Acupuncture Weight Loss
and Chinese Food Therapy

Acupuncture weight loss system is totally different to the various methods you have been accustomed to hearing in the past.

Weight loss therapy in western medicine involves dietary adjustment where the number of calories or kilojules you consume is reduced and the energy expenditure is increased. In dangerous cases surgery is performed.

The Chinese agree to this theory, but their approach is different and unique.

Chinese medicine offers both a dietary therapy as well as a natural method of weight loss through the treatment by acupuncture. The body’s metabolism is regulated and balanced by acupuncture to such an extent that it makes the body’s physiology operate smoothly.

Therefore, it makes people eat only as much as is necessary, it makes them feel better and consequently they are more able to stick to healthy food, dietary changes or exercise programmes.

The acupunture system is based on medication by food where food is not only used to sustain life but it is also used to treat illness. Chinese culture considers some food as herbs and some herbs as food. Ginger is a good example.

Henry Lu in his book Chinese System of Food Cures writes that one way of dealing with obesity is to dry out the body by promoting urination, getting rid of water in the body, cooling the body to facilitate water passage and by warming the body to promote the burning of calories.

He further quotes that “An overweight person has two enemies: fat and water.” The idea is to remove both fat and water from the body and keep them out of the body. Lu says that the Chinese believe “fire” can do the job by burning the fat and boiling the water for it to evaporate. This fire is called the burning fire of the kidneys which is the kidney yang aspect. It has the capacity to become energetic. Lu suggests that one way of increasing the kidney fire is to eat foods called yang tonics such as cinnamon, ginger or even animal kidneys.

The problems that you could encounter with Western dietary therapy are that not only poor results be obtained by fad diets, but you could often develop minor emotional, behavioural or mental difficulties that arise as a result of the fad diets which encourage you to chase unrealistic goals.

In Ilza Veith’s translation of the Nei Jing, Chi Po answered the Yellow Emperor with “since he does not have a desire for food his actions become reckless and disorderly”. These problems are avoided in the Chinese system because the psychological need for hunger and the unbalanced physiological cravings for food are treated. The will power is improved and the ability to lose weight is fortified.

Western dietary therapy emphasises weight loss or weight gain whereas Chinese therapy aims at treating the illness that cause the weight problem while also dealing with weight management. The Chinese approach is far more favourable and effective because Western diets are considered for their calorie or kilojule component whereas in the Chinese diet, foods are considered for their flavours, energies (temperature), movements and actions on an organ or meridian. For example, the Chinese system of food therapy teaches that Sea Grass and Kelp can cause weight loss.

Both Sea Grass and Kelp are salty in flavour, cold in temperature and enters the Stomach organ and channel. Sea Grass is also bitter in flavour. The bitter flavour drains and parches damp, one of the causes of obesity. Acupuncture Chinese medicine teaches that the salty flavour softens hard nodes and masses and moistens while opening and moving the bowel movement takes care of the waste products.

A more detailed and comprehensive work is required to document the effects of foods applied in Chinese Medicine. Here, some basic ideas are presented to illustrate the importance of how the energetic qualities of food fit into the overall picture of the overweight or obese.

Some energetic actions and examples of foods:

Hot Food: creates heat and warms the internal organs

Warm Food: disperses cold and helps to restore Yang Qi

Cool Food: reduces heat

Cold Food: creates cold, cools internal organs, sedates fire and detoxifies.

Examples of Food with Hot energy are:

Dried ginger, peppers, cinnamon bark, alcohol, spices, greasy and rich foods.

Examples of Foods with Warm energy are:

Apricot seed, brown sugar, chicken, chive, cinnamon twig, clove, coffee, dates (black and red), fresh ginger, ginseng, grapefruit peel, shallots, ham, leek, mutton, nutmeg, peach, raspberry, rosemary, shrimp, sunflower seed, sweet basil, walnut and wine.

Precautions

It is necessary to consult a registered practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine prior to adopting the principles of Chinese food therapy. Should you increase the body’s metabolism too much by foods with hot energy, a pathology of internal heat could be created.

Provided that precautions have been taken to prevent excess heat from building up inside, a marginal increase in the comsumption of hot foods can make a major difference in weight loss.

Conclusion

TCM is a powerful modality for treating the overweight and the obese. While Western scientists continue their search of the treatment for obesity, we should all investigate the traditions of TCM.

Generally overweight people are less healthy. They have a greater risk of illness, disease and a reduced life expectancy. They should be offered the benefits of TCM therapy.

The Western emphasis to weight loss is centred around an increase in musculo-skeletal activity, behaviour modification and a low calorie diet where the foods selected have no energetic value.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine aim at treating the individual as a whole. The current pathologies are attended to while the underlying causes of the weight problem is also dealt with. Food therapy is applied and the foods are selected according to their energetic properties. Therefore it could be indicated that the Chinese approach to weight management can be far more favourable and effective.

In the treatment of weight loss, the western principle of “decreasing energy intake and increase energy output” should be further supplemented by the Chinese principle of “choose your food” and “regulate the metabolism of your body and mind by TCM”.

TCM is necessary and important because without it Yin and Yang would be out of harmony. Therefore one would not be able to make the correct choice of food and maintaining that choice would be rather difficult. Together acupuncture combined with food (herbs) would provide an excellent method of therapy for weight loss patients.

Food is the life-line of the body. We know that eating the right foods would contribute to good health and eating the wrong foods could lead to illness.

A diet based on Chinese Food Therapy for different body types (according to the principles of TCM) should be considered. Similarly, guide-lines for treatment by acupuncture are also necessary in order to ensure that all the other aspects involved in weight loss, for example, will power and emotions, are looked at in the diagnosis.

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