Daoist no grain diet

[Trucker]

Does anyone know exactly what kind of foods the ancient daoist would have eaten when undertaking a no grain diet? I know they only ate fruits and vegtables, but what kind. Also would they have eaten soy beans and green beans. I know most other beans and mucus forming foods would have been a no no. Can someone please shine some light on this for me. Thanks all for your time and I look foward to hearing from you all.

[Andrei]

Does anyone know exactly what kind of foods the ancient daoist would have eaten when undertaking a no grain diet? I know they only ate fruits and vegtables, but what kind. Also would they have eaten soy beans and green beans. I know most other beans and mucus forming foods would have been a no no. Can someone please shine some light on this for me. Thanks all for your time and I look foward to hearing from you all.

 

 

yes no grains means no wheat because it resonates with the heart and small intestine and no rice because it resonates with the lungs and colon, any cereal contains gluten therefore has a very acidifying effect on the blood, which is Yang.

 

soybeans and mung beans resonates with the kidney, maybe the lentils also they have a strong Yin effect. Taoist used the Yin diet due to the qigong and meditation practices that creates a lot of Yang energy, especially when semen retention practices are involved in men, I don't know about women practices but I think the same Yin/Yang balance principles apply

 

as a general rule fruits and leafy vegetables resonates with the liver and root vegetables resonates with the spleen/stomach

[The Cloudwalking Owl]

Does anyone know exactly what kind of foods the ancient daoist would have eaten when undertaking a no grain diet? I know they only ate fruits and vegtables, but what kind. Also would they have eaten soy beans and green beans. I know most other beans and mucus forming foods would have been a no no. Can someone please shine some light on this for me. Thanks all for your time and I look foward to hearing from you all.

 

I remember reading somehwer that soya beans were considered a "grain" at one time in China. If you read the autobiography of Empty Cloud, he says he spent part of his youth living exclusively on some sort of evergreen needle. When his master found out about it, he ordered him to start eating rice like everyone else and stop "showing off".

 

I heard an interesting take on the whole "not eating grains" thing a while back. A fellow pointed out that in the past all taxes were paid in grain. This meant that anyone who didn't raise grain didn't need to pay tax. So any Daoist who learned how to live on a non-grain diet (and using "grain" as defined in the tax regulations) would be able to legally avoid paying taxes.

 

Another point. I have a friend who was diagnosed as having diabetes. Her doctor put her on the so-called "cave man diet". This is a diet that is based on speculation of what paleolithic human ate: basically meat and green vegetables. Her diabetes became so well controlled that she was able to stop injecting insulin.

 

Having said the above, it is impossible for all people to live on the cave man diet simply because there are too many people on the earth. Moreover, farm raised animals do not have the nutritive value of wild animals. And wild animals are now heavily contaminated with industrial poisons. (For example, the Canadian government has advised our people to not eat moose liver because it has too much PCB and dioxin in it.)

 

Food has always been a complex subject. Best to simply eat what makes you feel good and leave it at that.

[WhiteTiger]

yes no grains means no wheat because it resonates with the heart and small intestine and no rice because it resonates with the lungs and colon, any cereal contains gluten therefore has a very acidifying effect on the blood, which is Yang.

 

soybeans and mung beans resonates with the kidney, maybe the lentils also they have a strong Yin effect. Taoist used the Yin diet due to the qigong and meditation practices that creates a lot of Yang energy, especially when semen retention practices are involved in men, I don't know about women practices but I think the same Yin/Yang balance principles apply

 

as a general rule fruits and leafy vegetables resonates with the liver and root vegetables resonates with the spleen/stomach

 

 

While this information might be correct... there have been many types of Taoist diets and they have dieted that way depending upon the purpose. The purpose is key to the diet.

 

I will not claim to understand or know different diets.

 

I have only read about certain things at certain times being in taoist diets.

 

But diet is different when your meditating all day sitting in a cave for weeks on end compared to a taoist diet were your supplementing for what your not getting. There is many qigong practices of balancing and bringing back to health. Food is a side thing to compensate for a taoist that is not practicing many hours of the day. The only time a Taoist Diet comes into actual importance is for two reasons.

 

1. Your using it to compensate for what you don't get. (which your life style should fix or change, and eating differently or using chinese herbs are only supposed to help you out if you practices are not fixing this. Talking at least from a teachers perspective that knows more than enough about qigong practices that they can choose to do anything they want.)

 

2. Your trying to optimize your practices of doing hours on end meditation or trying to grow at a extremely fast rate and optimizing this you need to change not only how many hours you do meditation or qigong, neigong exercises but rather you change your diet habits too.

 

Depending what type of exercise you do YOU DO EAT GRAINS!

I honestly don't know what this fixation on not eating grains is.

 

I've heard stories of a Taoist Master that used to eat a handful of rice per day, and the rest was purely vegetables and a little fruit.

 

Another humongous misconception is for long lasting energy there are many fruits you don't need to eat at all. There high in sugar, they lean towards short term energy... which is needed depending what your doing... like The Cloudwalking Owl said eat depending on what you feel. Just understanding what you need for when you have a feeling, is a different story.

 

 

FYI: Soy beans were cultivated (farm way) by cross cropping different beans. it was the only bean they successfully made to having full protein. Some people think you can eat them alone and your fine. But anyone that knows about true nutrition will understand they are low in 2 amino acids... making them not a very good source of complete protein. Supplementing this with something else always helps the situation greatly. So basically they never grew in nature naturally. So while you think Taoists would have eaten thousands of years ago soy beans in reality they never even was soy beans that far back. Most beans were cross cropped also.

 

I don't mean to start arguments or anything I am rather telling you my understanding... and some cold heart facts. A smart person would ask me why, instead of telling me I'm wrong.

[Andrei]

You are not wrong, you're totally right, I also eat what I feel I need, I just listen my organs and my energy body which is influenced by the season and weather, so I eat meat, poultry, fish, bread, rice, tofu, I change the cooking methods and spices accordingly.

Edited August 12, 2008 by steam

[Pheurton Skeurto]

From what I have come to understand, it is not so much the grains... but the STARCH that causes the "problems". Unfortunately 99.99% of everything has starch in it! So I, too, am curious as to just how the ancients got around this little issue. I have heard of some modern-day hermits subsisting purely on certain roots (although, even roots will produce starch once heated). I have also heard that they eat these roots, raw.

 

My guess is it's important to be able to do the Wind & Dew diet to pull this one off... ?

[Ryan T.]

From what I have read and been told by those who have read the texts in Chinese, it is all grains. Millet, rice and wheat is what I have seen mentioned mostly. Beans/legumes would be another.

 

From what I can remember of my conversations on this topic several years ago, a lot of it stems from the Ancients distrust for agriculture. Anything that took man from his "natural life", much more hunter-gatherer, was frowned on. We should remember that agriculture is still quite a new phenomena to humankind. For the 10-20k years we have been eating this way, there were millions of years before that we weren't. In my professional life I have seen a lot of the problems that grains cause in people's systems. It's interesting that so much of this ancient wisdom is now being proofed out today.

 

That said I think every person has to make a choice about his/her own body needs. The Taoist talk about living on pinenuts and roots(burdock) and such. Ascetic foods to sure...but not so tasty on their own.

 

I really just try to limit my grain consumption. Because of the Taoist thing and the because my wife is gluten-free we tend to have a bit of rice and I have oatmeal pretty regularly. But I find it hard to be completely grain-free as I bike between 15-25 miles a day and practice T'ai-Chi Ch'uan most every day. Along with general conditioning I waste away without some rice!

 

FYI, the only thing science has found to extend life, the only thing they are sure of...is to reduce your caloric consumption. The less you eat, the less taxing it is on your body.

 

Oh yeah and meat. Taoists eat meat!

[mYTHmAKER]

Oh yeah and meat. Taoists eat meat!

 

I guess I can't join the taoist church

[mantis]

i know of at least two diets that limit grains with good results, the atkins diet and the anabolic diet

[Ryan T.]

I guess I can't join the taoist church

 

But one does not have to eat meat to "be" a Taoist. They just don't exclude it like most Buddhists do based on a "not causing harm" ideology.

 

i know of at least two diets that limit grains with good results, the atkins diet and the anabolic diet

 

I have always been wary of the Atkin's diet. They way they look at fat and protein doesn't quite make sense to me. I think if a person lowers their grain(carb.) intake and increases protein as well as fruits and vegetables you can't help but be more in line with what nature intended.

[coyote]

The Primal Diet excludes grains because they can't be eaten raw. Raw meat, dairy, vegetable juice, some fruit, honey, eggs. I have a some rye bread anyway because i am stronger with more carbs.

 

The key food for Daoists is raw milk, according to the manuscripts from Muwangdui. I find that large amounts of raw butter and cream are great for sex drive, skin, and steady energy. Whey in milk is great for the immune system--it must raw, not store bought powders.

 

The primal diet is the ultimate sex-machine diet. I tell cuties, "You can try it, and if you like it, you should try the diet."

[WhiteTiger]

Honestly I'm getting tired talking as if I'm trying to convince people that don't want to be convinced. Its as if even if i gave documented proof people wouldn't listen to me.

 

Some of this nonsense understanding can be understood through basic science... there are many discussions on these forums and others how Taoism is thee science. While this technically can be seen as 100% correct we don't even need to go into Taoism as a science to prove lots of these falsehoods.

 

From what I have come to understand, it is not so much the grains... but the STARCH that causes the "problems". Unfortunately 99.99% of everything has starch in it! So I, too, am curious as to just how the ancients got around this little issue. I have heard of some modern-day hermits subsisting purely on certain roots (although, even roots will produce starch once heated). I have also heard that they eat these roots, raw.

 

My guess is it's important to be able to do the Wind & Dew diet to pull this one off... ?

 

Starch is a carbohydrate... Let me list some FACTS of what are considered Carbohydrates YOU SHOULDN'T BE SUPPRISED! insoluble fiber, Soluble fiber (but those are just BROAD CATAGORIES for more information on fiber and functions...http://www.healthgoods.com/education/nutrition_information/Nutrition_and_Health/fiber_health_of_it.htm )

 

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate... YEP... thats right carbohydrate... everyone talking about these subjects should know this.

lets take about another carbohydrate, like complex... just a big chain (molecularly of starches) simple carbohydrates, like sugar! another carbohydrate yep sugar. Ok you guys getting the picture. Lets go over the things that aren't carbohydrates than.

 

Ok, Fats, Which are tectonically called lipids. There are a bunch of different types... Those are not carbohyrates those are lipids. This includes Alcohol as a type of lipid.

 

and Protein... thats right... there are so many different types of proteins. Many many different compositions of 20-21 different amino acids which make up a protein.

 

Thats it fokes the rest can be considered your not supposed to eat or a carbohydrate.

 

Now the function of carbohydrates and which ones you want in you AND FROM WHAT SOURCE... more importantly we all hope that the soil it grew in is full of rich soil... making its produce good healthy food for us to eat. Thats the real question.

 

Problem 1. Wheat... you see there are many different types of wheats out there and the ones commercially sold are the ones over MANY MANY years have been cross cropped (farm engineered) to make it taste better be richer in minerals vitaims and more balanced in carbohydrates and so forth... the same with legumes (the many many verity of beans there are out there) Thats correct... There are problems that can be found with just about every legume. Most types of wheat thats right problems found... these are reasons if they effect your body reasons not to eat them... just like soy beans. The same thing happened. You can get a great understanding just from modern science alone.

 

Yes there are many problems with the agriculture world, but not because it wasn't good for us to eat it to begin with but rather because the way we cultivated it was poor or we tried to experiment before we actually understood what we were doing.

 

If you really wanna do all the research to prove me wrong here are the links:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat#Genetics

Check out what Durum wheat is made and how old that is. also check out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat#Plant_breeding

If i can remember theres a book by this guy i can't remember his name he was very well known for experimenting on different types of beans... he also did corn... if or when i remember his name i'll look up a book and you will have a referances and explainations of things wrong with at least 75% all the legumes currently known to us.

 

I have always been wary of the Atkin's diet. They way they look at fat and protein doesn't quite make sense to me. I think if a person lowers their grain(carb.) intake and increases protein as well as fruits and vegetables you can't help but be more in line with what nature intended.

 

Great in theory make it work and test it out on people... or look up readings on akins diet and meterial out there why its bad for you. I promise you can find modern scientific proof.

 

The key food for Daoists is raw milk, according to the manuscripts from Muwangdui. I find that large amounts of raw butter and cream are great for sex drive, skin, and steady energy. Whey in milk is great for the immune system--it must raw, not store bought powders.

 

The primal diet is the ultimate sex-machine diet. I tell cuties, "You can try it, and if you like it, you should try the diet."

 

Sounds like lots of Vitamin D and some E there...

Edited August 14, 2008 by WhiteTiger

[The Cloudwalking Owl]

I guess I can't join the taoist church

 

 

This is an oversimplification. Daoists from the Complete Reality (Quanzhen) sect practice strict vegetarianism. One of the things that cause confusion with understanding the path is that there is no centralized "authority" for Daoism, but rather a lot of different lineages and regionally-based schools. This means that not only are there any set "rules" about what it means to be a Daoist, but also that very few practitioners know much about what goes on in schools other than their own. This leads to all sorts of dumb arguments about "what is true".

[genmaicha]

The Primal Diet excludes grains because they can't be eaten raw. Raw meat, dairy, vegetable juice, some fruit, honey, eggs. I have a some rye bread anyway because i am stronger with more carbs.

 

Grind your buckwheat, oat or similar grains, soak in water overnight and eat raw with some fruits, nuts, etc.. No problem. Unless you have a sensitive stomach like me. Then you bring it to quick boil. Still very good.

 

 

 

The key food for Daoists is raw milk, according to the manuscripts from Muwangdui.

 

I thought many Asians can't tolerate dairy products well. Many Caucasians can't either. I always order my cafe latte with soy milk or lactose free milk.

I like the taste of raw milk, though. But drinking copious amounts doesn't make much sense to me. Milk was meant to be drunk by calves to grow rapidly, wasn't it.

[mYTHmAKER]

This is an oversimplification. Daoists from the Complete Reality (Quanzhen) sect practice strict vegetarianism. One of the things that cause confusion with understanding the path is that there is no centralized "authority" for Daoism, but rather a lot of different lineages and regionally-based schools. This means that not only are there any set "rules" about what it means to be a Daoist, but also that very few practitioners know much about what goes on in schools other than their own. This leads to all sorts of dumb arguments about "what is true".

 

Thanks for the informative reply.

Sorry. I was being facetious re not being able to join because I don't eat meat.

I will have to remember to put in an lol

[mYTHmAKER]

[The Cloudwalking Owl]

Thanks for the informative reply.

Sorry. I was being facetious re not being able to join because I don't eat meat.

I will have to remember to put in an lol

 

That's not as absurd a thing to say as you might think. When Moy Lin Shin found out that one of his students was a vegetarian he would do things like get him to go out to a restaurant for supper, sit next to him and order something like pork chops, and take the meat off the platter with his chop sticks, put it in the vegetarian student's bowl and order him to eat it! (He was an extreme person.)

 

There are Daoists who maintain that meat is absolutely essential to a healthy diet.

 

You pays your money you makes your choices----.

[Lighttime]

Does anyone know exactly what kind of foods the ancient daoist would have eaten when undertaking a no grain diet? I know they only ate fruits and vegtables, but what kind. Also would they have eaten soy beans and green beans. I know most other beans and mucus forming foods would have been a no no. Can someone please shine some light on this for me. Thanks all for your time and I look foward to hearing from you all.

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=5761&hl=

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=5687&hl=

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=5703&hl=

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=5892&hl=

 

http://www.westonaprice.org/healthissues/bloodmoon.html

 

http://www.fibermenace.com/fiber/myth.html

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=s...amp;x=0&y=0

 

http://www.mgwater.com/rod17.shtml

[witch]

A recent very rigorous study comparing the Atkins Diet to a whole-grain lowfat diet found that the Atkins Diet was healthier.

[Patrick Brown]

A recent very rigorous study comparing the Atkins Diet to a whole-grain lowfat diet found that the Atkins Diet was healthier.

I think it depends on what your nature / totem is. I've tried being a vegetarian but it's not for me and although I have a varied diet I love meat.

[guangping]

Bob Flaws has written several good books on diet and Chinese medical meridian theory. I think he may still have a website, its been a few years since I looked...