In one of the more embarrassing mistakes by Reader’s Digest, they claim that the next frontier of medical science will be on food and the study of how it actually has healing properties. Erhm … isn’t that what the Chinese and the Indians have known for thousands of years? Even Westerners have holistic and alternative medicine practitioners who know a lot about the healing (as well as destroying) properties of food.
The Chinese believe in the the principles of the “five elements theory” as well as Yin and Yang. The Five Elements theory is used to interpret the relationship between the physiology and pathology of the human body and the natural environment. So before prescribing a therapeutic diet, a doctor of Chinese medicine must first consider many different factors. He will study and observe the patient’s constitution, the nature of the illness, type of syndrome, even the season and climate. He will then select the proper ingredients for the patient based upon these multiple points, not just upon the disease alone.
Each food prescribed is based on its character. Foods are known by their own unique flavor, energies and actions and Chinese diet therapy regulates and treats the different organs of the body according to the properties of the food.
It is a complex system studied by the Chinese for thousands of years … the Westerners can learn a lot from it, most especially Reader’s Digest.