Avoid too much raw and cold food

Chinese people are often shocked and mystified when they see people in the
West happily eating raw food and vegetables. They would suggest that
vegetables
should be lightly cooked before eating. There are two main reasons for this.
First, raw vegetables are harder to digest than cooked ones. Cooking starts to
break down food and aids the Stomach’s digestive processes. This will result
in more nutrients being absorbed. For example, only 50% of a carrot will be
absorbed if it is eaten raw, compared to 65% when cooked.19
Secondly, and very importantly, practitioners of Chinese medicine understand
that the process of digestion requires heat. The Stomach can be compared to a
large cooking pot full of soup at boiling point.20 Putting large amounts of cold

food into this soup will cool it down substantially and so require more energy to
break it down. Over a long period eating raw vegetables and cold food can
make
us very lethargic due to the extra energy we need to digest it.
I recently advised a patient to cut down on cold foods. I was surprised when
he came back and thanked me, saying he’d always preferred warmer foods
but thought salads were healthy so had forced himself to eat them. He was not
unusual. Many people eat salads and drink iced drinks throughout the winter.
On a hot summer day a salad or cold drink can be very satisfying but we need to
eat in accordance with the temperature of the seasons.
Our ancestors recognized the importance of eating warm food. One traditional
adage is that we should eat at least one hot meal a day. Many of us have now
forgotten this sensible piece of advice and eat cold food throughout the day,
even in the middle of winter. Adding at least a hot soup to our diet and lightly
cooking our vegetables can make a substantial difference.