Take good-quality food

We all know the expression ‘You are what you eat.’ Chinese medicine
emphasizes
how true this is. If we eat high-quality food it will be transformed into
goodquality
qi and Blood. This nourishes us physically, mentally and spiritually.
The
result is that we can begin to glow with good health. If we eat poor-
quality food
it lowers our vitality and the quality of our qi and Blood will be
deficient. Over
time this will result in ill health.
Much of our food is now contaminated. Hormones and antibiotics are
injected
into animals and pesticides are sprayed on vegetables, dangerous
preservatives
and ‘taste enhancers’ are sometimes added to our food, and our air is
polluted
too. Genetically modified (GM) foods have been introduced into the
food chain.
These may all be having a profound effect on our long-term health.
Unless we
are eating organic foods we are now eating these pesticides,
preservatives and
drugs on a daily basis. Many people are increasingly aware that the
human race
cannot disturb nature without detrimental effects.
The BSE crisis in the UK in the 1990s was one example of the damage
caused
by interfering with nature. Other effects from long-term use of
chemicals are
bound to become more apparent in the years to come.
Problems arising from tampering with our foodstuffs are relatively new
and are
not, of course, mentioned in old Chinese texts. There is an increasing
body of
evidence that GM foods have a negative impact on the environment
as well as
on those who eat them. The best advice for us to follow is to eat
simple, natural
foodstuffs which are in season and grown around us if possible. These
are the
foods that our ancestors ate on a daily basis.

Organic foods
Nowadays the most unadulterated foods are ones we grow in our own
gardens,
or organically grown food. All food should be processed as little as
possible.

Organic vegetables, fruit and meat products are now widely available
and many
of us are eating them as the majority of our daily diet. There is an
increasing
body of evidence that organic vegetables contain more vitamins and
minerals
than their non-organic counterparts.29 They have the added
advantage of tasting
better as well as being healthier. Organic meat may be more
expensive, but
eating smaller amounts can make up the cost. Organic meat is much
less likely
to have chemical residues and the animals won’t have been raised on
GM feed.