An important aspect in the use of food and herbs as medicine, is emotion. Food is energy and people forget that emotions take a lot of energy. It is understood by many that the expression of emotion takes much less energy than the control of an emotion.
In Traditional Chinese medicine, this concept of emotional control being influenced by the strength of the person shows up in many common situations. The classic is being “over tired”. In a child this manifests as a child throwing a tantrum or otherwise being too emotional to fall asleep. Being too tired, creates a situation where the child loses control of the emotions. This happens in adults as well. Adults do not throw a fit , but will often have very poor restless sleep when they are physically and emotionally too tired to fall asleep well.
Many people find that they are testy or short with friends and coworkers when they are hungry. Sometimes this is because the person is dieting and limiting calories, or sometimes the person expended all their energy for emotional control on earlier stressful situations.
Women who are approaching menopause find that the balance of energy in their body is delicate. Menopause by definition is a shift in energy utilization in the body. This often leaves the peri-menopausal woman reactive to changes in the environment as opposed to the stable proactive control that she experienced through much of her adult life. A sudden emotional thought can trigger a hot flash as the body reacts to bring the emotion under control.
Humans naturally have adjusted for this situation through various cultural norms. People calm children with food. When people are sad they reach for foods that remind them of happier times. Many people calm a friend who is anxious or worried with a trip to a favorite restaurant. The person who finds that their emotional control is low at certain times should first look and see if they are eating in a way that puts energy in their body when they need it most to deal with stress.
The real telling situation is a funeral. It is the custom for many people to bring food to funerals. No one brings light “diet” foods to funerals. It is tradition that most people bring hearty high calorie “home cooked comfort foods” to funerals. Somehow it just seems right that when everyone is trying to stay in control of their emotions at a difficult time, that those are the types of foods that make the most sense. From a traditional medicine point of view, rich foods provided with love can be the best medicine for someone who needs the energy to keep their emotions under control.
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