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Naturopath Jailed For Starving Infant By Raw Food Diet

Posted April 10th, 2018
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Naturopath Jailed For Starving Infant By Raw Food Diet

The news about a Sydney naturopath being sentenced to seven months jail for starving an infant has shocked many of us. While the naturopath was giving diet advice to the nursing mother in order to treat her baby’s eczema, the raw food diet led to malnutrition to her infant almost to the point of death. What a terrible ordeal for the mother, the baby and the naturopath!

Although from a Chinese medicine point of view, raw food diet is never a good idea, I can never imagine how a diet advice can land a well intentioned, though misguided, practitioner in jail with criminal charges. The advice was obviously a big mistake causing severe malnourishment to a baby and terribly emotional trauma to the parents. But the naturopath has also received a severe sentence plus social media trolling and condemnation. I hope they all recover from this nightmare some day!

 

 

Raw Food Versus Cooked Food

So why was the raw food diet not desirable for a nursing mother? In fact, Chinese medicine would say that eating raw vegetables and fruit as the staple of your diet is not a great idea for anybody. It depletes the body of nutrition.

I cringe every time I hear my patients say they have been on raw juices and salads all the time. They make that choice mostly because they want to lose some weight, feel healthy, cleansed and detoxed and to improve their bowel movement. Well, it might be all right if you have a young and robust physique, for a little while. But if you don’t have the strongest constitution, if you’re over 25 or you are a child, the body may not be able to cope well with so much raw and cooling food. True, raw fruits and vegetables make you go to the toilet more often, thus they help detox your body, and the raw nutrients are not lost in the cooking process.

However, your digestive system is like a cooking pot. If you don’t put the fire under it, the pasta will never cook. Although cooked and warm foods lose some nutrients in the heating process, the remaining nutrients are better absorbed after being cooked.

Moreover, too much raw and cold food cause excessively frequent or loose bowel movement so as a result many nutrients you ingest go down the toilet.

If I go to an extreme and predominantly drink carrot juice and eat raw spinach, eventually my digestive fire will go out and my body will be so depleted.

This is my own experience of trying to lose weight in my 20s. It stuffed up my whole body. I lost my period nine months. If it wasn’t for my then wonderful Chinese medicine doctor in Hong Kong, I would not be able to have kids. I almost lost my job because I always had a brain fog and couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t hold a conversation for more than half an hour before I had to lie down to rest. I couldn’t my favourite sport for more than five minutes. I was starving in a land of plenty. And friends told me that I looked like an old lady! You don’t want to be there.

Healthy Diet from A Chinese Medicine Perspective

Eat warm and cooked food – this is even more true as you get older.

Add warming spices such as ginger, garlic, paprika, turmeric and cinnamon.

Eat protein – eggs, fish, small amount of meat, legumes and nuts.

Eat whole grains and unprocessed food.

A small amount of fat or oil is good for you.

Eat zero amount of trans fat.

Cook your vegetables. Eat a variety.

Don’t overeat sugar or dairy.

Don’t overeat.

Enjoy a balanced diet. Food is a gift from heaven!

Dietary Advice for Eczema

What would be a beneficial diet for someone with eczema? From a Chinese medicine point of view, eczema is associated with dryness, dampness or heat in the blood, depending on the appearance and kind of the eczema.

We would recommend AVOIDING Heat or Dampness inducing food:

Deep-fried food

Spicy food such as chilli and curry

Chocolate

Chips

Shellfish

Pineapple, mangoes and lychees

Sugar overdose

Dairy, for some.

 

We do recommend warming and nourishing food listed in the previous paragraph. A warm and cooked balanced diet makes our tummy happy.

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