Chinese takeaway

IF you need to fight the flab then traditional Chinese medicine may not be the first method that occurs to you. But it's one that more people are turning to and one that has already helped Joanne Gowlett, a home care worker from Spofforth, to shed the pounds. Joanne initially turned to Elaine Wilson - an acupuncturist at the York Clinic for complementary medicine in Tadcaster Road - to help her with back trouble and some general aches and pains. As she got to know and trust Elaine the pair began to discuss Joanne's desire to lose weight and the potential of Chinese medicine to wage war on her waistline.

After discussing Joanne's needs Elaine put Joanne on a holistic Chinese medicine plan. Joanne started off by weighing in at nearly 13 stone.

After twelve weeks she now weighs in at 11st 5lbs. So the plan promotes steady, sustained weight loss and does work. But what is it and how does it work?

The basis of Elaine's weight-loss programme is a healthy diet coupled with a balanced lifestyle. Acupuncture is used if necessary.

Elaine doesn't prescribe supplements and asserts that: "If you are eating the right diet you shouldn't need supplements."

Acupuncture treatments are used to help tone the system for those who have been really overdoing it.

"It's quite a different way of looking at food and nutrition from the Western way," says Elaine. "The Chinese way of looking at things is to align your body's energetic needs with the foods you take in."

The Chinese system allocates different properties to different foods according to their effects on the body. Some foods are classified as "hot", others "damp."

"Damp foods accumulate in the system and turn a nice healthy system into something sluggish," explains Elaine.

Examples of damp foods are dairy products, wheat, pork, rich meats, roasted peanuts, bananas, processed foods and sugars. Consequently, all these foods are a no-go area when it comes to losing weight with the help of traditional Chinese medicine.

Which sounds sounds as if it imposes an ascetic existence, but really it just means learning to regulate the intake of products which can prove harmful to the body over time by cutting out fast and processed foods and learning to recognise which foods can work with the body to nourish it.

On these foods Elaine is an expert, recommending good quality foods such as soups, broths, casseroles and rice dishes as particularly beneficial.

Joanne is now on a wheat-free, dairy-free and sugar-free diet: but says she still manages to have varied and interesting meals. "There are many things you can eat. You're basically eating a lot of vegetables and you can have snacks. You have just got to look at the organic ranges when you go shopping," she says.

"Tonight I'm having a vegetable and rice bake, for example. I've tried Weight-Watchers and Slim-Fast diets and they don't seem to work. Yes, I've had bad weeks. Sometimes you just have a bad week and want to eat fish and chips or something. But the thing about this diet is that you don't put the weight back on if you do that and you can stick to it."

It's not just diet that needs to be overhauled, however.

Lifestyle is a major factor in losing weight: as is our state of mind.

The sort of problems that recur for those trying to lose weight are all tied in, not surprisingly, with the digestive organs, says Elaine, and they can be affected by our state of mind.

Too much mental activity or study can take its toll on the digestive system.

She identifies the spleen as the seat of most of our western weight problems.

Chinese medicine attributes certain functions to the organs and, although these functions do not always correspond to the way in which western medicine understands the workings of the body's organs, the beliefs on which Chinese medicine are founded have been well road-tested - Chinese medicine has been around since the third century BC.

According to Chinese medicine, the spleen governs the ability to transform good food to good quality energy for the body.

"The spleen also governs clear thinking and if we overload ourselves with thinking then the spleen suffers from that," explains Elaine.

She knows this only too well herself.

While studying for an MSc on the effects of acupuncture and weight loss recently she put on pounds she just couldn't manage to shift. After finishing her studies she dropped the weight and attributes this to the lightened load on her spleen.

The spleen is, Elaine asserts, very fond of warm, dry foods and has an aversion to raw foods.

Elaine says this is why many people who eat salads, stoically restricting their caloric intake, still complain that they are unable to lose weight. In Chinese medicine terms, the spleen is simply revolting against the raw food it is being fed.

"You should take notice and not give the body the sorts of foods it doesn't like," says Elaine. "And we are not asking people to eat anything they haven't heard of before," she adds.

Overall the Chinese attitude towards nutrition is really about learning to eat good, wholesome foods which do not deplete the body's energy while strengthening it with other, more nourishing, foods.

As Joanne Gowlett will testify, if you do fall off the wagon there's no need to panic.

Once you have dropped the excess weight and achieved a state of balance through good nutrition your body should be able to cope with the odd fish supper.

- Elaine Wilson will be holding a series of workshops at The York Clinic for people wishing to overhaul their lifestyle and lose weight with the help of Chinese medicine. They will run between 10am and midday on the first four Saturdays in May, beginning this Saturday.

The workshops will explain the principles of nutrition and weight loss through Chinese medicine, including demonstrations and recipes.

It costs £30 to enrol, and this gives you access to all four workshops.

Elaine Wilson is based at The York Clinic every Monday and Wednesday. To enrol on the workshops call Elaine at the clinic on 01904 709688 or at her home-based practice in Wigginton on 01904 758999.

The workshops are purely educational and there is no obligation for those attending to participate in treatment.

Updated: 09:22 Monday, April 28, 2003