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As an infant, I was already quite sick ly. My mum had fallen on the ice in her sixth month

of pregnancy and while she lay flat on her back in the middle of the road in a patch of ice

unable to right herself, I had done a flip-flop in sympathy. As a result, I tried to enter the world

bum first, a painful experience for all. This seemed the start ofa rough road ahead.

was force-fed f resh air and exercise which absolutely savedme. My bones filled out, my eyes healed and I could run upand down hills barefoot with the rest of my step-cousins. Mymotion sickness also passed as I got stronger and stronger.

Funnily enough, I seemed to have traded my weakspleen with my step-father. He was a bit of a worrier and alsostubborn. The combination of the two was like a kami-kazi

piranna fish. When he locked onto a problem, there was noletting go. All that over-thinking t ook its toll on his body anddamaged his spleen.

Raw FoodsLooking back, I can also see how the foods we ate only

aggravated the problem. He loved all the raw foods from ourgarden every summer, eating raw spring onions, radis hes,lettuce and green beans. Raw food is a lot of work for thebody. It can also create dampness which in turn makes theother internal organs suffer.

Even in the winter, we generally always had a salad of

some sort t o supplement our meals. At that time four veg aday was a mant ra being m arketed on telly and t aught inschools.

This is probably the diet of many Americans and if thebody is healthy, it can handle it. However, when it is weak,one cannot treat it as though it were a strong body, just as aperson lacking in self-esteem cannot pretend tobe confident. In the end, the problem willcome o ut and cannot stay hidden. Somany raw and cold foods can, over

time, damage the spleens o even

At six months of age, I contracted pneumonia and almostended my journey there but some kind saint sent a SkyEye text message to my mum and she went to check on

me in my cot and found me not breathing. I was rushed to thehospital where I lived for the next several days in an oxygentent.

My grandmother said that bad things always come in

sets of three. So unsurprisingly, another event followed and atage three, I entered hospital to have eye surgery to help correctmy lazy eye. Although I was too young to remember, I stillcarry with me a horror of needles and feel sick at the smell ofanaesthesia. My mum said this is because just before I wasready to go to surgery, a nurse came in wanting to do a wholeseries of blood works on meagainas someone had lostthe previous ones.

The doctor arrived to find a screaming toddler and wasfurious. He banished the nurse with sharp w ords and althoughhe took me in his arms to comfort me, I presume the memoryis still there because if I see someone getting an injection onthe telly, I can telepathically feel that needle jabbing into myown flesh and always have to hide my eyes until such a scene

has passed.That is one set of three and, of course, there were more

but nothing quite so dramatic. However, all of this contributedto my being a bit of weakling. My step-father used to jokethat when he came into our lives when I was four, he wonderedif I would live out t he year as I was so skinny and pale. Moreoften than not his patience was tried on holidays as I wouldconstantly feel car sick as we drove on various trips. He wouldstop the car so that I could urk in the roadside bushes but, ofcourse, by then the feeling had passed. T his cycle wouldb e r e pea t e d q uit e of t e n m uch t o m y embarrassment.

H e w a s o ur l uc ky s ta r,

though. When my mum and hemarried, she and I m ovedfrom the city to his homein the country and I

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healthy persons should balance their diet to include cookedfoods.

Today, I understand that my spleen was weak becausemy whole body was weak. When people have ulcers or weakspleen/stomach, more often than not, the doctors prescriptionis for antacids or even antibiotics, with the thinking that thereis harmful bacteria causing all the problems.

The side which is often neglected is t he diet. Of course,doctors will usually prescribe gentle diet foods including moredairy and less fats and no fried foods. Unfortunately, many ofthe foods which are still eaten have a cold energy or are eatenraw. T hese kind of food can easily deplete what Qi is there ina weak patient. I call them Qi stealers.

I know that raw food diets are all the rage atthe moment but wh en I see interviews with thedieters, it is frightening how unhealthy boththe dietician and t he eaters look. Theirskin looks g rey and s ome lookalmost anorexic. In one programme,people went on a food boot camp

where they were given diet plansof raw foods to follow for a month.

In the beginning, they lost weightdramatically. Then it tapered off.Most f ound positive results in thebeginning but at the end, all saidthey would not eat a wholly raw fooddiet.

The thing is, no one is looking tosee how a persons health is affected by eatingonly raw foods for five, ten, even twenty years.I think the story would be different then. I know a

woman who has eaten an exclusively raw food diet for manyyears with seemingly no bad effects, however, she also practisesmartial arts and Qigong which give her a lot of internal Qi.Her daughter, who is now in her teens, is quite the opposite.She has learning difficulties, bleeding s ores on her legsconstantly and is very poorly in her general health.

So in the end, it means that raw food diets are only ashort term solution for dieting and not a life solution. For me,I want a life solution for eating and health. Just as our bodies

have a Dantian, we need a centre, a foundation for anyphilosophy. Otherwise, all we have is just a collection of ideasand not a seed which can grow a tree which can develop andbear fruit. For development, we need to decide on a path andstick with it. T hat does not mean it does not change. As we getolder, o ur diet should definitely change with our changingbodies. I n fact, our diet should take into affect our currentstate of health, t he seasons and climate.

The more I study of the Chinese food cures, the more Iam amazed at the depth of knowledge of healing and healththat existed over 1,000 years ago. We have gone backwardsin our eating and diet wisdom because we have t oo manychoices, too little time and not enough t rust in ourselves. We

also have lost the sensation of what is really good. There areso many artificial ingredients and flavour enhancers that ourtongues have lost their palate. Food additives are a big moneyindustry and there are even chemicals which create an addictivestate telling the stomach it is not full or that it wants more.

Some friends who have visited England and Europe fromAmerica have commented on how good the f ood tastes bycomparison, for instance butte r, cream, cheese, milk, breadand vegetables. When I first moved to England, I was surprisedat how little sugar there was in desserts like pies and cakes.Now I find most American cakes so over-saturated with sugarthat all the natural flavours of any fruit or spices is lost. This

over-lading of the senses also makes us lose our naturalpalate.

If we can learn how t o diagnose andtreat ourselves just by changing our

diets, then we can help toenhance our health not onlythrough Qigong but throughdiet. A good diet alone willnot make us healthy but thew rong fo od s can by

t hem s elve s m ak e usunhealthy.

For weak spleens weneed to make our bodies

stronger and eat t he rightfoods. For ulcers we need to

reduce worry and also make ourinternal Qi strong. Strong Qi will

make the kidneys strong and as kidneysrelate to the element water, it will help to

balance any internal fire that stress creates.

Foods toavoid for weak spleen:Raw foods

Alcohol (as depletes Qi)Cold energy foods like:-

CucumberCeleryBeer (too cold on the spleen and can create dampness

in body)Lettuce such as iceberg, romaine, lam bs lettuce. (R ocket is

warming but should be cooked not eaten raw.)Pear

Foods toenjoy more:-

Cooked oatmealSteamed Rice ( but not the s ticky rice which can createblock ages)Cooked applesPotatoes steamed, boiled or mashed not friedHoneySteamed vegetables such as carrotStir fried spinachGinger t ea or ginger as condiment in cooking vegetablesLean pork cooked in soup or in small portions such as in a stirfry

by Je ssica Tse

Raw food is a lot of

work for the body.

Qi Magazine Jul/Aug/Sept 2007 page 27