How To Create Your Very Own Qigong Diet - Sahaja Yuantong

The Zhineng Qigong practice has its purpose in unity and balance within the mind-body connection. Dr Pang said Qigong shouldn’t be limited to movements, but a reflection in daily life. Sahaja Yuantong integrated diet and food choices with Zhineng Qigong, reflecting wholeness. Qigong and nutrition are interconnected aspects of holistic health. The Zhineng Qigong practice, while not explicitly focused on diet, recognizes the importance of food in overall well-being.

Discovering your true-self through Zhineng Qigong, will expand awareness as this is the source of wisdom even with personal nutrition. The inner master, will become conscious of the effect food can have. Sahaja explains, that our inner-self, awakens as one becomes more attuned to their body's needs through mindfulness. Our reference framework of food  often influence our choices, this could stem from childhood or an experience associated with a particular meal, like seeking comfort - Sahaja notes.

Sahaja discusses, flexibility and awareness in dietary choices allow individuals to adapt to their unique requirements. Recalling an acupuncture session, where she was told to increase her protein intake and take a more balanced route with her nutrition. Encouraging mindful eating rather than rigid dietary rules, where missing nutrients can cause trouble and develop into a disease.

Sahaja touches on the inevitable cravings too. As cravings complicate our relationship with food. Recognizing these cravings is essential for distinguishing them from genuine nutritional needs. It’s okay to satisfy a craving in moderation, because even a craving will work it's way out and reset, Sahaja emphasizes the importance of balance and oneness in food choices.

We have to be mindful of what we put into our bodies. Sahaja highlights the significance of aligning food choices with the natural rhythms of life. The concept of macrobiotics (a diet associated with Zen Buddhism), which emphasizes the balance of yin and yang in foods & illustrates how seasonal eating can enhance health. For instance, ever wondered why you prefer lighter meals in summer, while heartier ones in winter? This approach reflects the Daoist philosophy that underpins both Qigong and nutrition, suggesting that food should harmonize with our environment and personal needs.

Mindful moments:

• Qigong & Nutrition: Zhineng Qigong emphasizes nutrition for holistic health
• Self-Awareness & Food: Connect with your true self to make informed food choices
• Yin & Yang Eating: Balance your diet with seasonal eating
• Mindful Eating: Be conscious of how food affects your energy
• Avoid Self-Sabotage: Understand emotional eating patterns
• Positive Nutrition: Enjoy food that promotes well-being

Links & Resources:
Sahaja's other episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO2ZaGQ2Y6c
Sahaja's site: https://www.radiantawakening.net/
La Qi Method E-learning Course: Unlock a 50% Early Bird Discount!
https://t.ly/iHe79

🎙️🌟Explore more podcasts, events, and resources visit:
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📘📚 Get your FREE E-book on the "Eight verses meditation" by Dr Pang:
https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/exploration-of-the-eight-verses-of-zhineng-qigong-meditation-e-book

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Transcript

What lessons can we draw from Qigong when it comes to food and nutrition? How can we use the consciousness to connect to our inner nutritionist and make the ultimate choices when it comes to our daily diet? With decades of experience in both as a nutritionist and Qigong teacher, Sahaja Yuantong explores these essentials towards health and well being.

My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong podcast.

Welcome Sahaja. Thank you very much for joining me today. We had a great podcast about Qigong and aging for those of the listeners that are interested. Please go back and find that podcast. And today we're going to talk about nutrition. Now, the disclaimer I have to make first is that, Zhineng, Qi Gong as such doesn't really talk much about nutrition.

So it's not part of what Dr. Pang taught, but we all know, obviously that nutrition is very important for our health and wellbeing. And when we spoke the last time, I think I mentioned that I have quite a few, people in my network that are avid practitioners of Zhineng, Qi Gong. But then when I see what they eat all day.

Now I say there's no possibility you can get healthy with that kind of nutrition. So, I was reminded of this, this old, saying of old question where you say, now if you bake a bread, what is more important, the dough or the oven? And there is actually no answer to that because you can't bake bread without the oven and you can't bake bread without having dough.

So, it's not in, it's not in either or it's not one is more important than the other. In my personal opinion, nutrition is important in any case, and you can't be successful with the health of a being if you don't look into nutrition. So this is why we have you as a guest here today, Sahaja, welcome again, and let's just get started and let me know how you got into the whole thing and what your thoughts are, please.

All right, before I, tell you how I got in, I want to answer that question from my perspective. Which is more important, the oven or the dough? I would say the baker. I would, I would say the bread maker and what he is thinking while he's making the bread and, and 

which Good point. You're bringing, you're bringing a third element into the picture.

so much. 

Yeah, it aligns so much with where I've come to with food. So I'll just tell you briefly my history with food. I began teaching whole foods cooking, I guess it was something like 1994. I taught for about 21 years, macrobiotic, Whole Foods. I say Macrobotic slash Whole Foods cooking because Macrobotics is not very well known by many people.

But what attracted me to it was the whole philosophy behind of yin and yang. And although it's not strictly based on the TCM version of yin and yang, it just made so much sense to me that one should eat warming foods in cold weather and cooling foods in hot weather, like you don't necessarily want to sit down and have ice cream while it's snowing, and you don't want to have a hot stew in the middle of, of summer, you know, so it's that sort of intelligence that really now I come to see as the Dao and That was my beginning of the, journey.

And the reason that I sort of delved into learning macrobiotics was because I had, I probably mentioned this in the previous podcast, I had contracted dengue fever in India and was very, very sick. And it really didn't, I didn't bounce back quickly. It's already a pretty serious, condition to go through, but many people do bounce back after two weeks, a month, a bit like COVID really.

And I didn't, so I decided, my path was going to be nutrition. And, you know, there's also history of food. I don't know, some people grew up with maybe a very, healthy relationship with food, but my story was interesting because my mother was very restrictive with some foods and very much pushing healthy foods.

And, you know, I just saw what happened when I got to like the age of going to university and I was never allowed to have this and this and this. And I got there and it was just like, Oh, Whoa, you know, the sky's the limit. Like, so I've learned many things on the journey that repression doesn't help bring a balanced attitude to food.

And I see a lot of mothers with kids these days, like no sugar, no this. And then they go to a birthday party and they go. nuts for the sugar. So that's not the way. There's so many, so many contradictory and confusing elements with food, especially now. And in those years of teaching and, you know, I had continuous classes for 21 years.

So it was, I taught a lot of people how to cook miso soup and brown rice and sourdough bread. And, you Vegetables, beans, and the thing that people most suffered with or were confused with is who to listen to. And even now, there's even more conflicting information around food. And, many of my own beliefs have just flown out the window because I've seen people, well recently, a friend lost 17 kilos on the carnivore diet.

Now, to me, in my mind, eating meat, only meat, not even a vegetable, couldn't comprehend, you know, it just, it just, even aesthetically, it felt wrong on so many levels. And, but he lost this excess weight that he couldn't do as a vegan, as a vegetarian. And so that, It just made me look at that. There's maybe many pathways through this nutritional world.

Now I get that there are many pathways to achieve certain things, but you know, intuitively, I will also say, if you only eat meat now, that can't be good because you know, that's not who we are as a, as people that's not our, if you look at our evolution and all of that, I mean, I'm not a nutritional expert, but I'm just talking about common sense here.

Our body would need, you know, some vegetables, some greens, because that's what we always said. And, and so, I totally get what you're saying. There's so many, so much different information out there and so many different diets, styles. So how is one to. Navigate through that and, and how does this relate to Qigong and to TCM, traditional Chinese medicine?

Because that is kind of the perspective that we are taking here. 

I have, I have, I've been sitting with this, you know, I've been contemplating this and just observing it in my own journey, which has gone from very, we used to use the word narrow narrow eating to wide eating in macrobotics. So I've had periods of very narrow eating, and now I can eat much wider.

And where for me it is such a, integration with Qigong is that the freedom or the wisdom came from connecting with the inner master. And you know, teacher Liu at the recent retreat, he talked about the inner doctor and other people talk about the true self, the inner master. I say that when you keep going in, in, in with practice, meditation, just your own spiritual journey, Eventually, you wake up the inner nutritionist.

And, and really, I think this has happened for me in the last year, and it's, it is amazing because all the previous beliefs around food all really originated from reference framework. I would say almost all of them, what we align with. I mean, what you just said about, it's not what we were, There's a book out now that your vegetables are trying to kill you.

That's the name of the book. Because now all these people coming up with this new information about lectins and all this, what I call partial information, like taking something out of context, it's not integrated, it's not unified, it's not holistic, it's finding some, like saying, you know, don't eat almonds because they have a trace of arsenic in it, and arsenic can be poisonous.

So when I heard about this book, your vegetables are trying to kill you, I just I don't know. I have to laugh. And and they're doctors, doctors advocating. So I thought there's no choice anymore. You have to wake up this wisdom that knows your body and knows it on a day to day basis. Because what I've found is that if you try and fix it, you know, like in Qigong, if you fix your illness, you fix your condition, like in your consciousness, it's very difficult.

hard to change, that it's that fixing. And if you fix your nutritional belief system in the same way and your body changes, then What can you do? You're sort of bound to this belief system that's fixed in concrete, and so flexibility and awareness of how the reference framework influences food choices and food beliefs, I think is super important.

Does that make sense? 

Absolutely. And I think it's a very cool point that you're making. Because, just like we have learned in Zhineng Qigong, to, work with the Yi Yuan Ti to get the information and to send information, it is the same when you talk to your inner nutritionist. Now, connect with that to understand what is good for you.

For me, however, there is an important distinction here because there is the inner nutritionist that knows what's good for you. And then there are these cravings. And the cravings are basically, you know, you know, industry has made us crave certain things because they keep putting it into our nutrition, like sugar or like fried food and so on.

And that is a different thing than our inner knowing of what's good for us. Now, for me, I would say, I know these cravings, but I know what they are. So I can put them into perspective. Now where my, my inner nutritionist comes in is really when I have had food, Because then if I listen to my body, I know whether it drains my energy or whether it gives me energy.

I know how I feel after I had the food. So this is kind of for me where, you know, my consciousness comes in and where I get this information. Wow, I feel so much better having the salad compared to, you know, having a burger. And this is where the consciousness kicks in and has to, you know, observe the cravings on the other hand, that the next time I'm hungry, I'm making a good decision.

And the good decision not based on any book or theory, but really based on my own experience of what happened to me and my body and my energy after I had a certain food. So this is how I, you know, what I take out of what you've just said, and this is what I find also in my life, you know, how I best operate through the whole world of nutrition.

Is that in line with your ideas? 

Totally. I totally agree with you. And just to enforce that, as I sort of gave myself more freedom, I would say in the last couple years, more freedom to go out and eat wider, I noticed a process, just what you said, really started to take place. And even this year, it's like, it was sort of funny at the retreat in China recently, They had little Snickers bars in the one single shop that was there, and like, everyone was like, wow, there's Snickers bars, you know, because mostly it was Chinese junk food.

And, and I thought to myself, I haven't had a Snickers bar in honestly, 50 some odd years, you know, that is absolutely forbidden, it's junk. And, But they're very tiny, so I remember someone bought me one and I tried it and went, oh my god, and then I thought I'll never be able to stop because of the craving.

And I had a second one and Then maybe a few days later I had another and I remember teacher Liu coming along and saying what did you buy? And I show him the sneaker. He goes once in a while. It's okay, but it just fell away by itself Like now I saw I went to the petrol station the other day. There was a whole wall of snickers So I had to take a picture for the group of Australians that went But there was not one craving.

And I thought these things have a way of working themselves out. And I keep noticing with those sort of forbidden foods that maybe, yeah, growing up in America, a burger was a big deal. And then I find a place that has grass fed burgers in Fremantle. And the first one, I think, Oh my God, I've been missing out.

I'm going to eat this every week, you know, or my partner would say, I guess you want that every day. But it just resolved very quickly because of what you said, the mindfulness to observe And then I noticed as soon as something really doesn't sit well, I go, well, that's finished. That's finished. But it's not coming from a previous state where, Oh, that book said, this is good.

That book said, this is bad. Oh, this one will make me put on weight. This one will harm the liver. This one is, is, you know, not good for the heart. It wasn't coming from any more book knowledge. It's exactly what you said. It's coming from direct experience. Observation of what is good and what isn't for the body in that moment, because it might change in three months, you know?

So I totally agree with you. 

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For me, if I might add that, It, it really helps to have insights when I, have my food and say, I've been having a couple of really good days now with lots of salads and green and some green juices. And, yeah, I, I, it's impossible to ignore how much better I feel now, if I really get that and understand that.

then this insight will guide me. So it's no longer, it's not a question of discipline. It is really, you know, me wanting to feel good. I have this insight. Now that's the nutrition that, my body would like, and my cells would like, and it's this insight that's guiding me, not my discipline of it's, this is forbidden or that is forbidden.

So, that helps because I don't want to go through life, with a, no, don't do that. No, don't do that. I want to go through life, you know, free and being able to make the choices that I feel are good for me and that I want for me. So because it has to be a positive experience, the whole nutrition thing, and, and it is, it is true.

I mean, I, I don't know how many times I've been sitting in front of a menu and I said in the Italian place, there's the pizza and there's the salad. It's tough initially to decide for the salad sometimes, but I can tell you after the third bite, I'm so glad I did it and vice versa. If I have the pizza after the third bite, I think, well, I don't really need more of that.

And I wish I had chosen the salad. So this is where the consciousness comes in because as human beings, we have consciousness and we can reconnect to this knowledge that we have with these insights that we have. So we don't have to follow our consciousness. First craving, we can actually go back to the consciousness and say, okay, wow, this is what I know.

And this is the experience I can connect with from the past. So let me make this choice and see how it goes. But now I'm talking and you are the podcast guest. 

And I'll ask you a question. No, because one of the things that Dan, when I'm listening to you, that comes up, which I think it's a challenge for many people, not everyone, and probably Qigong people, practitioners are already maybe a step beyond or ahead.

I don't want to make it sound higher, lower, but sometimes people don't want to feel better. And why is that? Sometimes there is the saboteur that is choosing that food unconsciously because of some stress in life, maybe to dampen down the energy when people's energy starts to come up. So there are all these sort of, it's such a, labyrinth of exploration for the psyche to go into the food and how it is playing out.

So many subconscious tendencies. So what I saw is people who could see how much better they would feel eating a certain thing. And I also see it sometimes less and less in myself, but there is some desire to shut down. You know what I mean? 

Now, this is a great point because, I think for all of us that find ourselves making choices that we are That we know are not good for us.

There's a this is an invitation to look into the question Now, how comes i'm choosing that? What's going on, for me or in my life or in my belief system that I keep making those choices. And this is obviously not just linked to nutrition. This is true for, you know, the whole of our life, but in particular for nutrition, I think it's great because we don't usually look at nutrition that way.

It's, so it's, when you said it, it was really opening my eyes to say, okay, this is a valid point because, a lot of people just think. Yeah. I don't have the discipline or I'm just, you know, not good with eating, but there's always an underlying, you know, process, that directs us to make these choices and to look at that process and to look into what's going on in my thought process that I do make these choices can be incredibly valuable.

And by uncovering that, you know, it's, I, it automatically make new choices because then I understand. So, I think this is a great point you're bringing up here. Do you want to explore that a little? Do you have any own experience here? 

Well, something just came up that was so interesting, the founder of this macrobotic cooking, Michio Kushi, I can't remember all of them, but he talked about the seven levels of eating, and the very basic level was, was what we've talked about, like craving, I want that, I want that taste sensation, or I want that, You know, maybe a high from sugar, even, I suppose you could even include alcohol in there, as a substance.

And as they went up, there was one level I remember was intellect, eating from intellect. Things you've read that make sense, they make sense to your intellect. Then emotional eating, eating for comfort, eating to soothe, you know, like a real childhood story. space or even a baby space. And there were seven levels.

I didn't write them out, but the last level was eating for spiritual practice. And that was the one where the it's no longer guided by emotion, intellect, cravinum, sensation. It's, it's aligned with what you said. I want to feel a certain lightness of being for my spiritual practice, for my evolution. And how many people are there?

I don't know. You know, how many Qigong practitioners are there? I don't know. It's a, it's a very personal thing. And like you say, not everyone looks at food as an arena to explore, investigate. It has definitely been. an area for me. It, from the day one, it was like a mirror, a mirror of being able to see hidden things.

Yes. And I think by bringing up that point, it's, I mean, consciousness is an integral part of qi neng qi gong. I mean, there is no qi neng qi gong without, you know, working on your consciousness, on your awareness. So, we shouldn't isolate that to, you know, Oh my God, my consciousness is so high. And, I'm so relaxed and I'm connected with the wisdom of the world.

And then in everyday life, we go through a life. Consciously unconscious, doing, taking stupid decisions, eating junk food or doing other crazy stuff. So it's a consciousness really has to show up in all parts of our life. And I think that can be a great encouragement to practitioners who find themselves in a situation where they work a lot with consciousness when it comes to actual exercising, qi or getting into the right state.

And then at the same time, they find themselves in other areas like nutrition, where they where they're not doing so well. So it's a, it's a great invitation to, to, to those among us, to, to use the consciousness and expand that to all areas of our lives and, start with nutrition because that will have an incredible and immense impact.

It's also true for relationships, by the way. I mean, I also know some practitioners that are the most amazing practitioners, but some of their relationships suck. So because they're not taking this, this wisdom and this insight and bringing it to that area of their life. So, I think, this is a, a wonderful invitation that you're giving.

And, and what you just said, just yesterday, I watched one of the, short YouTubes that Teacher Gao did the, subtitles or the translation of Dr. Peng, and it was exactly about that, and maybe later I can send you the link. Because it was so much about if you think qigong is just this one hour practice, two hour practice, doing the right moves.

If you think that's what qigong is about, it's, it's, that's nursery school, kindergarten. It really has to become a life practice. And that includes. Everything exactly. And, and Dr. Pang was saying, like, it has to be reflected, like, you know, your relationships need to reflect it. You're eating, you're, I think even your home, you know, you're, how you, whatever, how you do everything is a reflection of consciousness.

You can. Read a person in so many ways, you know, and not to be judgmental. It's, actually my, my, the person that I trained under learning macrobotic and macrobotic counseling, which was like one on one counseling. He used to say every moment. Someone's energy field. He was into Qigong, by the way, would broadcast everything about them to someone who had eyes, could see, or could feel energy.

We are continuously broadcasting our state of consciousness through our words, through our actions. And food, food is certainly a big one. That being said, I'm still stymied sometimes by someone who, is thriving on a meat only diet. You know, this one really has baffled me because this is a new trend.

This is a new trend that many people there, I don't know if it's big in your part of the world, but some of the Qigong students, one girl in particular, I was so surprised when she whispered to me because she was almost ashamed about it. She said, I have such high inflammation in the body and it's bringing it down, you know, and it's like, You know, maybe short term, short term, these things can have a, 

impact on the chemistry of the body, but long term, yeah, it certainly doesn't make sense to me. 

So, I'm not, I'm not sure what to say to that, but I tend, I think I tend to agree with you that maybe some of these diets do have actually a positive short term impact because they do shift something in the body.

In the system. For example, yeah, I'm again, please don't don't anyone, nobody follows this, but I, I know somebody, with cancer and he was living on orange shoes alone and the cancer disappeared. So, but after the cancer disappeared, he, he, you know, he, he broadened his diet again because the body needs other nutrition.

So it might be very effective in the short term, just like if you take a, you know, a medication or something, it might help you, in the short term to solve something, but then you have to go back into a balanced nutrition and stop this medication because it does harm in the longterm. So, Yeah.

But whatever, some of these diets, I don't know what people, what the goals are of people. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm a fan of having things flow naturally. So if I want to lose weight, I would never go and say, okay, I'm going to do a particular diet to lose so many kilograms. No, I look in the mirror and say, well, oops, seems there's a kilo too much.

And then I just, you know. Eat a little less, sugary, fatty, whatever. Watch my, my carbs intake a little more. And over time, you know, two months later when I look again, this kilogram should have disappeared. But I'm not, I'm not using any force. And, in a way, doing a restrictive balance is applying force to your own body.

U now not saying people shouldn't do it. I'm not saying it can't be good in certain, in certain places, but it is. an intervention, that is kind of against the natural flow of things. But again, now this is just really my very personal opinion. Please everybody do whatever they like. 

Now I feel exactly the same.

It's like there is this Taoist flow of Of yin and yang, and as soon as there is anything restrictive, you're gathering momentum. They always say that the extreme of yin, it will reach and then it will come back to yang, you know, and that's, that's. just how it works. And so as soon as you limit and say, I will never have this again, you can be sure somewhere down the track that this is going to come back in, in, it's going to make up for it.

So the flow is so much more, at ease, you know, it really is like Tao, you know, there should be another chapter in the Tao Te Ching about, about the flow of food because it just goes that way. And you know, you asked if I had a personal example, I followed the celery juice medical medium guy for so many years, maybe four or five years, celery juice every morning.

And it was, Very good. You know, I felt it had a certain everything. He said it would do. And then with the heavy metal detox smoothie and and almost no oil, like a very low oil. And my acupuncturist, who's also name is Liu, Dr. Liu here in Australia. And he said to me, he said, so Haji, you're always purging purging cleansing.

He says, you need more nutrition. And I said, what does that mean? He goes, chicken, fish, eggs, you know, just more protein basically. And I was like, Ooh, you know, Ooh, I want to keep. And that's a sort of neurosis as well. Like, where does that come from? So I had to look at that. Where's that? It's almost like wanting to be clean all the time.

Like, What sense does food create a certain toxicity or, or I don't know if other people probably can relate to that and if they can or not. And then when I discovered my bone density was quite low and I listened to a few podcasts on protein, but just intuitively, I thought, Dr. Lew is right. I need to eat a bit more, get a bit more like, Especially after a certain age, things change, you know, and I had cut out dairy for, God knows, 45 years and all of a sudden have a bit of yogurt.

It was just like, wow, you know, and then I have to deal with all my beliefs. This is bad. This is, you know, I had to sort of run it through each time I would eat it. The information layer that we touched on. So important, and the friend of mine doing the carnivore, I saw he went and ate, I don't know, a Portuguese custard tart or something.

Oh, this is carb, this is lard, this is so bad, and eating, and I said, you know what? You're a qigong person. If you know what information does and you're choosing to eat it, but giving it this information that it's poison, how is that going to help you? And he said, yeah, you're right. You know, it's like, if you're going to eat something, at least in that moment, just say in this moment, I choose to just enjoy the food.

the properties of this food, what it's offering me, but to eat, continue to eat something while a narrative is running about how bad it is for you. I can't think of anything more anti nutrient positive or, you know, that's probably the most important point I feel. Absolutely. 

Absolutely. And I also want to touch on a point, you know, we kind of said that, in certain diets or in certain phases of our life, we tend to, say this food is evil or this is, Oh my God, I shouldn't touch this is so bad.

Now this is a belief thing that we've, an idea that we are holding while there's might also be stuff like for me, for example, I wouldn't touch a sugary drink, not because I think it is evil, which it's probably is. But just because I just don't like it. So, so then it's, it's clear there's never going to be a, you know, it's not that I'm going to have a Fanta one day and say, Oh my God, this is so lovely.

Whatever I missed all those years. It's not going to happen because I just don't enjoy it. So that's also a distinction to make between. Labeling food as evil or, you know, at one point just saying, this is not what I enjoy. And then, you know, here we go. So not everything we avoid is just because of our mindset.

It might be just that we don't like it. No. 

Right. Yeah. No, I agree. And, and I think I saw someone having Coca Cola in China and I was like, Oh, like people still drink that, you know, and the same, the no attraction, no attract, I don't have any attraction to coffee. I know coffee is such a big thing. It used to be a big thing and I tasted it not long ago and I went, wow, it's left me, but it was a natural thing.

It wasn't a mind leaving. It was, I think that's what you're saying. It naturally is not part of your, desire system or nothing about it. 

You have no idea what you're talking about. So how to have coffee is so nice. 

Oh, look, I was addicted to coffee. I was so addicted to coffee. Now it's chai. You know, now I'm 

absolutely, but also with coffee.

And I learned through my TCM doctor. Hello, Dr. Lulu, if you're listening, to restrict, to restrict the coffee. And, because really, The second, third, fourth or fifth cup didn't do me any good anymore. And I noticed that, but still I was in this routine of doing it. So now I have like my one cup in the morning and I really enjoy that.

But it's, it's, it's, it's great in the morning and then I'll switch to a green tea or other beautiful drinks and I feel so much better. So I'm not missing out on the coffee, but just by realizing that the fourth cup doesn't really add any value. The first cup becomes so much more precious and it becomes, a moment of joy.

And, so this is how I navigated the coffee thing. So now we are very much a practical, practical details here. And I'd like to also, you know, take this opportunity because you started off the podcast with a practical thing where you explained being young and we probably don't want to have a hot stew in summer and ice cream in winter.

Are there any practical? Advice that you can give that are coming from TCM, Qigong, you know, just some broad directions as a takeaway for our listeners here today. 

I thinkm, you know, for me, that understanding of, there used to be like a, a chart, the extreme young foods would be considered. salt and meat.

Now, remember, this is not necessarily the TCM yin and yang, but this is the macrobiotic, but it's close enough. It's close enough. So the foods that cause internal heat, the foods that cause contraction, yang is like contraction, yin extreme would be, sugar. And in a way, tropical fruits that are juicy because liquid, so if you think of yin energy as wet, slow, expansive, wet, moist, like a damp internal climate, and then your yang is your, your hard, So Yin is soft, dry, heat, summer, winter.

I think, you know, you can start to feel the energy of, and sometimes if someone is intrinsically young by nature, so they would tend to be, red face, maybe higher blood pressure, maybe, maybe not, speedy, zippy, maybe prone more to anger, like a rising. Emotion as opposed to a yin emotion is more, imploding back like depression or sadness.

So someone who has that very young tendency to eat a lot of meat and salt, you might find they already do that. And that's one reason why they gravitated that way. But to offset that tendency to lean more toward, oh yeah, an important one, yin, raw, yang, cooked. So if you think of yang energy as heat, fire, and also the, the time of cooking.

So something that's cooked very quickly, like a quick stir fry, will never be as yang as something like a slow cooked stew. For hours. Does that make sense? So yes, absolutely. The amount of heat and time, not the spot, not the herb, but the actual time. So someone who has that young tendency will do well to have more juices, more fruit, more salads, more more things that are leaning toward the cooling side.

And on the other side, someone who's cold all the time, not the time to be having smoothies with frozen berries, you know, someone who's called a little bit slow, a little bit, maybe sad or weepy, that sort of energy might do better with, with a bit more salt in their diet. So there's no then hard, fast rule that salt is bad, fruit is good.

For someone who's extremely yin, I was extremely yin when I had this dengue fever, chronic fatigue. I didn't have fruit for years. not one piece of fruit because the sugar, the moisture, the coldness of it, I could feel increase the fatigue. Does that make sense? So it's sort of this, 

yes. 

Choosing, identifying, and even there's a constitutional type that back in the day, we used to read, read the face, you know, could see the shape of the face, could say a lot like someone with a more square face.

or more compact, muscular body would always be a more young constitution. So you could have a young constitution but have grown up eating a lot of, sugar, sugary drinks and have a condition that is more yin with a young constitution. So it's an interesting, combination of, of factors to look at in balancing the diet.

But again, coming back to that inner nutritionist, waking up, just waking up the inner. wisdom, healer, doctor, you will intuitively know that you will intuitively know that you're feeling cold. Therefore you don't want cold juice for breakfast. Maybe you want warm oats. So I think rather than learning all the information, which I did, I taught a lot of people this and they found it amazing.

How many are still connected to that? I have no idea, but If you keep going with practice meditation, you'll just come to that space like, like you have where you eat something and you, you observe what happens afterwards. I think that's the key observation and No judgment. Just notice. Take note. Take note.

I mean, the no judgment point is, is, is big. And I think we've mentioned this a couple of times in other podcasts as well. It's really about observing because by observing gives you a possibility to understand the moment you go into judgment, you already have a filter. That you look at things, through, and that doesn't bring you closer to the reality or to what is, I've got a practical question though, on the salt thing, because I realized that, you know, when you mentioned salt, I think, oops, oops, salt, could that be replaced by other spices?

You know, just by making, using spices, would that have the same effect or are you really just talking about, you know, salty foods? 

Salt is, has that young energy of contraction of, bringing things together. A lot of herbs are more yin by nature, more relaxed by nature, so there's no way that other herbs sit on the, the only thing that you know, soy sauce, tamari, miso, those are also extreme.

And, you know, I've come to learn that a little bit of good sea salt is really good in the diet, you know. And it's like, You know, that brings us to another key point in the Tao. Moderation, you know, balance, you know. We touched on cravings. You know, often people would say with cravings, if you can allow yourself just to have a very small amount to satisfy the craving, if you have that sort of maybe a bit of discipline.

allow yourself to have the craving, but just limit it to just, you know, something. And sometimes it's been recommended to have a touch of your childhood food. So if you grew up in a place where like Switzerland, or, you know, the Danish countries where cheese is so important, but you're not a dairy person, but you miss that, you know, maybe you have the finest cheese, you get the finest chocolate, you get the best quality.

So if I'm going to have something that's sort of out of my norm diet these days, I will get the absolute best, best, best. I know I might only have it that one time for quite a long time. 

As you said, the quantity matters. In this case, because there are two spoons of sugar, are twice as much of an issue than one spoon of sugar.

And I personally are just sharing from my life. What I, my habit has become, I have a little tiny little box where I put a biscuit inside, because I know that sometimes in the afternoon, when I go for a tea or something like that, I would love to have, you know, this just a little biscuit with my tea.

It's just, A lifestyle thing for me. I enjoy that. But when you go into a coffee shop and order your tea, the smallest thing they have is a huge chocolate chip and button. So for me not to be going that route, I just have this biscuit with me. I'll unpack it and it's perfect. That's all I need because it's really just this taste.

And I can't remember when last I had more than once a scoop of ice cream, because really after I've licked three times, it's already enough for me. I don't need more than that. I had the taste. It's beautiful. It's great. But my body says it's enough. No. u you know, sometimes it's, it's, it's, it's, for me, it's great because, you know, my wife likes to have the odd ice cream in between, so I don't have to buy my own.

I'll just lick and that's, that's it. Done.

That's beautiful. Everything you're saying, I just so love. There is another saying we used to have that, quantity affects quality. So even the best food, the most nutritious food, if you eat a huge quantity of it, it's like that thing medicine can become poison, poison can become medicine, you know, so that little bit of something that is forbidden can maybe emotionally satisfy something, but you take the healthiest thing and you eat a mountain of it, and It doesn't matter that it's, it's high on the nutritional scale.

So it really is about, I have a little, plaque in my kitchen. More is not always better. And I've got that somewhere. And I thought, yeah, it's like quantity affects quality. And so just. That, and I, in the retreat in China, Teacher Liu is always going on about 70%, each 70%, you know, and, you know, we'd be eating, and another 10 dishes would come out, and, yeah, I'm at 90%, I'm at 110%, but, Yeah, the way we deal with things like ice cream, we get the kiddie scoop, or if we're going somewhere, you know, you know, my partner and I, we've learned we don't want to eat that much anymore.

We don't feel good, we get sleepy, we can share something, we get takeaway, we bring half back. Because it's true, the portions in restaurants, things have gotten bigger and bigger, and people are eating bigger quantity, and they are getting bigger. I don't know how it is in your part of the world, but Australia is catching up to America with, A very high obesity.

Yes. 

Yeah. 

Yes, absolutely. 

It's the media, it's the processed food. That's the last thing maybe I will say. If you can eat natural whole foods with the least amount of human intervention and tampering, I mean, you know, just to eat vegetables, just to eat fruit. If you're going to eat meat, grass fed, you know, humanely raised, just common sense.

As soon as things are all Packaged up. You look at, you don't want to start reading the labels. Well, you do want to read the labels. It's so easy to eat real food. It really is, you know. 

And I think that is probably the one thing there where there's no controversy or no other or second opinion to that, that process.

I haven't read any book that says natural food is a problem. So it's really the process of food. But if you can make the choice between having the food in their natural state compared to Highly industrialized. I think this is a no brainer. This is something quite easy to follow. Just, you know, when you go shopping, make sure you put the right things into your trolley.

And, you have already made a big step, towards your own, health and well being. Hmm. 

Local farmers, you know, we like to go to the farmer's market rather than the big grocery stores. 

Yes. 

Yes. 

It's also so much more fun. The farmer's market. And to meet people. So it will also satisfy your social, your social needs, and you have a good chat with the farmer.

That's right. Yeah. 

All right. Well, thank you very much, Sahaja. We are coming to the end of our time here. That was again, very, very interesting to talk to you and, I hope there were, there were one or two takeaways for our listeners that they, you know, makes them think or, Make new choices or become more aware or use their consciousness, when it comes to nutrition.

So thank you very much, Sahaja, was lovely to talk to you again, and I'm looking forward to a third episode sometime soon in the future. 

All right. Thanks, Torsten. Bye bye, everyone. 

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We will end today's episode with the Eight Verses Meditation performed by Qigong teacher Katrien Hendrickx. Enjoy. 


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