Acupuncture Weight Loss
and Food Management

Acupuncture recognises that food is extremely important and fundamental to our survival. We can not exist without it, whether physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. No food is healthy or unhealthy, it is the way food is used. 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.

Food supplies the nutrition that supports the lifelines of the human body. Through it we either gain or lose energy (body weight) depending on the quantity and type of food that is eaten. Some people eat to simply “fill a hole” and stay alive while others “live to eat”.

The diet of people who live in developed countries, including Australia, is high in fat, high in refined carbohydrates, high in salt, low in fibre and high in supplements (vitamins and minerals). The majority of deaths in Australia is related to heart disease caused by faulty diet.

Acupuncture principles agree that although over-eating is thought to be the main cause of obesity, other factors such as exercise levels and hormonal and metabolic disorders need to be considered. There are also very strong social influences.

Social influences in Food Management

Cultural background influences the food we eat. Certain groups are regular users of foods such as oils and fats. Many cultures favoured and were fond of people (children and adults) who were “big”. A child, teenager or adult would be unhealthy if h/she was slim.

One aspect they failed to recognise for many years was the difference between being fat or overweight and being solidly built with strong bones and muscles. As a consequence, encouragement was given towards the consumption of more food than was necessary. This eventually led to a weight problem.

Food is often bought for pleasure, celebration or reward rather than for nutritive value. Eating has almost become a recreational sport. The result is overweight. Nowadays overweight people not only consume foods (such as fat) that may help promote illness, but often fail to get enough dietary fibre and vitamins that may contribute to the prevention of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease.

Food Commerce

Nutrition in Australia is now part of big business interest that invest millions of dollars in weight loss centres, books, supplements, meal substitutes and gimmicks to catch our attention.

Competition is fierce. Consumers risk commercial exploitation and poor health consequences as a result of bad advice. There are an ever increasing number of eating disorders due to unrelenting emphasis on weight.

We need to consider whether we really do need to diet or whether we are giving into peer pressure or social conditioning that has taught us to be unhappy with our bodies. Most western exercise physiologists agree that the weight would look after itself if people got into the habit of regular exercise.

Difference between Western and Acupuncture Chinese Food therapy

There are major differences between Chinese food therapy and western dietary therapy. The latter recommends a low fat high fibre diet plus regular exercise. The idea is not to decrease food intake, in fact, the amount of food intake can be increased provided that they are low in calories.

The Chinese acupuncture concept proposes the use of foods that are “hot” in energy in-order to “burn up” excess calories and body fat. They do not evaluate the calories component of foods.

The Western method

The Western approach is based on the concept of energy balance. In order to maintain steady weight, that is neither gaining nor losing weight, the energy eaten must equal the energy used. Therefore you would put on weight when the energy eaten is more than the energy used. This excess energy consumed is stored as fat and can lead to obesity. On the other hand, weight would be lost when energy used is more than energy eaten.

Fad Diets

Fad diets can be dangerous and do not teach proper eating habits. There is a tendency for people to go on a fad diet and then go off it. Fad diets usually accompany a gimmick; for example the grapefruit diet, the magic herb diet, diets pills or diet shakes.

Fad diets are usually low in calories, low in carbohydrates, therefore water and muscle tissue are automatically lost from the body.

The initial weight lost while on a fad diet is not fat but water and muscle. Glycogen, the energy stored in muscles, is used up first. Every gram of glycogen is stored with about three times its weight in water. Therefore when glycogen is lost, water is also lost. Fad diets are a way of manipulating the body’s fluid level.

Fasting

Acupuncture sees no value in fasting and it could also be counter productive, sometimes dangerous. The main problem is the lack of nutrients and carbohydrates. It varies the energy requirement for basic metabolism by simply reducing the amount of calories the body burns to keep alive. There are studies showing that people lose weight better on 1200 to 1500 calories a day that they do on 600 calories.

Fasting, like low calorie diets makes the body run on very low power. You feel lethargic and find that it is difficult to exercise.

Change is necessary

On a western point of view, change is important, however, in acupuncture we recommend that you should implement change in a way that you can live with on a long term basis. So you should educate yourself.

Quantity of food to be consumed depends on the type of food, whether it is high or it is low in calories. Frequency of meals also need to be adjusted.

All visible saturated fat must be removed from the diet. Hidden fats, even such as those in avocados and nuts, must be reduced.

If you have to break the diet, it’s far better to accept it and enjoy the food. The satisfaction from this pleasure can only bring you closer to following the regimen rather than giving up altogether.

It is necessary to select the foods that are available socially, for purchase, at restaurants, at friends' places. If you cannot eat socially, you may well not stick to it permanently.

The aim in acupuncture food therapy is not to have people with empty stomachs and feeling ravenously hungry. Once this happens, you become quite indiscriminate about what you eat.

The punitive attitude that prevails in diets, that some foods are forbidden while others are not must be removed. When this occur, your thoughts become dominated by the forbidden foods. Temptation increase and the regimen is broken.

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