Dietary Advice

The first thing we would like to say about food is that we believe it should be delicious. We want to help you find a new and tasty normal, that enhances your enjoyment of cooking and eating as well as your health. We are passionate about good food and we definitely don’t believe that eating healthily needs to be boring or stressful.

Everybody is different. We spend time learning about you so that we can recommend food choices that will benefit you and fit into your lifestyle.

What to expect

Searching for ways to eat that are both healthy and satisfying has led us to explore the food of our ancestors and use more traditional methods of cooking. In the age of convenience food, so many of us have lost touch with traditional ways of eating. Do you have any idea what your great grandparents would have eaten? How different is the food you eat? There is a lot of food knowledge out there that would benefit all of us, and a lot of it comes from our ancestors. For the most part, no matter what our cultural background, our ancestors ate unprocessed wholefoods that they prepared at home.

Some beneficial foods to learn how to make at home or to search out at your local organic store or farmer’s market are:

  • Fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, kimchi and soured dill pickles

  • Activated grain, seeds and nuts, for example slow fermented wholegrain bread

  • Soaking and washing dried legumes before cooking

  • Slow cooked broths, for example 2 day bone broth

  • Natural yoghurt

  • Aged cheeses

  • Miso

  • Kombucha and jun tea

For more food ideas and recipes, check out our blog.

Drawing inspiration from our ancestors

Choosing good ingredients

Modern industrial farming methods tend to produce nutritionally poor food. Food that has been heavily processed is even worse, as many of the nutrients have been removed or damaged during processing, leaving mostly starches and sugars. This is what the term ‘empty calories’ describes. Choosing unprocessed foods, preferably foods that have been produced by smaller farms using organic or biodynamic methods, is a good first step towards health for everyone.

As a rough guide:

  • Eat 60-70% vegetables

  • Choose whole grains like brown rice, rye, spelt and barley over processed grains (eg white flour)

  • Choose grass-fed or pasture-raised meat, poultry and dairy products

  • Eat moderate amounts of good quality fats like olive oil, butter, ghee, animal fats, coconut oil

  • Eat small amounts of natural sugars like fresh and dried fruit, honey, maple syrup. jaggery, sweet potato

Nutritional content vs digestibility

Most of us have given some thought to the nutritional content of our food and the amount of calories we are ingesting, but might not have considered how digestible our choices are.

Those with strong digestive fire are able to make use of most foods they put in their mouth, but those with compromised digestion may need to take more care with their food choices. For example, someone with strong digestion may be able to process a wide variety of grains, legumes, dairy, fruit and vegetables while a weakened digestion may do better with cooked food, and may need to choose grains, pulses and dairy with care.

Choosing a wide variety of nutritious food for building energy needs to be carefully balanced with the ability of the digestive system to break down and absorb those nutrients efficiently. Remember, if your body can’t process it, you can’t use it! This is central to the Chinese medicine dietary approach.

Your practitioner may recommend some diet changes to complement your acupuncture or herbal consultation. Making some dietary changes can be an extremely beneficial adjunct to your sessions, and empowers you with knowledge to work towards better health. Dietary advice is tailored to you as an individual and is based on our understanding of your particular imbalance.

Dietary advice involves getting a detailed picture of how you eat on a day to day basis and suggesting alternatives to food that may not be benefitting you, as well as suggesting foods or recipes that will help to rebalance and support your system. We pay particular attention to food preparation and combining.

Moderation

Above all, we believe that food should make us feel good. Regulating food to the point where it becomes stressful isn’t a good idea. We don’t want you to completely give up your favourites. For most people, exchanging poor food choices that have come a daily habit, and eating well for 80% to 90% of the time can make a difference. As you go, you will find out how much leeway you have to enjoy your favourites. Moderation really is the key.