Helping Ourselves

"There are other guides to Chinese dietary therapy on the market, but none that I have seen makes the subject so readily accessible." European Journal of Oriental Medicine

The author's background is in shiatsu. Now, as well as teaching shiatsu, he also teaches food energetics and Qigong. Helping Ourselves is his first book. It is, as the title implies, a guide for those who wish to maintain or regain their health through Chinese dietary therapy. It is intended for practitioners, students of TCM and patients. No doubt, if we practice what we preach, we should all be using it in our kitchens; meanwhile, it provides practitioners with a useful means of giving their patients quite detailed dietary advice.

There are potential pitfalls in recommending dietary self help; it is a measure of the good sense evident throughout this booklet that the author is careful to stress, prominently, that it is not a substitute for qualified medical attention. Diet, it has to be said, is a subject which lends itself to an unhealthy dogmatism. Leggett gently debunks notions of nutritional stricture and emphasises balance, moderation and flexibility. Above all, he believes that we should enjoy eating.

Helping Ourselves is in three parts.

The first part opens with a very approachable introduction to the various functions of the spleen in Chinese medicine, on the physical, mental and emotional levels. In particular the author explains the functions of transformation and transportation. There is some thought-provoking anatomical correlation here, which may reflect the author's shiatsu background: Other fasciae we read,... connect the whole body and hold everything comfortably in place. Without the fascia our bodies would have no tone and we would collapse in a soggy heap. The fascia express the spleens function of support and containment's

There follows a section of the general principles of healthy eating which, as the author points out, are of far more importance than understanding the specific qualities of individual foods. Lastly there is an introduction to the way food is classified in Chinese dietary therapy, describing the basic ideas of temperature, flavour and action. This section could equally well serve as a succinct introduction to the theory behind Chinese herbal medicine.
The second part introduces patterns of disharmony. Yin, yang, qi, blood, patterns of excess and stagnation are explained. A page or two is devoted to each. After a look at the manifestations and possible causes of each pattern, general guidance is given for the selection of appropriate foods suitable for the particular pattern. Readers are advised what to avoid as well as what to choose in their diet.

The third part is composed of tables of the various types of food, beverages, herbs and spices. They give information, easy to see at a glance, about temperature, flavour, channels entered and therapeutic actions. I have not come across any glaring omissions; neither is the reader overwhelmed by lists of unusual foods that seem to deny the advice to eat fresh, local food where possible. (I do confess to not knowing what amaranth is, however, and my diet does not embrace alfalfa sprout or sparrow.)

There are other guides to Chinese dietary therapy on the market, but none that I have seen makes the subject so readily accessible to the novice. I find Henry Lus Chinese System of Food Cures indigestible, to use an appropriate metaphor. Helping Ourselves, though far less detailed, is more easily assimilable and more succinct. It does not include recipes, as Lus book does; that would be beyond the scope of such a brief guide though Leggett is planning a sequel with recipes, amongst other things. Nor is it a work of scholarship - those who want a deeper study of the subject will need to look elsewhere. It is, however, a very practical guide for those who wish to start incorporating Chinese dietary therapy into their lives. It is also one the clearest introductions I have seen to the basic ideas behind Chinese medicine. Anyone who helps the general public understand those ideas is doing us all a favour.

Simon Fielding
European Journal of Oriental Medicine