Bamboo is known more as a building product rather than a medicinal herb. Bamboo however provides an interesting lesson on the effects of various food products on the body.
Bamboo is a grass, and like many grasses is seen in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as “cold” to the stomach. This is why when a dog has an upset stomach from bad food, it will eat grass as a way to calm the stomach. The digestive system of mammals, (humans included ) is considered a hot environment. This is where warm acids break down food into energy and pass it on to the body. If the stomach is “cold” temperature wise or just is deficient in its functioning ( referred to as “cold” in TCM) then energy does not get efficiently processed and passed on to the body. This can leave a person feeling sluggish, and tired, and can lead to overeating, lack of exercise and weight gain. Humans sometimes do this through the overuse of cold, raw and otherwise uncooked food. ( it is no coincidence that Japanese sushi is served with hot and spicy wasabi and ginger to help the body digest the raw fish)
Enter the panda bear. Like us, the Panda is a omnivore mammal with a similar digestive system. The panda, due to where it lives has little to eat, and has adapted to eat only bamboo. A constant diet of a “cold” grass, similar to a human cold raw food diet, has some interesting consequences. The pandas eat a lot of bamboo because there is very little nutritional value to the bamboo. They are often slow and heavy, and have a notoriously low sex drive and low reproductive success. In this extreme example, the effects of the overuse of “cold” foods can be seen. The consequences follow the predictions of herbal medicine concepts.
The lesson is; eat a variety of foods. Cold drinks, raw fish, raw vegetables, frozen desserts, tropical fruit smoothies, and other “cold” foods are not the enemy. Cold foods however should be kept in moderation with other foods that better provide easy to digest heat energy to keep our bodies running efficiently. Cold foods can be very appropriate in larger quantities in the heat of summer, but are inappropriate in the cold of winter when we need more heat. Spring and autumn in Wisconsin provide times when cold foods should be kept to a minimum to help the body nourish and prepare for the changing season.
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