Women’s Health: A Chinese Medicine View of “Fast Like a Girl”
By Dr. Renae Haldeman · New to some of these words? See the glossary.
Two women came to the clinic with hormone balance problems. One was going through menopause, and the other was of child-bearing age. Both had anxiety, trouble sleeping, and hot flashes. After some acupuncture, both women’s hot flashes eased and their sleep got better, but the problems still came back at times. Both women noticed that the hot flashes and insomnia only came after they ate foods that did not suit them, especially at night. Recently I asked both patients to make breakfast their larger meal and to include grain if they were willing to eat grain. I suggested they eat a very simple dinner or use a fasting plan for the dinner meal. Both women followed the advice. Their hot flashes eased a lot, their anxiety was much lower, and their insomnia was completely gone. What is the Chinese medicine explanation for this? Let’s look at how a fasting plan works together with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) timed eating.
According to TCM, the stomach does its best work between 7 and 9 a.m. The sweet flavor goes to the stomach and wakes it up. Sugary foods, including fruit, smoothies, and granola, are too sweet for breakfast. Very sweet foods in the morning can hurt the muscles. Grain is sweet by nature, but it is not too sweet for the stomach and spleen at breakfast. If grain is part of your diet, it should be eaten in the morning, and it should be the right type of grain for your body.
I love the ideas in Mindy Pelz’s fasting plan in her book Fast Like a Girl. She suggests eating in ways that support hormone balance, cell repair, and detox. One thing her plan does not cover is how important breakfast is. She focuses on a heavier lunch and dinner. Western medical doctors are taught that everything that goes into the stomach must be cleared by the liver. This is also true in Chinese medicine. So it makes sense that when we eat a heavy meal in the evening, the liver may be working hard during the hours when we should be resting or sleeping. At that same time, the stomach is at its lowest energy of the day. Giovanni Maciocia, the author of The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, explains that the Liver stores blood. If the Liver does not get enough blood (yin, or food), then, in his words, when “someone is asleep at night Blood naturally embraces the Mind and the Ethereal Soul [Liver], but if blood is deficient the Mind and Ethereal Soul [liver] ‘float’ and the person cannot sleep or dreams a lot (Third Edition - p63).” These two women, at very different stages of life, got the same great benefits of less anxiety, fewer hot flashes, and better sleep by eating a good breakfast and fasting at dinnertime.
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This article is educational and is not medical advice. Individual results vary. Please talk with a licensed healthcare provider about your own health.