| As far as I know, no one has ever developed diabetes because of eating too many bananas, pears, carrots, beets, tomatoes, oranges or potatoes. But each week I still hear clients telling me they avoid these foods because they have too much sugar but in the same breath tell me they are eating protein bars that have similar sugar amounts per serving size. Marketing and media hype is powerful. If this is you, I see you and I’ve found myself pondering these things too. The reality is many of the fruits and veggies you’ve avoided have energetic balancing benefits that are being overlooked. In the last 2 weeks I’ve had clients remind me of the benefits of certain fruits that I’d not mentioned in a very long time to anyone because I’d jumped past food and went to hormones and peptides. Food is important, it’s your original medicine. One of the biggest areas that food can be medicine is in the balance of yin and yang. Yin = cooling fluid energy. Yang = warming dry energy. As you age, you deplete your Yin. Dry hair, skin, stools, mouth, eyes, vaginal tissues are common over 40. Creaky poppy cracky joints = decreased circulation and yin. Pre-diabetes and diabetes are different degrees of yin deficiencies. Inflammation in aging is a result of too much yang: sugar, alcohol, red meat and other rich indulgences. Hot flashes and night sweats often show up when someone’s lifestyle is tipped higher towards the yang side of the the balance. Yin foods are often fruits and veggies. Root veggies like sweet potatoes, yams, and potatoes are all yin boosters. Pomegranate and pears, especially Asian pears are very yin and cooling energetically. 2 weeks ago a client told me about a sautéed pear recipe that stopped her dry cough and decreased inflammation in the redness and peeling she had been experiencing on her eyelid. Just today a client sent over an article on pomegranate juice as a tool for lowering plaque in the arteries when used for years at a time. It reminded me of how my Chinese professors were insistent upon using pomegranate to reduce hot flashes and night sweats too. And how I’d used it early on in my career and when folks were consistent it did work. I know it’s easy to overlook food as a source of medicine when there are fancy things like supplements, hormone replacement therapy and peptides out there. This last two weeks I’ve been reminded to go back to my roots when it comes to my training. Chinese Medicine is backed by thousands of years of results and while HRT and peptides have really just emerged in the last 50 years. It’s a great reminder for me and you to not forget the simple things that can help amplify your results. Turns out there are a lot of Yin foods that can be of benefit for balancing the yin and yang in aging. If you’re curious as to what they are, along with some of my other healthy aging guide through the lens of Chinese Medicine – click the orange button below and download my pdf. Here’s to aging well with food and modern advances,Dr. J |
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