Targeted Health Alliance

Food, Digestibility & Metabolism Function

These days, the health news is abuzz with superfoods that are recommended for everyone to include in their daily diet. From increasing antioxidants to reducing free radicals, and those particularly high in vitamins and minerals. This list grows to include dark chocolate, goji berries, grapefruit and spinach.

Traditional Chinese Medicine also sees each food with certain properties that are beneficial to the body and help to balance it. Every food has an energetic property; from the way it was grown, to the location and environment that it was grown in, to the season it was harvested in. All of these factors impact this energetic property. And finally to go a step further, the way the foods are prepared also have some bearing on their digestibility.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, though there are some food choices that are better than others, even if you eat the best food available, the most important point is that your body has to be able to digest it! It is not just what you eat, but what you can digest that is the key. If your digestive system isn’t strong, you won't be able to get the benefits from the foods that you’re eating.

So what helps you process what you’ve eaten? Chinese Medicine focuses on the Spleen and Stomach. While one allows for the physical digestion of the foods that you ingest, the other regulates the passage of the excess. Alongside these two, several other organs also coordinate the proper processing of the food and the distribution of the nutrients to the rest of your body and physical organs.

For example, if you already have cold hands and feet, are constantly bloated, or suffer from food allergies, you will likely have trouble absorbing nutrients from the foods you eat. The first step toward healing is strengthening your digestive organ, the Spleen, with foods that are easily digestible and nurturing.

Here’s a quick tip:

The digestive system loves warmth and dislikes cold. Reduce the amount of raw foods you eat and avoid putting ice in your drinks. This small change will help the digestive system reduce the amount of energy or “Qi” that is required for complete digestion to occur.

---

Targeted Health Alliance offers personalized Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments in the heart of Toronto on the Danforth. We always apply a "whole body" approach in our Chinese Medicine treatments, offering a variety of different modalities (acupuncture, herbal medications, tuina, and cupping to name a few).

To read more about the different TCM organs and how they affect your body, you can visit our page (facebook.com/TargetedHealthAlliance).

We would also love to see you in person for a more in-depth Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment that will help you better understand your digestive health and how the food you eat affects your digestive organs. Traditional Chinese Medicine is covered by most major insurance companies. As a regulated multi-disciplinary complementary care clinic, we are open daily. Appointments can be made online at "https://targetedhealth.janeapp.com".

Tips to Relieve Stress (and Save Your Waistline)

According to Chinese medicine, the health of the Liver organ is crucial for metabolic health and maintaining a normal weight. How do you keep your Liver healthy and strong? Remember, the Liver is the organ that is most affected by emotional stress, and not being able to express yourself and follow your true desires. If you have a lot of stress, repressed anger or discontent in your life, your Liver function will be compromised. And because it’s such an important organ for digestive health, your metabolism will also eventually become compromised, and you’ll start piling on the pounds, little by little. In simple terms, stress can make you gain weight.

So it’s not just about the food you eat. It’s about being happy, doing whatever you see fit, expressing yourself openly, being your own unique self and truly learning not to care about what other people think of you. It’s about learning to let go of stress and things that bother you, so that you can live in true contentment and freedom.

Two easy ways to boost your Liver function and release stress and negative emotions:

Tip #1: Follow your heart and say what’s on your mind. Don’t hold back!

Tip #2: Have a temper tantrum. Seriously–it’s better out than in! If you aren’t able to express your stress or anger, find ways to release it.

---

Targeted Health Alliance offers personalized Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments in the heart of Toronto on the Danforth. We always apply a "whole body" approach in our Chinese Medicine treatments, offering a variety of different modalities (acupuncture, herbal medications, tuina, and cupping to name a few).

To read more about the different TCM organs and how they affect your body, you can visit our page (facebook.com/TargetedHealthAlliance).

We would also love to see you in person for a more in-depth Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment that will help you better understand your body and how excessive emotions can affect it. Traditional Chinese Medicine is covered by most major insurance companies. As a regulated multi-disciplinary complementary care clinic, we are open daily. Appointments can be made online at "https://targetedhealth.janeapp.com".

Gain Energy With Healthy Eating and Chinese Medicine

With only a few weeks away from the official start of Summer, now might be a great time to think about healthy eating habits before the rush into the BBQ season.

The Chinese Medicine way of healthy eating is a very different way of looking at body nutrition. Instead of focusing on calories or nutrients, Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the body’s constitution, food intake, and energy expenditure as a whole - kind of like a three sided see-saw. These three individual parts balance each other, allowing for digestion and nutritional intake to occur. When any one of these three sides become overactive or weakened, it affects the other two, and the body’s ability to properly digest food becomes negatively impacted.

This perspective approaches healthy eating with a different understanding of why people gain weight in the first place. Instead of just focusing on an excessive amount of caloric intake, other factors such as stress, hectic lifestyles, and informational overload also play a role in digestion and the body’s ability to take up nutrients. These “energy drains” deplete the body of the “Qi” or energy needed for proper digestion to occur, and can over time affect the body’s balance and lead to weight gain.

This low energy state leads to compromised digestive function, which then creates a state of inefficient conversion of food into “Qi”. This cyclical process is what causes the end result of weight gain.

Here are some tips on how to eat to gain energy and restore balance:

Eat to stop energy drains! By getting rid of unhealthy dietary habits that stress your body’s digestive function and cause “energy drains,” you’ll save “Qi” that can be used to repair and maintain your digestive system. Skipping breakfast, eating late at night after 7pm, eating way past full, and eating cold, raw foods are all energy-draining dietary habits.

Eat foods that benefit your body’s energy-producing organs. Eating foods that have specific energetic properties for healing the Stomach, Spleen, Liver, and Kidney will go a long way to counteract the effects of energy drains and stress. Once your major digestive organs, i.e. the Stomach and Spleen are in good form, you’ll naturally be able to transform your food into Qi much more efficiently.

---

Targeted Health Alliance offers personalized Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments in the heart of Toronto on the Danforth. We always apply a "whole body" approach in our Chinese Medicine treatments, offering a variety of different modalities (acupuncture, herbal medications, tuina, and cupping to name a few).

To read more about the different TCM organs and how they affect your body, you can visit our page (facebook.com/TargetedHealthAlliance).

We would also love to see you in person for a more in-depth Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment that will help you better understand your digestive health and how it relates to your emotions and food intake. Traditional Chinese Medicine is covered by most major insurance companies. As a regulated multi-disciplinary complementary care clinic, we are open daily. Appointments can be made online at "https://targetedhealth.janeapp.com".

Procrastination: A Mind-Body Energy Drain

There’s no doubt about it: procrastination is a huge drain on your energy in mind, body and spirit. When we procrastinate, we are constantly worrying over a task we probably should have finished days ago. Putting things off for days, then weeks, and then, at the last minute, staying up all night to meet a deadline, can get pretty exhausting - and eventually affect your health in the long run as well.

As Chinese Medicine would say, the stress from worry and overthinking energetically over-stimulates and unbalances the function of our two most important digestive organs; the Stomach and the Spleen. While one is responsible for taking in nutrition, the other allows for the passage of the excess. When this system is disrupted by stress, your natural digestive ability becomes impacted and can result in symptoms of poor digestion; bloating, upset stomach, alternating diarrhea and constipation.

Isn’t it always a huge relief and a load off your mind when you finally finish that endless to-do list that has been on your desk for weeks?

If you really want to save your energy and keep your digestive system in optimal health, remember to never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today, and keep that to-do list short!

---

Targeted Health Alliance offers personalized Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments in the heart of Toronto on the Danforth. We always apply a "whole body" approach in our Chinese Medicine treatments, offering a variety of different modalities (acupuncture, herbal medications, tuina, and cupping to name a few).

To read more about the different TCM organs and how they affect your body, you can visit our page (facebook.com/TargetedHealthAlliance).

We would also love to see you in person for a more in-depth Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment that will help you better understand your digestive health and how it relates to your emotions. Traditional Chinese Medicine is covered by most major insurance companies. As a regulated multi-disciplinary complementary care clinic, we are open on Sundays. Appointments can be made online at "https://targetedhealth.janeapp.com".