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Chinese Medicine Keeps an Eye on Food Combinations

In the wake of the recent carbohydrate mania most everyone in America is only too familiar with the notion of bad and good carbs, which pairings lead to adverse dieting results and which support your weight loss goals. It is thus not surprising that for the sake of health and overall wellbeing, the practitioner of Chinese medicine keeps an eye on food combinations so as to ensure that the body's life force, also known as qi, will flow unimpeded by the body's response to the ingested items.

For example, chicken should never be paired with glutinous rice, while beef and chestnuts are an unlucky combination. Eggs and sweet potatoes, crabs and citrus fruit, as well as sugar and bamboo shoots are for many of the Chinese medicine practitioners the kinds of prime examples of combinations which will result in digestive upset. Yet there is more to the art and science that factor into Chinese medicine and its adherence to a balance in lifestyle and nutrition.

While particular food combinations are known to cause a disruption of qi free flow, several others aggravate preexisting conditions. For example, those who suffer from swelling of the body or heart problems should stay away from anything that tastes salty. Cold sufferers and the coughs that accompany the illness need to refrain from the ingestion of fruits and even vegetables, while those with open sores on their skin need to steer clear of seafood.

It is interesting to note that several of these pearls of wisdom have actually made it into the mainstream of Western medicinal understanding and thus those suffering from heart disease are seriously warned to refrain from a diet rich in sodium. Yet in the same vein, some notions have yet to take hold and while Chinese wisdom may suggest a moratorium on fruits for cold sufferers, Western medicine asserts that fruits can actually be good for you and your immune system when you are suffering from a cold.

On the flipside, some tips and suggestions that thus far have not made it into the mainstream consciousness may very well hold the answer to many common ills and ailments and if Westerners were but to take a closer look at their food combinations, especially also for those suffering from certain health problems, new treatment options may quite possibly emerge. Take for example the warning that those suffering from hemorrhoids will be wise to stay away from wine and also pepper, the possibility that this simple suggestion may hold will put thousands at ease!

Yet in addition to the warnings by those who practice Chinese medicine and keep and eye on food combinations and health issues, Westerners will also do well to consider the sources of their foods. Organic foods are always better than the commercially prepared produce and meats, and whenever possible, raw foods should be favored over their already prepared and preserved counterparts. Processed foods are notorious harbingers of undesired food substances and also quite frequently combine sugars and salts in an effort to improve taste and aid preservation, although rarely are these ingredients associated with the product itself.