Ancient Traditions and Modern Healing Combined Using Healthy Smoothies---Traditional Chinese Medicine Inspired Recipes

Having a household without helper and composed of two active kids, one of which has Mild Autism, is obviously a very busy one. Paps and I share with the bulk of work in doing the chores and raising our kids aside from our personal jobs. Paps is a high school teacher by the day and he teaches in the school where Kuya studies while I take care of Bunso who is now attending Special School and Occupational Therapy. Paps and I still work for our homebased business from the moment that our kids are asleep. This staying up late at night happens all the time because we have no choice but to extend our efforts. It is merely impossible for me to cover for him and do his share in the business task after dropping Bunso to school and while he is staying there for two to three hours because doing so at this point is most of the time being substituted with chores. From the moment that Bunso and I are already home, my time revolves around him alone because he needs it and he is my priority. Then late in the afternoon, in the evening, or late at night when the two big boys arrive, as the schedule permits, our focus as parents mainly is to have a brief family time with our kids during and after dinner time and do the chores thereafter. And the cycle goes on and on and on...

Paps and I are not complaining. We love our job as parents and we also like what we do for a living. We also have the same hobbies and we are happy with our present condition. We always wish to live longer and watch our kids grow and build their own lives separately but would constantly look for each other closely.

Living longer entails hard work and discipline. I have also learned just recently that a study has been made that parenting can lead to longer life. Well, mainly it's because parents have more reasons to live longer. They have to look after their kids until they die. It's a motivation that is so hard to break because parents love their kids unconditionally.

When I say hard work and discipline, it includes having a healthy lifestyle. Gone were the days when we would indulge in fatty and oily food or binge eating with junk food. We eat a balanced meal and tend to indulge or have ourselves a treat with dairy or chips once in a while. We don't want our kids to be ignorant with food. We believe that balance is always the key. We also don't take too much medicines and we take them only when they are badly and truly needed. We always resort to natural alternatives which includes choosing the right food in healing a specific disease. Sometimes, skipping medication is not an option but still it should be reinforced with taking food alternatives to heal the target disease.

Like for instance, drinking lots of water, cranberry juice, and coconut water is good for Urinary Tract Infection and Canker Sores because they kill and wash off the bacteria that cause them.  There are so many articles found in the world wide web about the healing wonders of fruits, vegetables, and herbs and sometimes it takes time to search and look for the right ones. Most of the correct information based on experience comes from  Chinese or Asian sources.

I don't do that anymore at the moment because now I have with me this tiny book with huge information about Chinese and Asian superfoods turned into smoothies, which are considered to be the convenient way to bring nutrition and refreshment into our daily living. Healthy Smoothies---Traditional Chinese Medicine Inspired Recipes by Kimberly Ashton (health coach and food educator) and Zhang Yifang (Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor) teaches us how to make healthy smoothies while making us understand about food therapy that is suited to our individual constitution. Body constitution, by the way, makes up our physical state, including the function of the systems of our body and metabolism and of course, our mental and spiritual states too.

How do we know our individual constitution in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)? 

The authors mention in the book that the features of one's constitution can be detected in three areas: the personal physical build, the body's internal functions, and the psychological state. A person's constitution also depends on the stage of life he or she is facing, such as puberty or menopause perhaps.

There are also two origins of constitution: congenital natural disposition and post-natal lifestyle (nature and nurture, in short). Moreover, there are so many factors that influence the formation of the constitution when speaking about the "nature" part like parents' physical and mental health, at the time of conception or the mother's pregnancy condition. When it comes to "nurture", our own lifestyles and actions influence our constitution.

To help us maintain our present state of being or constitution,  we have to learn first the basic healthy food that can help us maintain, relax, or heal it. In this book, a self-assessment is included to find that out.  The result can help us know what foods to choose according to our individual constitution. Isn't it cool? We can just try and test different smoothies that we think can help us gain healthier bodies with a concrete basis. We are being guided properly by this book by knowing the basics of TCM and the first thing to do is to know more about what we really need.

Next step is teaching the preparation of functional liquids and bases. TCM also stresses that aside from matching our food therapy to our individual constitution, we should also consider the season we are in and what effects we want the smoothie to have in our health. The liquids and bases that are the key parts to smoothie making are divided into three kinds: cooling, warming, and neutral. After this step, choosing suitable food and building our very own TCM smoothie follow, may it be for nourishing nutrition, immune system strength, detoxification, refreshment, or digestion aid. There are almost 40 recipes to choose from that are explained in a very simple manner which includes usage, ingredients, method of preparing, and most of all contraindication. Each recipe is supported with colorful photographs that make reading this book and learning from it enticing and fun.

I recommend this book for the reasons that I've mentioned above. It serves as a reliable guide for us to achieve optimum health and well-being. Dr. Ann Wignore, a Lithuanian-American holistic health practitioner, once said, "When we learn to eat properly we begin to rebuild our bodies and to fulfill our purpose on this planet to grow in health, creativity, wisdom, and compassion." This book can help us do it rightly to achieve this goal.