“I’m struggling with feeling cold. What should I eat?” “I sleep, but I still feel exhausted. What do I need?”
These are questions I often hear when people come to me for dietary therapy consultations. I sometimes wish I could simply say, “Eat this, and you’ll be fine.” How wonderful it would be to have an answer that simple.
But my answer is always: “It depends on the person.”
That isn’t an evasive answer — it is, in fact, the most honest one I can give.
Why does it always depend on the person?
Take something as common as feeling cold. For one person, it may be because the body’s ability to generate warmth has weakened. For another, it may be related to poor circulation. For someone else, it may be because the body is retaining excess fluids. The underlying reasons can be completely different, even when the symptom looks the same.
Before asking, “What is good for me?”, it is important to first ask: “Why am I feeling this way right now?” When we experience discomfort, we tend to think, “I must be lacking something. I need more nutrients. I need more exercise. I need to add more healthy things to my life.” But are we really lacking something?
In consultations, I sometimes hear people say things like, “I’ve been eating ginger every day because it’s good for coldness,” or “I’ve been eating brown rice all the time because it’s healthy.” There are foods around the world that are celebrated as “superfoods.” But sometimes I find myself wondering: Super for whom?
What matters is not simply whether something is considered healthy, but whether it is right for you, right now.
I have seen many situations where a habit someone believed was good for them simply wasn’t suited to the state their body was in at that particular time.
That is why the first thing I would like you to let go of is the belief that: “I need to keep adding more.”
What If Your Health Needs a Wardrobe Change, Too?
We choose our clothes according to the season and the occasion. We think about comfort, how they feel on our bodies, and whether they make us feel like ourselves. And when the seasons change, we change our wardrobes. So why, when it comes to food and health, do we often assume that if something is “good for us,” we should keep doing the same thing all year round?
Our bodies are constantly changing, influenced by age, environment, the seasons, what we eat, and even our emotional state. Even though we are the same person, who we are today is not exactly who we were yesterday. Perhaps our approach to health needs a seasonal wardrobe change, too.
So how do we choose what our bodies need when it is time for that inner “wardrobe change”? It begins with knowing where we are right now. Rather than simply looking at the symptom, look at the person. This is one of the perspectives at the heart of traditional East Asian medicine: support what has become weak, restore balance where there is excess or imbalance, help what has become stagnant to move, help the body release what it no longer needs, and replenish what is genuinely lacking.
In East Asian medicine, the body is viewed as a whole. Practitioners consider the functions of the organs and the movement of qi, blood, and fluids, and from there consider what the body needs at that particular moment. Dietary therapy and herbal medicine are not simply about adding something to the body. They are a form of wisdom for supporting the body’s foundations and restoring balance so that its natural functions can work as they are meant to.
What to Add When the Body Needs Less
In other words, introducing something into our lives does not always mean “adding” to our health. Sometimes we introduce something to help stagnant things move, to help the body release what is excessive, or to support the natural functions of the organs. We may use the properties of certain foods or herbs for these purposes.
Sometimes, letting go is what allows us to regain what we need. It may sound contradictory, but this, too, is a form of Yōjō (Meaning: Nurturing Life - Self-care, preserving health, and promoting physical and mental longevity).
Although modern medicine understands the organs differently from the “Five Organs” of East Asian medicine, it also recognises that the body is constantly carrying out these essential processes. The stomach and intestines digest and absorb nutrients. The liver processes nutrients and breaks down substances such as alcohol. The kidneys remove waste products and excess fluid.
As we grow older, these functions can gradually—and often quietly—become less efficient. Even if we eat and live exactly as we did when we were younger, we may begin to notice things like: “I just can’t seem to shake this tiredness,” or “I seem to get swollen or puffy more easily.” These may be signs that our bodies are changing.
Our lives are sustained by the body’s continual work of taking in what it needs, processing it, and releasing what it no longer needs.
What do you truly need right now?
Yuka Itadani
International TCM Medicinal Diet Specialist • Lecturer in TCM Medicated Diet • Columnist