Food therapy
Five flavors in harmony · grains as the base
Principles settled, here are the hands: the we...
Principles settled, here are the hands: the wellness practices any ordinary person can do daily concentrate in four things — eating (food therapy), moving (daoyin exercise), pressing (acupoint massage), warming (moxibustion). This chapter is a home edition manual: every item is safe, simple, equipment-free — and each comes with explicit safety notes. The boundary first: what follows is daily wellness for building constitution and easing fatigue, not medical treatment — for persistent symptoms, see a physician; if you live with chronic illness, consult a qualified professional before adopting any new regimen.
The core of Chinese food therapy is "five flavors and four qi": sour, bitter, sweet, acrid, salty each have their organ-affinity; cold, cool, warm, hot each have their direction. Daily use need not memorize doctrine — a few plain rules suffice: grains are the base — staples (millet, rice, Chinese yam, pumpkin) are the chassis of qi and blood ("millet congee nourishes people"); eat with the season — pear, lotus root and lily for autumn dryness, radish and lamb for winter cold, winter melon and coix for summer damp; choose by constitution — the yang-deficient favor warming foods (ginger, lamb, longan), the yin-deficient clearing moistening (pear, white fungus, duck), the phlegm-damp light and damp-draining (coix, adzuki bean, winter melon).
Two safety notes: first, food therapy prizes the ordinary — beware any legend of a miracle food; food's power accumulates slowly. Second, "medicine and food share one source" does not license large or endless doses of strongly biased materials — ginseng, ejiao and the like belong under professional guidance. The best food therapy is the regularity and balance of three ordinary meals a day, not a weekly "grand tonic soup."
Daoyin is China's oldest "exercise prescription"; its friendliest modern form is Baduanjin: fifteen minutes, eight movements, no equipment, stretching and qi-regulating for the whole body — with gentler versions for elders and standard ones for the young. Beyond it, a daily brisk six thousand steps and standing to stretch each hour of sitting are today's implementation of "movement raises yang." The Chinese principle of exercise is "a light sweat, never exhaustion" — drenching sweat consumes qi and fluids; this is a different philosophy from "no pain, no gain."
Acupoint massage is a regulation tool carried in your own hands; four of the safest "daily points": Hegu (the high point of the web between thumb and index — knead one minute for head-and-face tension and stress); Neiguan (three finger-widths above the wrist crease, between the tendons — for chest oppression and nausea); Zusanli (four finger-widths below the outer knee-eyes, one finger-breadth outside the shinbone — the great spleen-stomach point for desk workers); Taichong (the hollow on the foot's instep between the first and second toes — for irritability and suppressed anger). Press with the thumb to a comfortable soreness, one to two minutes each. Avoid stimulating points over broken skin and during pregnancy; those with clotting disorders should avoid heavy pressure.
The five grains nourish, the five fruits assist, the five livestock supplement, the five vegetables fill — taken together in harmony of qi and flavor, they replenish essence and qi. — Grains nourish, fruits assist, livestock supplement, vegetables fill; served together in harmonized qi and flavor, they replenish essence and qi.— Huangdi Neijing · Suwen · "Zangqi Fashi Lun"
Moxibustion applies the warming stimulus of burning mugwort to points — suited to daily warming care for cold-type tendencies: the yang-deficient who are always cold, menstrual chill, spleen-stomach deficiency-cold. The commonest home form is suspended moxa: light the moxa stick, hold it about three centimeters from the skin over points such as Zusanli, Guanyuan (four finger-widths below the navel) or Dazhui (below the nape's highest bone when the head bows), some ten minutes per point, until the skin is warm and faintly pink. Afterward keep warm, avoid wind, and drink warm water.
The safety notes are obligatory: guard against burns (test warmth frequently; never step away from a burning stick); ventilate the room; those with genuine heat patterns (bitter mouth, bad breath, constipation, acne-prone) and yin-deficiency fire should not moxa; the face, over large vessels, over broken skin, and the lower back-abdomen of pregnancy are forbidden. Moxibustion "adds fire" — do not add wood to a body already on fire. And the standing refrain: all of the above is daily wellness; for persistent symptoms, seek diagnosis first — Chinese regimen has always stood on "discern the pattern first, adjust afterward."