Food Therapy Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Acupuncture in the Park

Orthorexia: The Curse of Righteous Eating

It’s a good thing to want to eat healthfully. With the rising incidence of diabetes, obesity, and other food-related diseases, making good food choices is an obvious step toward better health. However, what if that desire to eat healthfully gets out of control? It happens, and there’s a name for it—orthorexia.

Most people who struggle with orthorexia begin by simply wanting to eat well or improve their health through good dietary choices. However, at some point the desire for healthy food gets derailed and becomes a compulsion. Good food choices move into the realm of a fixation of what to eat, how much to eat, the quality, purity, and nutrients in each morsel of food that is ingested. While not included in the DSM (The diagnostic bible of emotional disorders), orthorexia is recognized by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, as well as the National Eating Disorders Association.

Orthorexia is characterized by rigid and restrictive food choices, often with entire food groups being eliminated from the diet. Sufferers need to control what they’re eating at all times, and frequently have a hard time eating meals or need to modify meals prepared by others. And while it seems counter intuitive that healthy eating could ever be a bad thing, the results of orthorexia can be life-altering.

The problem with orthorexia is that those who have it don’t get all the nutrients they need because they severely restrict their food choices. Much-needed healthy fats, whole grain carbohydrates, and other entire food groups are eliminated completely. Their life is dominated by an incredibly rigid diet that makes it hard to eat with others, and can be socially isolating. In addition, the constant obsession about eating only good, pure foods tends to blunt a sufferer’s natural intuition to feel hungry or full.

From the standpoint of Chinese medicine, food is meant to be a way to feed not only your body, but also your heart, the organ system associated with joy. Eating delicious food with loved ones is meant to be especially nourishing, but for someone with orthorexia, a shared meal often produces anxiety. In addition, Chinese food therapy is based on the idea that each person should eat according to their specific needs as well as what’s appropriate for the season. There are no good or bad real foods, only those that are best suited for each person’s nutritional requirements. Flavorful food eaten joyfully, coupled with moderation is thought to be the way to healthy eating.

While Chinese medicine offers up guidelines as to how one should eat, getting treatment for orthorexia is more complicated than simply letting go and eating joyfully. Orthorexia is similar to to other eating disorders, in that treatment usually involves dealing with the underlying emotional issues that have lead to the compulsive and restrictive behavior. In many cases, this requires the help of a mental health professional, ideally one who is well-versed in treating eating disorders.

Are you struggling with orthorexia? Take this quiz and find out. Simply circle the statements below that are true for you.

1) I think of most foods as either good or bad.

2) I have a difficult time eating meals that have been prepared by someone else.

3) I worry a lot about eating the “right” foods.

4) I feel guilty or like a failure when I eat a “bad” food.

5) I wonder how others can eat the things that they do.

6) I have rigid rules about what I allow myself to eat.

7) I feel self-righteous about my diet.

8) When I eat out, I need to alter how my food is served (salad dressing on the side, vegetables steamed instead of sauteed, etc.)

If you were able to agree with more than two or three of the above statements, it’s time for you to take a step back and look at your relationship with food. Talk with someone you can trust, and if necessary, enlist the help of a mental health professional. In addition, Chinese medicine can help with stress relief, digestive support, and recovery from this condition. Your physical and mental health depend on it!

A Reason to Cook Your Vegetables

Dear Acupuncture in the Park,

Whenever I read anything about Chinese medicine and dietary therapy, it says to quit eating raw vegetables and fruits. Is that true?

Bugs Bunny

Dear Bugs,

It’s true that avoiding a lot of raw foods is an important component of Chinese dietary therapy, but let us explain. Raw vegetables are really good for you, but they’re also harder to digest than when they’re cooked. That’s because it takes longer for you to break down a raw food and turn it into the energy and nutrients that fuel your body. However, it only becomes important if you have problems with your digestion or struggle with fatigue.

If your digestion is good, then go for the raw stuff. But if you experience symptoms like heartburn, bloating, nausea, the feeling of a lump in your throat, rumbling, constipation, loose stools, or a poor appetite, then you would benefit from cooking your food to help “predigest” it.

Your energy is tied to how well you digest your foods, too. If you’re fatigued during the day, feel tired after eating, or if your energy is up and down, chances are you’re not eating the right foods or getting the maximum energy from what you’re eating.

So, Bugs, here’s my advice: If you have good digestion and good energy, eat all the carrots and salads you want. But if you have funky digestion or low energy, try cooking your veggies. Here are a few suggestions:

-Try to get your vegetables in the form of soups, stews, and stir fried dishes. Or simply steam or saute them before eating.

-Want a salad? Cut a head of Romaine lettuce in half and throw it on the grill, cut side down until it’s slightly charred. Let it cool and top it with your favorite dressing.

-You can benefit from cooking your fruits, too. Try making a fruit compote, a fruit crisp, or sauteing your favorite fruits (tropical fruits excluded) in a little water with a dash of cinnamon for a minute or two.

-If your digestion is really off, make a congee, which is a rice porridge that can be flavored any way you want. Slowly simmer one part rice to seven parts water over a low flame until the rice is tender. Don’t drain any water off, it should be thick, but slightly watery. You can make it into a savory soup by adding soy sauce or broth, scallions, ginger, (or whatever seasonings you want) and a protein. Or you can make it suitable for breakfast by adding raisins or dried cranberries, nuts, a dash of cinnamon, and a bit of honey or maple syrup.

Keep eating your vegetables and fruits, Bugs. They’re really good for you, but eat them in a way that gives you the most benefit.

Acupuncture in the Park

Why Choose Chinese Food Therapy?

Dear Acupuncture in the Park-

I’ve been to an acupuncturist, and they are telling me that the source of my health problems are related to my diet. If that’s the case, why would I visit my acupuncturist for diet advice instead of a nutritionist?

Confused

Dear Confused-

The Chinese have a saying that first a patient should be treated with dietary therapy, and if that fails, only then should they turn to acupuncture and Chinese herbs. That’s because in Chinese medicine, foods are considered to have different properties than in Western medicine. Chinese dietary therapy goes far beyond counting calories, vitamins, or the carbohydrate/fat/protein make-up of a food. Instead, foods are evaluated for their inherent temperature, actions, cooking method, and the internal organs that are affected.

The temperature of a food is related to it’s warming or cooling effect on your body. For example, ginger and chiles are considered to be hot foods. In contrast, mint, yogurt, and cucumbers are cooling. Foods also act in a certain way on your body. For example, some foods are better than others for building up your energy, and there are foods that are used to alleviate phlegm or drain dampness if you’re retaining water. Finally, how your foods are cooked also affect how they affect your body. Raw foods, especially fruits and vegetables, tend to be harder to digest, and foods that are roasted are considered to be warming in nature.

In addition, your acupuncturist needs to assess the health of your digestion. Simply put, eating the best and healthiest foods in the world won’t do much for you if you’re unable to digest them well and convert them into nutrients. Digestibility can be tweaked either through the choice of foods or cooking method, and digestion itself can be enhanced through acupuncture treatments.

There are a number of variables to consider in Chinese food therapy, which makes it important to recommend the right foods for each patient. Your acupuncturist will be taking into account your diagnosis, overall health, energy levels, temperature, digestion, as well as the properties of individual foods when making recommendations. We think of food therapy is a way to enhance the healing process at home. The Chinese think of food as medicine you get to eat three times a day.

For more information on Chinese dietary therapy, here are some specific food recommendations and recipes.

Acupuncture for Gastroparesis

Gastroparesis is a condition in which your stomach empties too slowly. The muscles responsible for moving food out of your stomach are either weakened or damaged, causing food to sit in your stomach. The symptoms of gastroparesis can include heartburn, nausea, vomiting, pain, bloating, decreased appetite, and anxiety. The possible causes of gastroparesis include damage to the nerve responsible for digestion (vagus nerve), diabetes, a viral infection, certain medications, and adhesions from scar tissue.

In Chinese medicine, gastroparesis would be diagnosed as something called Food Stagnation, which is essentially food not moving through your digestive tract. Because there is frequently an emotional/anxiety aspect to gastroparesis, it might also be diagnosed as a Liver and Spleen disharmony. Your Chinese Liver is responsible for the smooth flow of everything in your body, including your emotions and digestion. When that flow is impaired—or because that flow is impaired—your Chinese Spleen, which is responsible for digestion, is weakened.

While the symptoms of gastroparesis tend to ebb and flow, it is generally a chronic condition, with no known cure. In Western medicine, gastroparesis symptoms may be controlled with medications. In addition, there are a number of factors, mostly dietary, that can help bring the discomfort associated with this condition under control.

Can acupuncture help with gastroparesis? The answer is yes; while acupuncture isn’t a cure, it is all about enhancing flow and movement in your body. Many patients have found that acupuncture can help move food through the digestive tract and bring relief from the pain, bloating, nausea, and emotional symptoms associated with gastroparesis.

If you suffer from gastroparesis, there are a number of things you can do for yourself to alleviate symptoms. Your goal is to get adequate nutrition while avoiding flare-ups. Some tips that help accomplish this goal include:

-Eat several small meals during the day, and keep your meals light. The more you eat at one sitting, the slower your stomach will empty—so think small.

-Movement helps move your food along. Take a not-too-vigorous walk after eating to help the process.

-Eat more of your meals earlier in the day. Stop eating a few hours before you wind down for bedtime.

-Make friends with soups and smoothies. Liquid meals will be best tolerated, as they will empty from your stomach better than solid foods. In addition, be sure to drink liquids with any solid foods that you eat.

-Aim to get enough calories, which can be difficult with this condition. While fats in solid foods may be hard to digest, you may find that you can tolerate fats in a liquid or softened form such as full fat milk or nut butters.

-High fiber foods that are found in some fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains tend to slow down the emptying process. You will better tolerate high fiber foods if you eat them well-cooked in soup.

-Chew your food well.

-You may find that probiotics or digestive enzymes help this condition. Get some advice from a health care provider or from your natural foods store.

-When you’re having a flare-up, use some gentle heat on your stomach. In Chinese medicine, heat enhances flow and may help move things along.

-Do whatever it takes to manage your stress. Stress and emotional upsets play a huge role in this condition. Acupuncture can be a big help here, but you can also meditate, visualize, take a yoga class, or go fishing—whatever works to calm your frazzled nerves. Your stomach will thank you for it.

Understanding Chinese Dietary Therapy

Many of the patients we treat at Acupuncture in the Park have conditions that are diet related. That doesn’t mean that a patient is eating bad food; it means that they’re eating the wrong kinds of foods for their particular needs. In most cases, a few dietary changes can help the healing process a great deal.

The ancient sages of Chinese medicine believed that doctors should first treat their patients with the proper foods, and if dietary changes do not work, only then should they turn to acupuncture and herbs for a cure. This method of treatment is an interesting way to think about Chinese medicine, but it also speaks to the power of food to heal your body.

We know that foods have certain properties. For example, we’ve heard that carrots are good for your eyes and spinach makes you strong (think Popeye). In Chinese medicine, foods also have inherent properties, and those properties are the foundation of dietary therapy. Foods can help the healing process in the following ways:

Foods have an inherent temperature. This means that they can cool or warm your body. For example, if you were suffering with hot flashes, night sweats or some other warm condition, a diet with lots of watermelon, cucumbers, or tomatoes would be helpful for their cooling properties. However, if you have a condition that is aggravated by the cold weather, you would do better with warming foods, such as lamb, cinnamon, scallions, and ginger.

Different foods affect specific organ systems. For example, if you have a dry cough a good food choice would be pears and apples because they moisten your lungs, while certain kinds of nuts and seeds moisten your intestines to alleviate constipation. In Chinese dietary therapy, foods are frequently chosen for the organ systems that they influence.

Foods also have a variety of actions. Simply put, different foods do different things. For example, sea vegetables strengthen your Chinese kidney system, green tea leaches out excess water by promoting urination, and pumpkins and other squash help with digestion.

Believe it or not, the color of the food you eat matters, too. Darkly colored foods strengthen your blood, black foods nourish your kidney system, green sprouts and young lettuce are good for your liver, and yellow root vegetables and squash boost your digestion.

There are a number of foods that are also considered to be Chinese herbs, including scallions, walnuts, sesame seeds, certain melons, and sea vegetables. While there are many similarities between the healing properties of foods and herbs, most foods tend to have weaker effects than those of herbs. This is because herbs tend to be more concentrated, while foods are eaten in larger quantities and more frequently.

Think of it this way: food is considered a kind of medicine that you get to eat three times a day. Illness can occur if you don’t eat the right foods (for you), if you eat too much or too little, or if your foods are not cooked in a way that they can be easily digested. Dietary therapy is considered the first line of defense in Chinese medicine. In reality however, by the time a patient seeks out acupuncture for a health condition, dietary therapy should be combined with acupuncture and herbal medicine for the best results.

Seven Things to Know About Chinese Medicine and Weight Loss

At Acupuncture in the Park, we are frequently asked whether acupuncture is good for weight loss. This is a tricky question with many variables. The quick answer is yes, acupuncture can help people who are trying to lose weight, but there are some things you need to know about how Chinese medicine views obesity and weight loss. Among them:

There is no magic bullet. Many people want to take a pill or supplement, or have an acupuncture treatment and have the weight magically disappear. That just doesn’t happen. Weight loss–the kind that lasts–takes commitment and time. Chinese medicine can be incredibly supportive in your weight loss efforts, but there is no miracle weight loss acupuncture point.
In Chinese medicine, your excess weight is considered dampness, which is the result of your body’s inability to digest well and metabolize fluids. When you eat the wrong foods, your digestion gets bogged down, and you begin to gain weight. Think about it; that fat you’re trying to lose weighs so much because it’s full of water.
Besides eating too much, there are actually foods that create dampness or make it worse. They include greasy rich foods, saturated fats, dairy foods, and sweeteners of any kind.
Movement should be a part of your strategy. In Chinese medicine, moving your body, creates flow. When you get sick or have health symptoms, it’s generally because something in your body isn’t moving as it should, so it accumulates and clogs up the works (most notably, dampness). It’s about more than exercising to burn calories. Movement creates a smooth flow of everything including your digestion, your periods, and your mood.
For best results, eat foods that are based on your specific needs. Every person has a unique physical makeup; you may run hot where other people run cold. You may have digestive problems, aches and pains, or hormonal issues. In Chinese medicine, acupuncture, herbal formulas and food therapy are prescribed based on your individual needs. Your acupuncturist can help determine any imbalances and needs you may have and prescribe the right herbal formula or foods to help you accomplish your goals.
Emotional issues impact your body in a number of ways. It is very common for people who suffer from depression to also have insatiable cravings for sugar. People who have a history of eating disorders tend to have some kind of damage to their digestion. In general, stress, anxiety, depression, and strong emotions of any kind can derail the process of turning your food into the energy and nutrients that you need to function well. If your mental health is playing a a negative role in your weight issues, make it a first step to get some professional help.
Practitioners of Chinese medicine can help you lose weight in the following ways: they can help you choose the right foods for your body type, help alleviate food cravings, improve your digestion, prescribe an herbal formula based on your needs, help relieve the stress that causes you to choose the wrong foods.

So can acupuncture help with weight loss? The answer is that when coupled with commitment and time, yes! acupuncture can help.

Why You Crave Sweets

You’ve just finished a great meal, and you’re really full. But you push your plate back and your next thought is, “What’s for dessert?” No matter how stuffed you are after a meal, there always seems to be a little room for something sweet. What’s with that?

According to Chinese medicine, there’s a logical explanation for your sweet tooth, and it has to do with the workings of the Spleen organ system. In Chinese theory, each organ has a physical place in the body, but it also has an energetic component, and the functions of an organ can be physical, emotional, or symbolic. Each of the Chinese organs are also related to a specific element (fire, water, etc.), season, color, emotion and taste.

So back to the Chinese Spleen. Your Spleen is considered the organ system that governs digestion. It’s responsible for taking food in, digesting it, and then turning it into energy, blood, and nutrients. The taste related to the Spleen is sweet. This means that a little bit of sweet food is nourishing to your Spleen (i.e. good for your digestion). However, too much sweet food can be damaging.

What does that mean? In ancient China, where these theories originated, foods that were considered sweet included fruits, dates, root vegetables, and some grains. Today, sweet foods include flourless chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, and Snickers Bars. Back in the day, the Chinese would have a mildly sweet food after a meal to help with digestion. Today, we crave sweets because we’ve been eating sweets and all kinds of other foods that are processed, modified, injected with hormones, and hard to digest in general.

We crave and eat sweets as a form of self-medication. When our digestion is out of whack, we crave sweets as a way to put things right. However, the sweets we eat are so sweet, it just makes things worse.

This is not to say that anyone with a sweet tooth is unhealthy, and brings us back to the dessert issue. We have a mild craving for something sweet after a meal as a way to aid the digestive process.

But what if you crave sweets 24/7? That’s your body’s way of telling you to get your diet cleaned up and your digestion in order. Start by limiting the amount of sweets you eat (I know, hard–but doable). You can also help things along by limiting processed foods, eating mostly fruits and cooked vegetables, whole grains, and a little protein. Over time your incessant sweet cravings will diminish — and you’ll feel healthier, too.

Chinese Food Therapy Recipes

We all want to be as healthy as possible, and in Chinese medicine, what you eat plays a huge role in the state of your health. One important facet of Chinese medicine is food therapy, in which you eat the most appropriate foods for your body type and as a way to correct any health imbalances you may have. For example, if your digestion is not up to par and you feel fatigued as a result, your practitioner may help you choose foods that are easy to digest and build up your Qi (energy).

While most recipes in Chinese food therapy are aimed at correcting specific imbalances, here are a few that are easily digestible and help to build up your energy, which is appropriate for all body types—and who doesn’t need a little more energy?

The following recipes all have potatoes as an ingredient, which are a good for building your body’s Qi. In addition, during the fall and early winter, root vegetables like potatoes are in season and can usually be found locally.

Roasted Potatoes and Garlic

2 large sweet potatoes
2 large purple, white, or gold potatoes
2-3 pieces of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of olive oil
sea salt

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Dice potatoes in 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces, place in a bowl and toss with the olive oil, garlic, and salt.

Place potatoes in a baking pan and cook at 400° for 40 minutes. Stir the potatoes every 15 minutes or so.

Potatoes will be done when they’re cooked all the way through. For a crispy brown finish, put the potatoes under the broiler for 5 minutes at the end.

Recipe adapted from www.nuherbs.com

Energetics: Potatoes strengthens Qi (energy). They also strengthen your digestion. Sweet potatoes are cool in nature, can clear heat, and are a good choice if you’re experiencing night sweats.

Lentil Soup

2 onions
3 Tbs olive oil
2 or 3 medium potatoes
½ pound red lentils
4 cups water
1 bay leaf
1-2 tsp fresh mint
juice of 2 lemons
sea salt to taste

Chop the onions finely and fry them in the olive oil until soft and translucent.

Wash and dice the potatoes.

Add the lentils to the onions, stir for a minute and then add the potatoes. Stir again.

Add the water and the bay leaf and bring to a boil.

Simmer for about ½ hour or until the lentils and potatoes are cooked through.

Add the chopped mint about halfway through, and add the salt and lemon juice at the end.

Remove the bay leaf, and mash or blend part of the soup for a creamy texture.

From Recipes for Self Healing by Daverick Leggett

Energetics: This soup strengthens Qi, is easy to digest, and provides a sustained release of energy. Lentils strengthen your Chinese Spleen and Stomach, as well as benefiting your Heart and Kidney. They also exert a mild action against dampness. Both the lemon and the mint are cool in nature.

Dill Salmon Bake

3 pounds of potatoes
2 large onions
1 pound of salmon
2 glasses of white wine
4 tsp of dill weed
2 ounces of butter
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 ° F.

Boil the potatoes until they’re about three-quarters cooked. Cool enough to handle, and cut the potatoes into slices ¼ inch thick.

Meanwhile slice the onions in rings and cook gently in a little butter until they just start to soften.

Cut the salmon into 1 inch chunks.

Place all the ingredients into a greased oven proof dish in layers: onions, then potato, then salmon, then onions and potato again.

Sprinkle with the dill and salt as you build each layer.

Pour in the white wine and place some pats of butter on top.

Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and cover.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

From Recipes for Self Healing by Daverick Leggett

This is a gently warming dish appropriate for all body types. The salmon nourishes Yin and Blood, while also gently warming Yang, with assistance from the white wine. The potatoes strengthen your Qi, and the onions are warming and can counteract dampness and phlegm. The dill helps strengthen your digestion.

The Chinese Restaurant Way to Good Health

Many people are familiar with acupuncture, however many may not know that there are a number of other methods of treatment that come under the umbrella of Chinese medicine. One of the most commonly used is food therapy—essentially using food to heal.

I frequently talk with my patients about their food choices. Occasionally, a patient will ask, “Exactly what should I be eating?”, and my answer is to eat lots of veggies, a little protein, and whole grains. However, lately my answer has been to eat like you’re in a Chinese restaurant.

Clearly, the deep fried sesame shrimp from your local Chinese restaurant is the healthiest. However, there are many traditions that are still in place in your neighborhood Chinese restaurant that are in fact pretty healthy.

A typical stir fry at your local Jade Garden will include a variety of vegetables with smaller amounts of protein, served over…um, white rice. White rice is not a whole grain, and has been eaten in China only for a couple of hundred years. It was considered to be finer than brown rice, and was served to the emperor and the wealthiest Chinese. In the countryside, the healthier brown rice was still common fare among the regular folks like you and me. Many Chinese restaurants now offer you a choice between white or steamed brown rice, and for the purpose of what I like to call the Chinese Restaurant Diet, choose the brown rice.

Other traditions that make the Chinese Restaurant Diet a healthy way to eat include:

The food is fresh! Some authentic Chinese restaurants have aquariums in which your dinner is still swimming until the moment you order. And all those vegetables you see in your stir fry—broccoli, carrots, onions, scallions, cabbage, peppers, mushrooms, etc.—they didn’t come out of a can or the freezer section of the grocery store. They’re fresh, and most likely came from the farmers’ market that very morning.
You usually don’t get iced drinks, unless you ask for them. In Chinese medicine, ice cold drinks can bring your digestive process to a halt. It takes a lot of your body’s energy to warm your stomach back up after downing a glass of ice cold anything. That’s why you’re more likely to find room temperature water or tea with your meal.
In a similar vein, you’re unlikely to get much raw in a Chinese restaurant, also for a good reason. Food that is cooked, even slightly, is easier to digest than a plate full of raw food. Hence, the stir fry—cooked slightly, but still crunchy vegetables.
Your meal in a Chinese restaurant is frequently served family style, in which everyone shares. This is a good thing in that you will get a wide variety of foods, which translates into a wide variety of nutrients.
Dessert is minimal. You get a fortune cookie—no chocolate turtle walnut berry cheesecake for you. A little sweetness helps you digest your food—a lot of rich sugary food is a just a gut bomb.
What you won’t get is also important. You’re unlikely to find any kind of dairy products in a Chinese restaurant. The Chinese believe that milk is for babies and baby animals. In addition, something like three quarters of the world’s people are lactose intolerant, and in Chinese medicine, lots of dairy just creates phlegm. In fact, when I have a patient who has problems with phlegmmy lungs or sinuses, the first thing I tell them is to dial back on the dairy. (Don’t get me wrong, a little dairy is probably fine, but huge amounts of milk and cheese can create problems.)
Also, good luck trying to order a filet mignon at your local Chinese restaurant. You might get a filet of whatever fish is available, though, served up on a bed of vegetables.

If you steer clear of the deep fried food and the white rice, the Chinese Restaurant way of eating can be pretty healthy, and you can put it into practice at home—you don’t need to eat out at the Panda Buffet every night.

Eating Disorders and Chinese Medicine

From time to time we’re asked whether acupuncture can help someone with an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or obsessive overeating. As with any condition, there is no one size fits all—everyone is different and heals at their own pace and in their own way. That said, at Acupuncture in the Park, we have worked with a number of patients who have suffered with eating disorders and who have been helped—sometimes dramatically so—from acupuncture.

Each person with an eating disorder comes with a unique set of circumstances, and can have one (or more) of a variety of imbalances in Chinese medicine. However, whether the condition is anorexia, bulimia, overeating, pathological food restriction, or night eating, in Chinese medicine the following organs are affected by eating disorders:

Heart. While you tend to think of your Heart as something that primarily pumps blood and is prone to heart attacks as you get older, the Heart organ system in Chinese medicine houses something called the Shen. The Shen is the home to your mind, memory, consciousness, and spirit. While these functions are attributed to the brain in Western medicine, we tend to intuitively know that the Heart is also an organ of feeling. (Think valentines, having a “broken heart” or heartfelt thanks.)

As an organ of emotion and spirituality, there is always some level of Shen imbalance in people who are struggling with an eating disorder. We believe that your approach to eating mirrors your approach to life, and if you’re binging, vomiting, not eating, or unhealthily restricting your food intake, your heart and spirit are as out of balance as your physical body. In Chinese medicine, an eating disorder would be considered a Shen disturbance.

Liver. Your Chinese Liver system is also concerned with emotions. The Liver is responsible for the smooth flow of everything in your body, including your emotions. When what you desire is very different from the reality of your life, it can evoke strong feelings of anger, frustration, and low self-worth. When those feelings are constantly suppressed, Liver energy becomes stuck and can show up as irritability, angry outbursts, and yes, pathological eating. In some people, especially those with eating disorders, strong emotions are turned inward and may also become depression and anxiety. In the patients we’ve treated with eating disorders, there is always some element of Liver stagnation.

Spleen. The organ system most damaged by eating disorders is your Chinese Spleen. Paired with the Stomach, your Spleen is responsible for the process of taking in food, digesting it, and converting it into the energy and nutrients your body needs to function on an everyday basis. Your Spleen is also in charge of holding things in and up in your body.

An eating disorder can damage your Spleen in a couple of ways. First, the digestive process can be impaired, even years after an eating disorder, causing symptoms such as stomachaches, gas, heartburn, constipation or loose stools, and even lack of energy or fatigue.

In addition, we have seen in a couple of women in our clinic who have recovered from their eating disorder, but who have damaged the holding function of their Spleen. This has shown up in an ability to become pregnant, but a tendency towards miscarriages (an inability to “hold” the fetus). Another sign of damage to the Spleen is easy bruising, as the blood isn’t being “held” in the vessels very well, and chronic diarrhea as…well, you get the point.

Kidney. Your Chinese Kidney is the home to all the vital substances in your body—Yin and Yang, Qi and Blood, and Essence, which is kind of like your DNA and body constitution all wrapped into one. Your body constitution is a gauge of how healthy you are, and it’s affected by how you live your life. For example, you may be a big, strong and healthy person who damages your health by partying, eating poorly and skimping on sleep—all things that can deplete your body constitution. In contrast, you may be smaller and not be as strong, but if you guard your health by eating well, sleeping, etc. you may live to reach a ripe old age.

My point is this—eating disorders damage your body constitution, and as a result, the health of your Chinese Kidney.

The good news is that if you are suffering from an eating disorder or have a history of an eating disorder, all is not lost. First, you need help from a mental health professional who is skilled in treating people with eating disorders. Then, when you are ready to get your body back into balance and repair the damage, Chinese medicine, through the use of acupuncture and herbs, can help by calming your Shen, soothing your Liver, strengthening your Spleen, and rebuilding and strengthening your Kidney.

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