TCM and Your Thanksgiving Meal
Our favorite food holiday is almost here, and whether you’re watching how much you eat or planning ahead to feel your best come Friday, Traditional Chinese Medicine offers some great tips and tools.
We’re going to cover everything from which foods will be kindest to your digestive system to overcoming post-meal bloat and everything in between.
The foods we eat
Let’s get to know our traditional Thanksgiving food a little differently—this one’s my favorite.
In China, turkey is known as a “fire chicken” not just because of their appearance, but also because they can withstand extreme cold. And in TCM, that means turkey meat has a warming attribute, which is what we want during autumn’s dryer months. It also helps with digestion and gut health, two key benefits after our Thanksgiving meal.
When we talk about warming foods, it’s important to note that we don’t mean their external temperature is warm. Instead, warming foods have the ability to increase internal heat and energy in the body, and are commonly used to counteract cold conditions, strengthen the body’s Qi and improve circulation. When you’re cooking this year, it’s a great season to add other warming foods like ginger, cinnamon, garlic and onions to your meal, too.
Before we eat
If you’re concerned about overdoing it, taking digestive bitters before you eat to help prime your digestive track and prevent post-meal sugar spikes by promoting the release of more gastric juice in the stomach, which helps with heartburn, cramping and indigestion.
I recommend dandelion root tea and Maria Treben’s Swedish Bitters for digestion.
After we eat
In TCM, there’s a surprising reason to move your body after eating a large meal. Walking helps stimulate points along the shin bone that are related to the stomach and large intestine, which can help with gas pains.
You also can take herbs after your meal to promote digestion and move stagnant food. Hawthorne berries, especially, are wonderful to have at Thanksgiving because they help with food stagnation, which is what happens when you have a large meal, and help your body digest meats and fats.
You can even make a cranberry-hawthorne sauce using these sour-but-sweet berries. Here’s a simple recipe adapted from Six Fishes:
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup dried hawthorn berries
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup water
2 tbsp grated orange rind
½ cup diced candied ginger (optional)Directions:
Wash and pit the hawthorn berries, soak in water for 10 minutes, then strain.
Place the hawthorn berries, orange rind and ginger in a saucepan with the sugar and water.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the cranberries and bring back to boiling.
Simmer until the cranberry skins pop—about 8-10 minutes.
Serve warm or chilled.
If you find yourself still feeling bloated, constipated, full or even just a little off a few days after Thanksgiving, give us a call! Acupuncture is proven to help with IBS symptoms and a host of other common holiday-time ailments, including stress, insomnia, headaches and anxiety.
Let’s set you up for a great Thanksgiving—and a healthy last few weeks of the year.
In health and wellness,
Julie