5 Healthy Eating Tips From Traditional Chinese Medicine (PHOTOS)

Eating is a hot topic in the United States--partly because we seem to do it so badly. For all of our modern scientific knowledge, our eating habits have made us one of the world leaders in obesity, diabetes and heart disease. We know all about vitamins, minerals, fats and carbohydrates--so why aren't we healthy? While the reasons are no doubt many (processed food, sedentary lifestyle, cheap calories, etc.), one way back to a healthier lifestyle can be found in the East Asian tradition, which has developed and honed the practice of food therapy over many thousands of years.

Here are five tips on healthy eating according to the East Asian tradition, which I explored while writing Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen: Recipes from the East for Health, Healing and Long Life (Da Capo Lifelong), with Chinese medicine experts Yuan Wang, L.Ac., and Warren Sheir, L.Ac.

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Balance Is Beautiful

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In the West, we can be found casually eliminating whole food groups, say fats or carbohydrates, or trying to exist on a single type of food (the grapefruit diet, anyone?). That's an anathema in the East, where we're advised to pursue balance in our bodies and in our minds by eating a variety of foods to maintain health. No single ingredient or kind of ingredient is vilified or consumed to excess. As one Chinese proverb says, "Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent: all must be tasted." Food is also used to bring balance between the individual and his or her natural cycles and parts of the environment. Particular foods are thought to counteract an individual's personal tendency toward, say, restlessness or fatigue, and different choices are recommended for different seasons. Take a food's temperature, for example.

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In the West, we can be found casually eliminating whole food groups, say fats or carbohydrates, or trying to exist on a single type of food (the grapefruit diet, anyone?). That's an anathema in the East, where we're advised to pursue balance in our bodies and in our minds by eating a variety of foods to maintain health. No single ingredient or kind of ingredient is vilified or consumed to excess. As one Chinese proverb says, "Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent: all must be tasted."

Food is also used to bring balance between the individual and his or her natural cycles and parts of the environment. Particular foods are thought to counteract an individual's personal tendency toward, say, restlessness or fatigue, and different choices are recommended for different seasons. Take a food's temperature, for example.

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For simple, delicious recipes that build on these tips, see our book Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen and the Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen blog here.