, then you need to discover why. It is having sold foods introduced into its diet, which its digestive system can now handle. The combination of food and movment produces more qi and promotes good health. Mental stress is generally not an issue.
A youth is full of energy and at the peak of physical condition. It is said a teenager could sustain life by licking a rock. A lot of qi is produced from the body's movment and the digestive system is at its peak and generally undamaged. However lifestyl, like heavy drinking, smoking and junk food can start to have an impact and weaken the body. This will generally not show up until later in life. Food is not really an issue. Mental stress can start to impact on some teenagers and reduce their qi and ability to readily absorb the nutrients in food.
An adult is still strong and in good condition physically, however lifestyle will be starting to cause damage to the physical body. This is where lifestyle starts to have a direct impact on health and well-being. Generally an adult is reasonably active. Qi is a funtion of how active the adult is and how much damage the adult is doing to its body due to lifestyle, ie: drinking, smoking etc. The more damage the less the body is able to gain nourishment from food. Food is generally not an issue unless the adult develops an illness. Mental stress is often a feature of stiving to achieve, and reduces qi and ability to readily absorb the nutrients in food.
Middle-age, from 40 on, sees the lifestyle we chose as a youth and an adult start to play out on our body. Generally someone in middle-age is reasonably active, but not as much as when they were an adult. With the body is not so active, the digestive system is not as effective. This is compounded by damage that has been caused by lifestyle and any mental stress. Therefore, middle age is when the body starts to notice the lack of nutrition from the food you are eating. This is the age when you should start to seriously consider the food you are eating and how you prepare it.
Old age, from 60 on, magnifies any problems that have manifest. Old age sees the level of physical activity declining rapidly. The body struggles to get the nutrition it needs from the food you are eating. This is the age when what you eat and how you prepare it is vital to your health and well-being.
Food is the building block for all health. The right food and the right preparation promotes good health.
So, what can you do about it …
First, choose your food wisely and on the principles of hot & cold.
Ensure you have a balanced diet of meat, vegetables, fruit and grains.
Second and vital, ensure that your body can access the nutrition in the food. That is best achieved by eating foods that have been softened: stews, soups, and beverages. As you get older, your digestive system copes less and less with solid, hard to get at foods.
If you are healthy, then the above will help you to keep healthy.
As you get older, this becomes more and more important.
If you are ill, then you can build up your bodies ability to heal itself and cope with the illness by eating well and, most important, ensuring your body can access the nutrients.
If you are ill then we suggest that you eat plenty of beef and lamb stews, soups and broths.
Your body needs easyily accessible nutrients. You are like a baby and cannot cope with solid foods. Your qi is not strong enough. That effects your digestive system, which stuggles to get all it needs from solid foods.
Generally, you will need to avoid cold foods and eat plenty of beef and lamb stews or broths with a balanced mix of vegetables, beans and grains (ie: barley). Steamed rice is good to have on the side. Wheat is a cold food and should be avoided. Potato is also good, though pumkin is best. Avoid tomato.
Combine this with whatever gentle exercise you can manage each day.
Here is a list of foods to help you:
Cereal food
Neutral: rice, highland barley, rice bran, sesame, soy bean, pea, haricot, horsebean, red bean, black bean, oats.
Hot: sticky rice, black rice, sago, broomcorn.
Cold: millet, wheat, barley, buckwheat, green bean.
Meat
Neutral: pork, pig’s heart, pig’s kidney, pig’s liver, chicken egg, goose, donkey, milk,
yoghurt, shellfish, fish
Hot: beef, mutton, chicken, sheep’s milk, venison, hairtail
Cool: duck, rabbit, abalone.
Cold: duck egg, crab, oyster, snail, octopus, mullet.
Fruit
Neutral: plum, pineapple, olive grape sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, coconut juice, peanut, haw, chestnut.
Hot: peach, apricot, date, lichee, longan, lemon，pawpaw，pinenut，walnut，cherry
Cool: apple, pear, orange, strawberry, mango, loquat.
Cold: persimmon, grapefrui，banana，starfruit，fig，goosebeery，sugar cane，
Watermelon, melon.
Vegetables
Neutral: radish，carrot，brocoli，potato，sweet potato, taro，edible tree fungus，calabash.green vegetables, corn
Hot: shallot, spring onion，garlic，leek，caraway，onion，pumpkin.
Cool: tomato, celery, eggplant, spinach, lettuce, tofu, cucumber, mushroom
Cold: seaweed，kelp，bamboo shoot，bitter melon
Other examples of hot and cold food:
Cold (yin):
Bamboo shoot, banana, bitter gourd, clam, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, persimmon, salt, seaweed, star fruit, sugar cane, water chestnut, watermelon, lotus root, cucumber, barley, bean curd, chicken egg white, marjoram, oyster, pear, peppermint, radish, strawberry, tangerine, and yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, zuccini, corn, tomatoes, pineapple, turmeric.
Neutral (balanced yin and yang):
Honey, corn, abalone, apricot, beef, beetroot, black fungus, carp, carrot, celery, chicken egg yolk, cuttlefish, duck, fig, kidney bean, lotus fruit and seed, milk, olive, oyster, papaya, pork, potato, pumpkin, radish leaf, red bean, plum, sunflower seed, sweet rice, sweet potato, white fungus, yellow soybean, brussels sprouts, snow peas, sweet potato, taro, dates, figs, raspberries, raisins, sage, rosemary, thyme, brown rice, apple.
Hot (yang):
Pepper, cinnamon bark, ginger, soybean oil, red and green pepper, chicken, apricot seed, brown sugar, cherry, chestnut, chive, cinnamon twig, clove, coconut, coffee, coriander (Chinese parsley), date, dillseed, eel, garlic, grapefruit peel, green onion, guava, ham, leaf mustard, leek, longan, mutton, nutmeg, peach, raspberry, rosemary, shrimp, spearmint, sweet basil, tobacco, vinegar, walnut, jackfruit, durian, leek, shallots, spring onion, , apricots, blackberries, black currant, mangoes, peaches, cherry, mandarin orange, grape.
The Chinese approach to Health
健康
A Chinese Diet to lose weight & stay healthy
Chinese Medicine - A Brief overview
The Chinese philosophy of body image and losing weight
Set in Zanzibar in 1910, it is the story of two people from different worlds falling in love. Susan immerses herself in Zanzibar. Asim falls in love with this woman from the nation that killed his wife. Susan is a spy. Asim is the chief advisor to the Sultan of Zanzibar. Germany and France are holding secret negotiations to form a Pan European alliance, which would isolate Britain and destroy her power. Susan and Asim are caught up in all this and their love is finally dashed on the cold, hard reality of international high politics.
Available on Amazon's Kindle $4.99 - Over 400 Pages
Chapter One
Zanzibar
'A maharaja’s ruby cast on a Persian carpet by the blackest of hands'
Their souls danced, honouring his promise.
The ancient dhow stirred in the soft morning breeze, moving through the water like a sated lion, snuffling about the other boats on the harbour; some scurrying, some at anchor, some darting before a brief gust of wind. The lateen sails a bustling panorama of blood-red and sun-bleached white.
Aft, the woman's eyes searched the skyline, drinking in the architecture of Stone Town, the heart of Zanzibar; its jagged, cluttered silhouette so familiar, so much a part of her soul.
Abruptly, her eyes ceased their restless searching, jagged by an invisible hook, transfixed by the grand buildings on the northern shore, Beit-al-Ajaib, the House of Wonders, Palace to the great Sultan of Zanzibar. The distinctive architecture captured in the tropical light: coconut white outlined by contrasting shadow plays of pepper black.
A smile, ever so slight, started to play on the edge of her mouth then disappeared. A memory that should have been fond instantly turned to sharp unbearable pain. Her eyes hardened and moved on.
Without warning the captain threw the rudder over. Stumbling, the woman barked her shin on a wooden box, a rough-hewn coffin. She recoiled, knocking over an untidy stack of cane baskets. Imprisoned in the baskets, rusty cockerels, their scruffy heads straining through the latticework, snapped at her, cried out to her; their raucous din overwhelming her, drowning her.
Dimly, through the fog of noise, the strident swearing of the sailors in Kiswahili seeped into her conscious. Understanding, she smiled mirthlessly.
The coffin had been carelessly stowed, a chore, rather than a labour of respect or love.
London 1910
“Hello, who are you? I am Oliver, is Edward at home?”
The words were spoken by a tall, impeccably dressed young man as he rushed into Edward’s flat shaking off surplus water and calling for whisky while shoving his umbrella into a stand. It was a blustery, grey, bitterly cold February afternoon in the heart of London. He brushed a curl of soft auburn hair from his forehead and smiled charmingly.
Susan laughed, her hazel eyes dancing with the exhilaration of the new. “Yes, he is having a bath. I think he is trying to get warm. I’m Susan, Susan Carey, his sister.”
“Ahhh yes, from Australia. How do you do?” said Sir Oliver, smiling broadly and offering his hand. He had noticed the laughter in her eyes, and the depth, particularly the depth, intensified by jade flecks that made them striking and alluring. “So, you have arrived, good trip I trust.”
“I am very well thank you, and yes, it was a good trip,” replied Susan.
He laughed and glanced at the sitting room, “whisky?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, please come in…….. that was silly of me, after all, it is your flat.”
Oliver smiled and gestured for Susan to lead the way. He followed her into the room, and after helping himself to a generous portion of whisky, walked over to the fire.
Shortly after, Edward, wrapped in a huge ruby-coloured dressing gown and wiping soap from his ear strode into the room. He was of similar age to Oliver, late twenties, well built, if slightly podgy, with dark auburn hair and a full moustache. Susan looked up and smiled to herself, she could see now where he had picked up some of his new mannerisms.
“Thought I could hear voices. I see you two have met, no need for introductions then.”
As he was speaking, Edward walked to the side table and grabbed a whisky decanter by the neck. He glanced at Oliver who nodded. A long finger snaked into one of the tumblers followed by the distinctive clink of crystal. He swept the decanter off the table and carried it to where Oliver was sitting. After pouring the whisky, he sank into a lounge chair and sipped from his glass, enjoying the warm glow as it spread through his body.
Suddenly he sat up exclaiming, “Sorry sis, would you like something to drink?”
“Kind of you to remember, but no thank you, and yes, Oliver has already inquired.”
Edward nodded and sank back into his lounge chair.
They chatted, tentatively at first, getting to know one another. Edward had not seen Susan for two years and was unsure how his sister would take his new relationship. Oliver was intrigued by Susan. An attractive, self-assured young lady of high intelligence with a degree was a rare find. And, as fate would have it, she was also a trained and experienced teacher. He suggested a picnic at Oxford, which was met with ready acquiescence. Arrangements were made for the following Sunday.
“I’ll see if the Rolls is available,” mused Oliver. “Must ring father, haven’t spoken to him in ages.”
Oliver, Sir Oliver Marchmaine, was an unaffected young man of intense intelligence who saw life as a great adventure to be lived to the full. He was also unyieldingly loyal to his country, England, which is why he had joined Military Intelligence on leaving Oxford.
It was 1910 and Europe was stirring. It was a time full of interest, intrigue and danger. The European chessboard was becoming increasingly complex, the moves more subtle. A time when an unexpected move or feint could have profound consequences.
Regaining her balance, the woman’s eyes were drawn, hesitantly at first, resisting back to Beit-al-Ajaib. She wondered if it was still the same. Still the same centre of power and intrigue that had been so much a part of her life all those years before; that had defined her life.
She remembered those first few moments, remembered standing in the foyer of the palace, .………… remembered the breathtakingly beautiful Persian tapestry ........
The sea breeze stirred her clothes. She smiled a little sadly, and in her mind the tapestry gently swayed. Two small apparitions ran giggling up the stairs: two small exquisitely rich burkas disappearing along the first floor landing. Childish squeals of mischief and joy left in the air.......
“Move to seaward, you accused of Allah! Move!”
Her thoughts were clawed back to the dhow, the captain crashing the tiller over to avoid another boat on the crowded harbour. The woman instinctively ducked her head to avoid the heavy boom as it swung over her, the rusty cockerels squawked their raucous indignation, their heads straining through the latticework, relentless.
The collision avoided, the dhow continued on its way. The cacophony dying down to the occasional command by the captain or the cry of a seagull.
The woman's thoughts returned to Beit-al-Ajaib
…………. laughing and giggling, girls of seven or eight. A door on the first floor slammed and all sounds of them disappeared. Silence. The woman smiled. She could see herself, a young woman, dressed plainly, unselfconsciously, her sexuality tantalisingly just out of reach, hidden beneath the thin veil of her clothing. She remembered standing alone in the foyer, looking around, perplexed. Asim came through a door to the left of the tapestry.
“Salaam.”
The woman started and looked around. Then, realising, was cold again. Alone again. Alone, rocking to and fro to the rythm of the sea. Alone, beside a rough-hewn coffin.
Now Available on Amazon's Kindle $4.99 - Over 400 Pages
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