Is Salad Bad for Me?

Many people eat a lot of salads. And in Chinese medicine we kinda have an issue with that. Let me clarify. Chinese medicine is really big on the health of the digestion because this is where we get all the nutrients we need to be healthy (Chinese medicine also believes this is where we generate our Qi (energy) and blood). If the digestion is weak than our overall health suffers. In our medicine we think that raw foods, including salad greens, are tough on the digestion. This is because cooking is the start of digestion in humans (not so much for chimps who have smaller brains and larger guts and should not even be allowed to cook). So especially in Winter we want to eat less salad and raw food and more cooked food like stews and soups. In the Spring our digestive energy is greater and a few salads will cause less damage. In winter our energy goes inward, similar to an animal in hibernation. Our body goes into storage and rejuvenation mode to get ready for the coming of Spring and the awakening of our energy. So we do recommend to many of our patients to go easy on salads. I personally use tongue diagnosis to tell how your digestion is doing. It's accurate and I can tell in a glance if you in particular need to reduce or eliminate salads for a while.