Seasonal Healing: The TCM Guide to Food, Energy & Emotional Balance | Clara Cohen of Acupro Academy

Clara Cohen of Acupro Academy is here to unravel the mysteries of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and its holistic approach to nutrition. We promise that by the end of our time together, you'll view your diet and health through an entirely new lens. From the staples of acupuncture and herbal therapies to the importance of season-aligned eating, this episode offers personal reflections and lively discussions, that has the power to reshape your wellness journey.

Clara and I talk about seasonal foods that support and cleanse our organs, highlighting the  connection between the earth's cycles and our bodily needs.  We explore the emotional and spiritual landscapes within us, influenced by the ancient wisdom of the five elements and spirits. Our conversation guides you through the realms of prenatal and postnatal chi, and even into the surprising virtues of dark chocolate for holistic indulgence!

My hope is that you'll carry the wisdom shared by Clara into your own life, nurturing a relationship with food and self that is as conscious as it is enriching.  And, that you will be inspired to learn more about TCM.  So, join us for this feast of the mind and spirit, and may your journey toward balance and health be delicious.

Clara: TCM Rockstar!
Clara Cohen has completed a 5 year program at the Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine  level and has been a licensed acupuncturist since 2003 in Vancouver, Canada, focusing her practice in women's health and mental health.  Founder and content creator of AcuPro Academy, online platform which she uses to educate and share her passion about TCM.   She is a key influencer in TCM, inspiring students and practitioners alike.   

She is the founder of Healing Cedar Wellness,  the author of 3 books, and a recognized speaker who continuously makes a global impact through her teachings sharing her knowledge and educating medical doctors and acupuncture students. 

Clara is very dedicated to inspire everyone to learn the amazing benefits of Chinese Medicine. She does this through her many online platforms where her goal is to make TCM easy to grasp and fun to learn.   #TCMROCKS

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Chapters

• 0:03 Holistic Nutrition in Traditional Chinese Medicine
• 11:49 Eating According to Traditional Chinese Medicine
• 22:26 Understanding the Five Elements and Spirits
• 35:53 Importance of Prenatal and Postnatal Chi
• 45:28 Understanding and Managing Bloating in Women
• 55:56 The Benefits of Dark Chocolate
• 1:00:50 Transformative Healing Through Personal Narratives

Transcript

Rose Wippich: 0:03

Welcome to Chat Off The Mat, the podcast that explores the transformative journey of healing and self-discovery where energy, spirituality, mind and body intersect. Hi, I'm your host, Rose Wippich, and I invite you to join me and explore ways to invite more holistic practices into your life. I will feature experts and practitioners who provide insights, tips and practical advice. From Reiki to Qigong, Chakra balancing to Shamanism, this podcast will be your guide to understanding how these practices can lead to more harmony and greater energy. Whether you're seeking stress relief, emotional balance or a deeper connection to your authentic self, chat Off the Mat provide you with insights and inspiration. Let's start discovering the possibilities that lie within you.

Rose Wippich: 1:00

The topic of today's Chat Off The Mat is nutrition in Traditional Chinese medicine, also known as TCM. After you listen to this episode today and you listen in all the information and all the energy that my guest has to offer, I know that you're going to go to every social media platform that she's on and absolutely binge watch or binge listen, because she is just a rock star. I welcome today Clara Cohen. Thank you, Clara.

Clara Cohen: 1:32

Oh, thank you, Rose for having me, and I love the introduction. That's great. I like, yeah, come on in and binge watch. I feel like I'm the Netflix of Chinese medicine.

Rose Wippich: 1:44

You are, absolutely, absolutely, because I know I mean, I've been following you for many years and, as I was saying before we started recording, I'm not an acupuncturist, but I am a Qigong teacher and a yoga teacher a yoga teacher and I've used a lot of your information. You have so many resources out there which we'll put all in the show notes, so much free information out there that anybody can use, and it's fantastic. So today, what we talk about today is going to be really for anybody to absorb and to understand and learn about. So we're going to dive right in and I would like to ask you, just for our audience that doesn't know anything about Traditional Chinese medicine, if you can define what it is.

Clara Cohen: 2:32

Yeah, that's a great question. So Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM for short, because it's so long, so it makes it easier. So we're going to shorten everything. That's why we do LOL, you know.

Clara Cohen: 2:44

Right to shorten everything. That's why we do LOL, you know, right? So TCM is coming from China, at the root of it. It's been around for thousands of years and, you know, as time progressed there was an evolution to it and it continues to really change and adapt to our world and what's going on around us. So Chinese medicine really looks at treating and helping, supporting the health of people in three different ways.

Clara Cohen: 3:15

The first one is looking at the root cause of the problem. So we're not a band-aid, it's more like why this is happening. Right, where does that come from? Because if we know the root cause, then we can figure out if we can manage, support or even treat and eradicate the problem. The second thing is we look at each individual in a unique manner, as a whole, so we don't treat the disorder. So if you have insomnia and your sister has insomnia, even though your sister's same family, you are two different, completely individuals. So we treat you as a person, as a whole, with your insomnia and everything that entails your lifestyle, your diet, your sleep, your stress, your history, all this. So we treat the person at the root and not the disorder. And the third one is we are educators, we are teachers. So we are here to support you. However, we have to emphasize that if we are going to try to get to the top of the mountain, which means that's where your health is optimum At the top of the mountain you have optimum health. We will guide you to get there with our education, as much as support as we can do, but you have to walk. We can't carry you up. So it is a partnership medicine and it's not just us doing the work, it's as an entity, you and us, like all the practitioners and the patients, doing the work together.

Clara Cohen: 4:36

And what we use for tools is, of course, acupuncture A lot of people use that but also herbal medicine, food, which we're going to talk about today, because nutrition and the digestive system is at the center of our health and everything, including our brain, our emotions and everything that is in our body. So we also have gua sha, which is like scraping, we have cupping, we have moxibustion, which is a herb that we use for heat to do many things including, for example, turning a breech baby naturally, and that is an option that many women that are pregnant don't have in the real world. So this is a really good option that we offer that are natural, safe and effective. We have also.

Clara Cohen: 5:17

We use also electro acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, qigong, tai chi massage, which is tuina, which is kind of like if people are familiar with shiatsu, which is acupressure Twina, and a lot of acupressure comes from Tuina, which is a manipulation that includes acupressure. So those are our main tools in our toolbox to help patients and those are the three the root cause educating you and working with you and treating you as a unique individual as a whole. That's TCM for you and that's the way it should be.

Rose Wippich: 5:49

I love that. It's definitely a collaboration and a teamwork for for for that. So let's talk about nutrition in Traditional Chinese medicine. I know that there's a lot of elements, so so you take it from wherever you feel is a good starting point.

Clara Cohen: 6:07

Okay, there are many things to talk about, but we'll start at the beginning. So the basis of Chinese medicine, nutrition, is first, we are going to eat within our environment. So wherever you live, you should have the food that is in your environment, so not buying food that comes from like 5,000 miles away. Two, we want to eat again with the environment, but seasonal. So we don't want to eat watermelon in winter, we want to eat seasonal food and food in season. Third, we want to chew and be mindful and sit and enjoy our food with friends, with family, by ourselves. But we don't want to sit at our desk and, you know, shove our food really quickly and not chew it and not be mindful. We really want to taste it and enjoy it.

Clara Cohen: 6:59

I'm from France, I'm sure you can hear the accent, but in France it's a big ritual. We sit down, we eat. You know it's a big event. Every meal it's not just something fast. I remember when I first came to Canada and I went to get a tea at the coffee shop and she said do you want it for here or to go? And my response was to go where? So, because to me it was like, what do you mean to go. And then everything is to go in North America, right, you can buy your food on the go and just eat it as you walk, and that's a big no-no with Chinese medicine. So we want to make sure that we are mindful. And then the last thing is, of course, we want to eat whole food, which is the basis of all nutrition. We don't want to eat processed food and things that is not real. We want to eat real food. So that's the basic, and then there's more to it. Do you have questions so far?

Rose Wippich: 7:52

No, I, no, it's great, yeah, so so not eat processed foods. I know that you've said that before. So eating whole foods means eating things that are coming to natural state, nothing that has been processed okay, cool yeah, no good, we're good um okay yeah.

Clara Cohen: 8:10

So I have one more go ahead. That is. The basis of TCM is we're trying to eat the way our ancestors dna were eating. So what does that mean? It means that, for example, I'm in Canada and we have a lot of people, including myself, who moved here and emigrated here from another part of the world. So if you've been in Canada for three, four, five generations it's not as bad.

Clara Cohen: 8:38

But if you're first or second generation in a different environment than the one you were born with, you're going to eat the food in your new environment and for a lot of people that's a problem. So, for example, in Vancouver I have a lot of my patients are first or second generation, from Korea, for example, and in Korean food they don't eat dairy. So they come here and they all have dairy and of course they realize they're lactose intolerant because they never had that enzyme in their DNA to process the dairy that we have here. So of course that creates a lot of issue and then they realize after a while that, oh, they can't have dairy right? So for people that are from Germany, for example, which is a specific food, if they come to move to Thailand and it's all spicy food in Thailand. Their digestive system might not quite receive it very well because they're not used to have all this spice right. So it's really adapting to where our ancestors' DNAs are and for a lot of people, if let's say they're from the Middle East, they'll do much better from the Middle East to eat like lamb and dairy that is made from sheep or goat than cow.

Clara Cohen: 9:49

So it's looking at this as well. So when I have patients coming in, it's, you know, always asking oh, that's your last name, do you know what? Were you born here? You know, and because it's it's really important, it's not like it's just for me to know then I can say, okay, well, maybe this kind of food might not be the best for you. If you have someone from Alaska that is born there, that's a native to Alaska and is used to a lot of fatty meat and fish, you can't put them on a vegetarian diet in, you know, when they move, let's say, to California and have quinoa and vegetables all day, because their body needs that fat meat or fat fish. So we have to be aware of that. So that's something that we always forget. But it's always good to look at the depth of who you are as a whole, including your DNA background.

Rose Wippich: 10:39

Should we maybe talk about the seasons and how we can better focus on eating and the foods related to that season? That's what I wanted to say.

Clara Cohen: 10:51

I got you, I got you.

Rose Wippich: 10:52

Okay, I know.

Clara Cohen: 10:54

So, okay, well, since we are in the spring and you know the episode may air a little bit later. Actually, in my podcast I'm going to talk about the liver and the spring coming up. I'm going to do a whole episode on spring food. But to make it simple is, each season corresponds to different elements and in Chinese medicine, we look at nature and we really mimic nature. A lot of cultures do this, yoga does this. You know, we have the sun salutation, we have the downward dog. Downward dog is like okay, we looked at dogs and how they stretch and we're doing the same thing. So it's looking at our environment and nature and adapting to it, but also looking at what's happening. So, for example, in the spring is renewal, right, everything starts. I have my garden, all the flowers are coming out. It's like so pretty, it's so exciting. So, within ourselves, it's the same thing. We should eat food that is going to be good for the liver. The liver and the gallbladder are associated with the wood element, which is associated to the spring season in Chinese Medicine. And so, in order to think of liver, think of green, right? Green is the color of food that is really good for the liver, because he detoxified the liver, because the liver had a lot of food during the winter, maybe a little bit too much, maybe some alcohol, maybe heavy meals, right. So it's time to kind of clean out or do spring cleaning, right. So we don't just declutter the house, we declutter the body, the health and the mind together. So at springtime we want to declutter the mind, which means we want to start new things, we want to try new things. Everything is new, right, it's the beginning. So we also want to eat green, like baby spinach, right, baby sprouts, like all the new food that comes out lettuce is coming out, dandelion, asparagus those are really good liver food because not only did it detoxify the liver but they're very much a spring food. So we would do colorful but more on the green side, start to have a little bit more lighter meals than in winter, right, kind of make it a bit easier, but also try things we haven't done in the winter. So that would be for the spring.

Clara Cohen: 13:15

And then we have the summer. The summer is corresponding to the fire element, because summer is on fire, we are on fire, it's sun, it's, you know, the summer. So that also corresponds to the heart, and so we want to make our heart happy by being joyful, which means we want to go play outside, really enjoy social activities with other people, maybe go for a picnic hiking, just really enjoy the outdoors at that time because we're going with the season, right, the days are longer, so it's okay to go to bed a bit later and wake up a bit earlier at that time, and we want to feed the heart with joyful food. This is when we want to be even more mindful of eating colorful food. So, all the colors of the summers, all the fruits, right, the peaches, the berries, the, the, the fruit that is just so colorful. Tomatoes, right, tomatoes, right avocado, looking at all the peppers, all the lettuce and everything that is going to make your beautiful meal very colorful.

Clara Cohen: 14:16

Now, I know some people will eat meat and fish, some people don't, right, that's all a preference and that's all depending on your DNA, like we said earlier. So that's why I mentioned a lot more on the vegetables and fruit than anything else. But you know, nuts seeds are great as well. However, we'll keep them for a bit later. So in the summer, we want lighter food like. Watermelon is a perfect summer fruit. It's just so refreshing, it's quenching our thirst, it's perfect.

Clara Cohen: 14:42

So we want to have that in the summer and then we go into the fall and the fall season is the element of metal, and metal is like a shield, it's our protective defense system and it corresponds to the lung. So when we get sick, we get a flu or cold, our lungs can get congested, the nose can get congested, we can't breathe. So think of the lungs as your defense system or your primary, first immune system. So in the fall we want to really make sure that we boost and I would say that we boost our immune system to prepare for winter or for the flu season and all the season of bacteria, et cetera. So in the fall nuts and seeds are really good for that we want to have the fall food, which is like squash, pumpkins, we want to have cinnamon and ginger, start having those apples and pears right Fall food. And then we want to prepare for winter. We said that's the season to prepare for winter. So it's really good to let go of the summer, let go of the fun time and start preparing to do something that is going to be productive. So we want to start canning. Canning is great because we prepare for the winter. We can can all our vegetables from our garden and we get them ready for winter. So we have extra food for winter. So it's preparing, it's being productive, that's a productive time as well and then we get to winter.

Clara Cohen: 16:08

Winter is the water element in Chinese Medicine and it corresponds to the kidneys, so we want to protect those kidneys, and so what we do in winter is we don't want to have cold food because it's winter. I mean, especially if you live in a place where it's cold, like in Canada or in Alaska or you know somewhere where it's really cold. But in general even I lived in Morocco and years, years ago you would think, oh, it's North Africa, it's always hot. Well, they still have season and there's still time where they think, oh, it's cold. To someone in Canada they would think that's not cold, but to them it is colder, right, colder, right. So there's still season. That occurs everywhere in the world.

Clara Cohen: 16:49

And so in winter we want to really eat food that is warm, so stews and having soups with lots of vegetables, beans and lentils. We want to have things that are going to be really nourishing and hearty, and a little bit of alcohol, if you like it, because our alcohol is a little warm, so you know a little glass of alcohol if you like it, because alcohol is a little warm. So you know a little glass of wine. I'm from France, I'm going to give that to you. So you know that's what we want to do. And because you think of watching nature, the wintertime, you see a lot of animals hibernating, trees, plants. Everyone goes inward, so we have to go inward.

Clara Cohen: 17:25

This is the best time to self-reflect, to go within, to meditate more, to be really self-aware of what is it we want when it comes to spring again, right, who we are, what's going on with us? Really self-reflect is the winter time. And this is when we want to do the opposite of the summer, which was fire right. Now it's water. Opposite, we want to make sure that we go to bed early and have longer hours of sleep because it's darker, right, even nature tells you it's dark. Stay home, relax, be introverted, read more, right? Do that yin or introspection time Compared to summer. You want to do social. You want to do the opposite. Does that make sense? So those are the four elements.

Clara Cohen: 18:09

Now we have five elements in Chinese medicine and the fifth one is the earth element, which corresponds to spleen and stomach, or the whole entire digestive system. So we're back to that the digestive system, which is the center of our health, really truly so, when it back to that the digestive system, which is the center of our health, really truly so. When it comes to the earth element, it's a fifth season and what it is is the transitional time between each season. So there's that two to three weeks where you know you're sitting outside and you're like, ooh, spring is in the air, I can feel it. Or, ooh, summer is coming, I can feel it. Or I can feel winter, it's coming, like I need a scarf right. So that transitional time, which is about two to three weeks depending, is going to be earth time.

Clara Cohen: 18:55

And what do we do at this time? We want to be really gentle, because there are a lot of people are very sensitive, including myself. So if you are an empath or very sensitive person, you will get affected by the environment around you. So when the season changes, you will get more affected than other people, and I see this with patients. They'll say, oh my gosh, I don't know what's happening, but I just don't feel good right now. I'm like, oh, a season changed and you're a really sensitive person.

Clara Cohen: 19:22

So at that time we want to be gentle with the body, which means it's a transformative time. We transform from one season to the next, so we want to make it gentle. That means that we don't want super, super spicy food or super salty food or sweet. We want to have more blend, what I call baby food diet. So for a couple of weeks you want to transition by having, like, maybe, squash and yams, bananas, salmon, eggs, because those are soft, you don't have to chew a lot, it doesn't take a lot of energy, it's very easy, like baby food, right, you can have things that are very already mushed, I guess. And so we also want to know that there's a transition and there's a transformation and a change at this time.

Clara Cohen: 20:07

So it's also good to look at what happened in the last season and what we want to happen in the next one and be able to sit with ourselves quietly and do self-care, because that time is really important for self-care. So get a massage, you know, go do something that makes you really happy. Maybe you want to go and you know, join a choir and sing with people because that makes you happy. But self-care is really important because a lot of time we take care of everybody else, we forget to take care of ourselves. So at least at the season change, make an effort because that'll protect your digestive system, which gets affected by worry, overthinking, anxiety, and that's when we get an ulcer in the stomach or that knot, or we get irritable bowel syndrome or diarrhea because we're so stressed out and it affects our digestive system. So, in a nutshell, those are the seasons in TCM.

Rose Wippich: 21:07

Yeah, and that's a lot of information. And there's even more information because we can talk about the organs associated with the seasons. We can talk about the times around the clock, certain time frames associated with the organs, and all that too. There's so much information. But you were starting to talk about the emotions and there's a couple of things. How does a person self-awareness is probably the most important thing I feel in the world tuning in and knowing and just feeling what's happening in your body? And you started to talk about that and how you know people that are starting to feel a little funky and don't know what's going on. That's a first indication that there's a clue something's happening. Right to stop and to figure out what's going on, what's happening around them. Maybe they're not eating the right things or maybe they're not doing the right things in association with that season. Right, are there ways a person can tune in or find out or even I don't know just explore ways of healing and finding out what's wrong like do you often talk to your clients about that?

Clara Cohen: 22:24

Yeah, I mean, we do have. You know, the five element theory is a huge theory, and we talked about the five seasons. There's five tastes, there's five colors, there's, you know, all this five. There's also five what we call souls or spirits, and they need to be balanced. And so often they're out of balance and it could be due to emotional trauma that happened in the past or recently, or intergenerational, which people may not be aware of. There could be. The cause could be diet, it could be an amount of stress that is either self-imposed or put upon us because life right, or put upon us because life right, and so there could be a lot of reason why those spirits, or those five elements in our mind, our spirits, our soul, are affected. So those spirits all have different strength, and so sometimes we miss them, and one of them is the pole. So the pole is the spirits that allow us to connect our mind with our body, and that's what you were talking about with awareness. So if we're not aware of what's going on and I've had patients like this where I'm like where do you feel the anxiety? I don't know, okay, so you don't know where you feel it. So next time you're anxious, tell me, you know, be aware, like do you feel it in your hand, in your lower back, in your chest, in your stomach? Where do you feel that? Be aware of that.

Clara Cohen: 23:45

And often, because of many reasons that I just stated, there's going to be self-preservation, and this is why the Po is really important, because it is a self-preservation spirit or soul, whatever you want to call it, and it's what people will do. They will have that shield so they don't feel anything because emotional trauma happened in the past. So if you had emotional trauma, you're going to shut down the body, physical feeling. That way you don't have to be aware of anything and it doesn't hurt you so often.

Clara Cohen: 24:21

The Po is that connection, mind and body, and we can do acupuncture to try to release that if the person is wanting to. Because they need to obviously be aware that there's going to be a lot of work and it might not be easy and it might be a lot of crying and a lot of releasing, and so they have to be acknowledging consent that, yes, they want to go deep into releasing that. So that takes time because it's very, very hard for people specifically to share a kind of trauma if they are aware of it, and so the PO is that connection, mind and body, and each of them are going to have a different role within us. So the one you were asking, that's the first one I wanted to answer you with.

Rose Wippich: 25:05

Yeah, it's um, it's very powerful, you know, to heal at that level. But it does take work and you're like peeling back these layers and allowing that energy inside to surface and come out and move through the body and move out of the body in a way, you know, through the spirit. I love that. I love that I've never heard of the five souls and spirits.

Clara Cohen: 25:31

You can look it up. I just had a YouTube video on it, maybe a month ago. That's called the five spirits and I talk about all of them and the role within our body and what we can do if we're not quite connecting them, because all elements should always be connected, right, if one is out of whack, it's like a wheel. When cog is out of whack, then the wheel won't turn properly, right, , exactly, yeah.

Rose Wippich: 25:56

So you talked about the stomach and the stomach being the center, and I've heard you say in previous information that nutrients affect the brains and emotions, and you were talking about anxiety is due to a lack of certain nutrients. I was listening to this one YouTube recording that you had. I know a lot of listeners suffer. My listeners suffer from anxiety and they don't know where it's from. They're like I'm so anxious, and me too, and I don't feel like I'm anxious, but I'll wake up and there'll be days when I am. And you were talking about certain things that may be lacking as far as food or nutrition in a body. Can you elaborate a little bit on that for us?

Clara Cohen: 26:47

Yeah. So when it comes to certain emotion, I'll pick one that I think most people are really associating. It easily is anger. You know, when I was growing up in France, one of the things that you know I always laugh is they always have studies in North America where they show that French people eat a lot of heavy food but they don't have cardiovascular disease, they don't have a lot of heart attack like us North American. And I'm like, yeah, but they have a lot of liver disease because they drink a lot of alcohol. So they forget to say that. So I always laugh because I'm like, yeah, their heart's not bad because they're joyful and they really take the time, but they drink a lot of alcohol. So I had a neighbor that was the nicest guy, but then he drank a lot and when he drank he was the angry drunk, right. So anger really affects the liver, and so it's kind of chicken and the egg. If you drink alcohol, it might make you angry, right, chicken and the egg. If you drink alcohol, it might make you angry, right. So obviously. Or if you're angry, you are really affecting your liver. So it's kind of like which one came first. Is it the diet that could? That really created the emotion or is it something else that you know? So it's always looking at that way. So I'm looking at anxiety.

Clara Cohen: 28:04

Often with anxiety it can come from different things. First, lack of sleep, fatigue can create anxiety, and in Chinese medicine we say the sleep organ is the heart, and the heart is in charge of our joy, our mind, our happiness, and so if we don't sleep and feed the heart that happiness, then the heart gets palpitation and anxiety often leads to palpitation right, and people are like, oh my God, I'm having a heart attack. No, you're having a panic attack, which is not great, but at least you're not having a heart attack. So that's the first thing that can be one. The second one is stress. Stress can of course that fight or flight. If there's stress put upon us, we are going to have our central nervous system getting into that fight or flight. Some of us are going to get anxiety, panic attack. For other people it's fear. Then you're shaking or you're fainting. There's a lot that can come from stress. That can be another one. The other one that often is not thought about is what you mentioned is the diet, because more and more and not in Chinese medicine but in Western medicine.

Clara Cohen: 29:14

They are showing that there is and we all heard the gut-brain connection. Right, there is a connection, specifically the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve starts in the brain and goes down and connects to so many of our system, including the digestive system, and the vagus nerve allow us to go in a parasympathetic state, which means a rest and digest and recover state. This is the meditation state. This is when you do yoga, qigong, when you're calm and your body is healing. Right, it's self-healing. So we allow that.

Clara Cohen: 29:46

Now, if someone is constantly in a fight or flight because, due to stress, they're not going to recover and they are going to age faster and it's going to create more and more problems. So we need to have that balance between okay, I need to fight right now because I need to run, I need to go get my kids, something happened at work, sure, but we need that balance with this other. I need to be calm time, I need to do something that is going to calm my body and allow my body to heal. So acupuncture helps with that as well. So, when it comes to digestive system and the anxiety, often it's because caffeine so coffee can create anxiety, sugar can create anxiety. Too much sugar can create anxiety. Some preservatives, like MSG, can create anxiety. So it's looking at what sets it off, and for all of us it could be different things because we're all different people, right. So what makes certain people anxious may not be others.

Clara Cohen: 30:46

However, having a digestive system that is strong, healthy, not inflamed, is definitely going to help the anxiety, right? If, obviously, the anxiety comes from no sleep or stress, it's hard. But at the same time, if the gut, which is at the center of our health, is super healthy and not inflamed, then even when we have stress, the anxiety should not come right. So, having enough omega-3 in our diet, which means having enough fatty acid, that is really good for us, right? So, like salmon, and having fatty fish, avocado, nuts, seed super good for us, for that brain, calm brain. Almonds are one of the best to calm the brain when there's anxiety. So you know, having a few almonds every day to kind of keep everything level, that's really good.

Clara Cohen: 31:40

So if, when we look at the digestive system, in Chinese medicine the spleen and stomach are in charge of the digestive system and they correspond to the emotion of worry and overthinking. So when we overthink we're not necessarily worrying, but when we worry we overthink. So they are kind of connected in a way. So students, for example, or people that do mental work in front of the computer all day, really need to feed their digestive system even more nutrients for their brain because they use their brain so much, right, so that's really important. Someone that has a lot of stress and worrying because their kids are sick, they have to take care of their mother and they're a single person trying to make end meats, of course they need to eat a diet that feed their brain and they need to sleep. And that's not always easy because, as we know, healthy food is more expensive. So I'm not saying it's easy, I'm just telling you what Chinese medicine looks at, and so it's really important to have that digestive system strong.

Clara Cohen: 32:41

Another thing is the digestive system transform and transport every nutrients to our body for energy. So if you feel like foggy head or you can't focus, that's because you're not having enough nutrients, probably dehydration, not enough drinking right, not enough fluids, not enough food that feeds the brain, because if we are eating processed food and a bag of chips, it feels good for 10 minutes, but then after that we don't feel good. And we don't feel good physically, probably because we feel like our stomach's not too happy, but we also don't feel good emotionally, so it doesn't serve us. It serves us for 10 minutes, but not for the long run. So we always have to think the long run how can we eat to feed the body?

Clara Cohen: 33:26

Because, you know, we've all seen the you know the picture of someone that looks like they have all processed food inside them and someone that has all fruits and vegetables inside them, and it's like you are what you eat. Well, it's not just you are what you eat, physically, it's you are going to. You are what you eat. Well, it's not just you are what you eat physically, it's you are going to feel from what you eat, and that's important.

Rose Wippich: 33:47

So, yeah, I hope that society is bringing back more of nurturing with food and really using food to heal as we should, as we should. One of the things is I always talk about in my class when I do Qigong, when I teach Qigong is the kidneys as being the part of the seed, of the original qi. Right and lifestyle can deplete that. So how can we, as I like to say, how can we, restore that or add to that bank that has been depleted? Can you give us some advice on that? Sure, so we, we age. I'm sorry, I just want to say so. We age with more vitality and you know the fountain of youth that's I wanted to add to that we age gracefully and, you know, happily, yeah, we don't become a grumpy old woman.

Clara Cohen: 34:44

Exactly so. In Chinese medicine we look at prenatal qi and postnatal qi. So it doesn't matter if you're not sure what qi is as a concept, because it's not just energy, it's a concept. But the idea is, before we are born, we are conceived by two people, right, and they get together and they conceive us. Now the health of the future mother and the health of the future father, before they even conceive, really is going to also dictate what kind of health we're going to get Then, once they conceive, at that time that energy is conceiving this little baby embryo, and this embryo is now all in the mother's womb. And now the next nine months or so, this woman's energy, life, stress, happiness, food all this is also going to help us grow into a certain healthy baby, right? So it's a lot more put on the woman than the man after the conception, obviously, but at the core it comes from both of them and that is called prenatal chi. So we can't do anything about it. We can't control what our parents did. What you know is the way it.

Clara Cohen: 36:00

So, for example, I was born 10 weeks premature. We asked 10 weeks, at week 30 in the sixties, and my mother French that she is, smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. So I came out at week 30 looking like I was about to. You know, I was blue because I couldn't believe and they had to put me in the incubator. Of course, at week 30, your lungs are not completely developed, your whole body is not finished. I always say I'm not finished and my husband always says well, that explains a lot. So you know, I used to say to my mom I came out at premature because I needed fresh air. What you were giving me with the smoke wasn't fresh air. And my mom used to say you're just premature. Lots of babies are premature. Nothing to do with smoking. I'm like, okay, then this was the time in the 60s where you went to your doctor and both of you smoked.

Rose Wippich: 36:52

Yes, that's crazy right, I know?

Clara Cohen: 36:56

So I always say my prenatal chi was not that great. My mom was a smoker, my dad was a smoker, my mom had me. I was an accident. She had both of my brothers at 20 and 22. And then she got pregnant at 42. So it was a really like a thing. And she told the doctor like, oh my gosh, like I can't do this, I'm done, my boys are grown up. And he was like, well, you're going to have to do this, it's coming. So here I come, super early. And so not only that, but she was what we call now a geriatric pregnancy, which makes me laugh. I can't believe they say that.

Rose Wippich: 37:31

But I was 41 when I had my twins, so okay, and they were two months early, so I totally get your story. You get the story yeah.

Clara Cohen: 37:41

So I, I was born. I was born, couldn't breathe, put me in the incubator obviously I survived. I'm here today and but I had scoliosis, so my spine wasn't straight. So that's something that you know is structural. I was sick as a child all the time. I had all the disease. I was always sick all the time, so my childhood was a lot of sickness. So it shows that my pre-birth was not great compared to, let's say, somebody else, that both parents were very healthy. They, their grandparents, very healthy. They were born right, beautiful, vaginally, on time, as they're supposed to be. They had a great childhood where they weren't sick. They just had, you know, the normal thing that kids have, but nothing more than that. And they grew up with straight teeth, straight spine. So I didn't have straight teeth, I didn't have straight spine.

Clara Cohen: 38:31

That's why I always ask patients did you wear braces as a kid? Because if they say no, I know they have stronger prenatal chi. If they say, oh, yes, then that changes, changes and I'm asking more question about what's going on. Prenatal ones, right so? Because nowadays, of course, if you have braces, I don't know if you needed them or not, right so? So I didn't have as much prenatal chi. My, my cup wasn't very full to start with, but somebody else, their cup was really full, so they had this advantage. However, it's all comparability if that's even a word. It's all comparing to somebody else. So let's say someone is born with Down syndrome, their cup is less than mine now because they've had a disadvantage with a chromosome that's completely different. That's going to make their life a little bit more challenging, right? And usually most people that are Down syndrome are not going to live to be 90 years. Challenging, right, and usually most people that are Down syndrome are not gonna live to be 90 years old, right, their lifespan is much shorter, unfortunately. So it shows you the lifespan.

Clara Cohen: 39:31

So prenatal qi dictates your genes, who you are at the core, and it might dictate a little bit of how far you're gonna go or how long you're gonna live, right, however, we have postnatal chi, and that's what you ask about. And so what happened after we were born? What do we need once we get out of the womb? We need to breathe, so we need fresh air and we need food and drinks to that digestive system. Again, that comes back. And, of course, we need love, support. All this affection needs to be there as well. Those three things is literally our basic needs, right? We want to be warm and that's all we need at the beginning. Well, that is to our whole life and that's what TCM advocate.

Clara Cohen: 40:13

It's really important to do your work postnatal. So, once you postnatal, of course as a child is harder, but as an adult you have control of what you can do to live a longer life. So, if you were given less in your cup of prenatal chi, like I was, I have to work a little bit more harder in order to have that good, healthy, you know, living long life. However, if the person that was given great genes, right, everything was perfect straight spine, straight teeth, like no sickness, fantastic. But by the time they're 18, they did 10 years of hard, hard drugs. They depleted what they were given. So you know, when they say life is a gift, it literally is. You were giving that gift of that cup that was completely full and now you depleted it so quickly that I have more than you, even though I didn't start with as much. Does that make sense, right? So this is why our lifestyle is key.

Clara Cohen: 41:13

Now, there's things we can't control. If we have a car accident, if there's a trauma, that happens we can't control. However, we can control what we put in our mouth and what we put in our nose Meaning. Remember we go back to when we were born. We need love, support, we need food, drinks and we need air. So it's really important to do deep breathing exercise, like Qigong, like yoga, like meditation. Breathe in and this is proven not only feeds your brain better memory, it feeds oxygen to your blood vessels, it allows your body to live longer in many ways brain and physically, so not just mentally and of course, it calms the mind for stress. So deep breathing exercise.

Clara Cohen: 41:56

Number one eating a healthy diet that's suitable to you in your stage of your life, because different stage, different diet. Of course we have to adapt and change as we go. So that's really important to feed the digestive system. And the last one is love and support. We all need someone to be around us One, two, three people, a family doesn't matter. But we need to feel love and connected to each other, and social media doesn't count people Right on. So touch is very important, right, it's that touch, that hug, hug someone. When you hug someone, both people benefits you and them. It really brings that dopamine, it really brings that happiness. So that's really important. So those are the things that we look for postnatal chi and, of course, avoiding all the stuff that's going to make it worse, like drugs and, you know, smoking and alcohol and all those things, because the things you can control, then take advantage right, because there are many we can't.

Rose Wippich: 42:55

Yeah, that's great and it's never too late. I teach people who are in their 60s, 70s, 80s. And you know, when I see a woman my sister's a hairdresser and like all her clients are women who are 100 or 90 and they're walking and getting their hair done and they, their minds, are better than mine, like they have great chi, you know, it's like you want to do a case study and find out how they took care of and of course, some of it is genetic, but it's never too late to take care of yourself. Even if you've eaten not well for a while, you can change the habit. It may be hard to change habits but you can do it. You know, with with determination, with overcoming some of the triggers and I understand there's a lot emotional triggers can lead people to eat not well or drink, but with a desire to want to live longer and better and live your best life.

Rose Wippich: 43:49

you can do it, you know you want to have healthy great chi the rest of your life. I love that.

Clara Cohen: 43:53

Well, you know I just just a side note, because that story my mother, the two packs of cigarettes a day lady did when she was 17. And you know all our life we're like you got to stop, you got to quit. And you know she was like, leave me alone, leave me alone. And at 77, so 60 years, one day she decided that was it, she was done. And I was so worried I'm like you just quit like this, like cold turkey, oh my gosh, no-transcript. And not only that, but within two years asthma gone, bronchitis gone, emphysema gone. So even at her age she reversed the whole thing.

Rose Wippich: 44:52

That is a great story. I thank you for sharing that. I love that. Yeah, I just recently well, not recently last year I quit drinking. It was just time to not have any more alcohol, and not that I wasn't on medication, but all my numbers, all my numbers for my physical, they got better. My bone density is better, Everything I sleep better, I just feel. I didn't lose any weight, but I feel great, so that's, that's a good thing. Women experience certain things. A lot of times we we talk about how bloated we feel, and bloated can be associated with something that we're eating or not eating. Can you, can you shed some light on that whole bloating thing and tell us how we can, we can, what can help us?

Clara Cohen: 45:49

what can help us? So yeah, the part where you just want to close your pants and you just close those pants.

Rose Wippich: 46:03

Guys never complain about bloating. I don't know. I've never heard them say that. So there's something about us that we just bloat, and I want to know what it is.

Clara Cohen: 46:09

Well, some people, guys, that drink a lot of beer. I think they are, but they don't admit it. They don't admit it. There's different causes of bloating, so one of them is stress, which is a huge one. When we are stressed, we know if it's stress because we wake up in the morning and our stomach is nice and flat, and then by the end of the day we can't close the pants. It feels like, oh my God, right, that, okay. So usually that's stress. So that's the first one. So that tells you. So now we need to find ways to de-stress because, obviously, as the day progress during the day, we have a lot of stress that we put upon us, and that's you know. So we need to meditate more, do things that allow us to handle the stress, because we can't stop it and not react to it. Right, it's our reaction to stress. It's going to happen. I'll give you a quick one, because I think this is really, really impactful to me, so I'll share it, because we were talking about old people. But it's a sidetrack, you guys, but you're going to love this.

Clara Cohen: 47:12

I had a patient that was in her nineties. I came to see me one day first time, and she came to see me because she was a little fatigued lately. And I'm like, okay, you're in your nineties and you're a little fatigued. I'm like kudos to you. And so she comes in and she's from England, she's Britain, she's got this British accent, she's got the cute little outfit you know, she's got the little blouse with the pants that matches, she's all in pink, she has the pearls, she looks like the queen of England. That's what I called her, that's what I was thinking. Right, she looked like really, picture her. And then she sits down, she goes. I've always wanted to try acupuncture and I was so happy to hear that, because not every generation is open to that. And she said because lately I've been a little fatigued, and I did all the tests and my doctor said, no, everything's fine, vitamin D is fine, iron is done, everything's fine. So I'm a little fatigued. So I said okay. So we started talking and we did acupuncture.

Clara Cohen: 48:05

She loved it, she benefited from it, her energy came back. It was from the stress. It was a lot of stress because she's older and her son was really sick. He was in his 60s and he wasn't taking care of himself that great with his lifestyle. So that's a lot of stress.

Clara Cohen: 48:19

So that's where the fatigue came in, and so she got better and better, and so we started talking and one day I said you know, I want to ask you something because you're so vital. We talk about vitality earlier. Right, I'm like, at your age you have so much vitality, you look so good, and what would you say? You know, and this was over 10, 15 years ago, so I was in my forties and I said you know, what would you say to someone that wants to know how to age the way you do, so we can get to our 90s and feel and look like you do? What is the thing that I should do today, you know, in order to do this? And I thought she was going to say, oh, I have a little whiskey, because sometimes she would talk about this because she's from England. Right, not at all, she said.

Clara Cohen: 49:04

She thought, she paused for a second and then she said adaptability. And I was like okay, can you expand on that? And she goes Clara, ride life like a wave, because there are going to be waves that are going to be so big it's going to be scary. And if you try to fight the wave that comes at you small, big, whatever you're going to take, it's going to take you under. But if you fight the wave that comes at you small, big, whatever you're going to take it's going to take you under. But if you ride the wave meaning adapt to change don't ever fight change. It's constant, it's always going to happen. You're allowed to process it, you're allowed to feel it, but then ride the wave, do not fight the wave. And that changed my whole perspective, because I was like every time I'm stressed, I'm like it's changed, it's okay, just adapt. And that helps tremendously in having less stress, because stress ages us faster. So I was perfect. So I just wanted that sidebar, sorry.

Rose Wippich: 50:01

No, that was great because I've been going through some changes that were not chosen changes and they're not big, but big for me enough. Not chosen changes and they're not big, but big for me enough. And now I understand where a lot of that how I'm feeling is coming from, because not that I'm resisting, I'm, I'm just trying to adapt to it and and kind of ride the wave and and figure it out. So that was really a great story. No, I, I totally understand that.

Clara Cohen: 50:28

Thank, you for sharing that yeah.

Clara Cohen: 50:30

Welcome. I figure I should, because I think everybody that hears that story really benefits. So, okay, so go back to bloating, because I'm very focused. I can come on a tangent, but I'll be teaching for a long time. Go back to bloating, okay, so.

Clara Cohen: 50:43

Another one is digestion, of course. So if you are lactose intolerant, you will get bloating right. And let's say, we talked about people from Asia, for example, like Korea could have that problem. So it's always good to know what you are sensitive to, right, and if we have also the wrong food, so not just sensitivities but also the wrong food. Let me paint the picture. You are sitting and you're like I'm doing my body so much good. I'm going to have a nice smoothie with a lot of berries and bananas and all the fruits in the world and I'm going to have that. Then for lunch I'm going to have this beautiful salad with lots of vegetables and some carrots and broccoli and spinach and mushroom and tomatoes and I'm going to make and tomatoes and I'm going to make my little dressing. I'm going to have that with a piece of salmon, let's say right. And you're like, wow, this is really healthy, this is really great. I'm so bloated.

Rose Wippich: 51:39

I'm feeling bloated, just you talking.

Clara Cohen: 51:43

The thing is some people do not do well with a lot of raw food and I know there's raw food diet out there and some people are fine with it. But we're not everybody. We are ourselves. So, for example, if you are cold all the time, like cold hand, cold feet you're the one that wants to wrap yourself and you have a lot of salads and smoothies. Be aware here's the awareness piece that you had your smoothie within the next couple of hours see how cold you are. You'll probably be freezing right and same with the salad.

Clara Cohen: 52:16

It bloats you because it's really hard to digest. So when you put a piece of broccoli that is raw, you chew it. Then it goes in your stomach. Did you chew it until it became mushed like puree? No. Did you do the same thing with the carrots? No, it's little pieces of carrots are going to be in your stomach and now your digestive system has to work so hard to digest this food that is so like really hard to digest because it's raw and a raw carrot is hard right. That's why older people usually eat more cooked food, because their teeth can't handle it usually and because their digestive system, it will go right through them and they'll have undigested food in the stool, right.

Clara Cohen: 52:58

So a lot of time raw, cold food may create some bloating. Doesn't mean that you can't have it, but maybe have a salad in the summer, not not in the winter. First of all, especially if you're a cold person in the summer and have things that are like tomato, avocado, maybe some lettuce, but maybe not the kale or the broccoli or the carrot, because they're so harder, right, the texture is so much harder. So have something that is going to be easier to digest, and only in the summer. Now, in the winter, smoothiesies and tcm big no-no, because it's going to make everybody cold. I'm in my late 50s so I'm more on the warm side. So if I'm on more on the war, I'm more on the warm side. I'm going to have a salad right now in the spring, two to three times a week because it agrees with me. But if I have it like in winter, every day, probably going to bloat me again, so that's not going to work very well.

Clara Cohen: 53:53

Also, dairy sugar and what we call damp food will bloat you. So damp food is dairy sugar, heavy meats like beef, pork, lamb and processed food, because processed is all damp anyway, so like hamburgers and fries and all this fried food also does this. So deep fried food does this, but not good, healthy, fat food like avocado shouldn't do this, you know, salmon or things that are nuts and seeds, etc. So avoid the processed food, the dairy or the the damp food like sugar. Like I said, ice cream is probably one of the worst for bloating because it's dairy, it's cold and it's sugar, so it's probably not the best and it will create bloating. So you're going to have to test because we're all different. For me, for example, I love any kind of seeds and nuts, but cashews bloat me like no tomorrow, so I don't do cashews anymore.

Rose Wippich: 54:49

Interesting, yeah, but cashews bloat me like tomorrow, so I don't do cashews anymore, you know, yeah, almost have to keep a food diary to figure out. Yeah, no, I know that the cold stuff and I'm sensitive to that, you know, eat sushi. You know sushi sometimes in the winter is not right. So that's the awareness. Just think about what you're eating, because I used to think it was just salt, maybe there was too much salt and that would blow me. But it's really the food that you're eating, right? Um, all right, so we're gonna. We're gonna.

Rose Wippich: 55:17

I know there's so much more, oh, there's so much more, but I want to wrap it up because I know I want to be mindful of your time. But the last question I want to ask about food is this one food that I think people love and I want to know where it falls into this whole nutrition and traditional Chinese medicine is chocolate. Let's talk about chocolate Because we love little chocolate. We love chocolate. I mean, I know there's dark chocolate, there's milk chocolate and people have their preference, but little chocolate. We love chocolate. I mean, I know there's dark chocolate, there's milk chocolate and people have their preference, but little chocolate is good, right.

Clara Cohen: 55:55

Yes, absolutely. So here's the thing about chocolate it comes from the cacao bean and the cacao bean is really good for us. I mean, you know, it was imported mostly from South and Central America to Europe. They had never heard of it. When you know, all the explorers came to America or the Americas and they were like, wow, this is really cool.

Clara Cohen: 56:17

Now, what we did to it is the cacao bean is full of magnesium and this is why often women will crave chocolate prior to their menstruation, because it is full of magnesium and usually most of us women are depleted in magnesium because we do lose blood and specifically, you know, blood is made of all the iron, magnesium, manganese, like all the minerals. So often, this is why we crave chocolate. However, that cacao bean, which is great, full of nutrients, full of minerals, is very bitter. Full of nutrients, full of minerals, is very bitter. So, because it's bitter, we had to, in our way, to change it a bit, Because if we consume it the way it is, it would be really hard. A lot of people don't like bitter food, so we're going to put a little chocolate into the sugar, mix them together, so it's not going to be as bitter.

Clara Cohen: 57:07

So that's why the dark chocolate versus the milk chocolate when I was younger. As young kids are, we love sweet when we were a kid, like really sweet, sweet food, and I remember eating chocolate like milk chocolate, and my mom would eat dark chocolate and I would say, oh, that's so gross because your palate is not ready for bitter food, right, but it develop as you go, or spicy food for that matter. Your body, your body, your digestive system's not ready as a kid. So as we are adult now we can look at dark chocolate and go, oh yeah, I kind of like it. 50%, 70% you know there's 90%, I can't do 90% it's way too much.

Clara Cohen: 57:42

It is too much, right. So it's like anything else, it's in moderation. But try to have the one that has the least amount of sugar that you still enjoy. Right, like that, 70% would be great. You know that that's kind of like middle of the road, because chocolate is really good for you. It's just what we add to it all the preservative and additive. So don't have a Snickers bar or a Kit Kat bar. Have chocolate made of cacao bean with some coconut oil and maybe a bit of you know some kind of maple syrup or you know something that's going to be more natural honey and that is not going to be, and that's going to be fair trade, of course. But in general, yeah, we want to keep it to the lower sugar amount, because then that's going to deplete the magnesium that we're trying to get from it, so then it's negating the whole thing.

Rose Wippich: 58:28

So great? I didn't know, and I know bitter food is can be. It brings that energy down right. Good, good for people with, like, high blood pressure too, but it put in moderation. So so everyone out there that that is hearing this about chocolate, you know, just have a little piece, not a whole bar, and don't have ice cream late at night because it's no good for your spleen. I had to. I had to include that because that's one thing. We have a rule here. We try not to eat ice cream late at night because it's not good for your spleen. You'll wake up not feeling well. I'm going to put all your links in your show notes there's. You shared everything with me. I know you can be found in. You have a podcast, youtube channel, facebook, instagram. You have a school.

Clara Cohen: 59:13

You know I have a lot of free resources on my website, acuproacademycom I'll put it there Lots of resources to learn about Chinese medicine more, including nutrition, including how it works, the foundation, the theory behind it, because it's very fascinating, I love it, I'm passionate about it. I do offer courses, online courses, for mostly practitioners and students that are in school still that want to further their education, and then I have books that helps people understand and look at Chinese medicine from a perspective of very visual, because it's all cartoons and things that are easier to kind of manage. So that's what I do. And then I really spend my time on social media, you know, from YouTube to, like you said, all the social media to spread the word of my passion, which is Chinese medicine rocks and its benefits are endless and I've been practicing for 21 years and I've seen it and I love it. So that's what I do.

Rose Wippich: 1:00:08

Yes, and all of your visuals are great. They're easy to understand. So if anyone out there is really interested in learning more and applying it to your life, please visit all of Clara's social media platforms all her platforms to learn more, and she's very generous with all her free resources. I can vouch for that. So I thank you very much for being here today, clara. I am so blessed and honored and, let's say it, tcm rocks.

Clara Cohen: 1:00:39

Thank you, Rose, for having me. It's great to have a conversation with you. I love it so thank you.

Rose Wippich: 1:00:50

Thank you for joining me here on Chat Off the Mat. I hope these stories have inspired you. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with those who might benefit. Your support helps me spread awareness about the power of transformative healing. Stay connected with me on social media. Reach out with your own healing stories or topics you'd like me to explore in future episodes. Your voice is an essential part of this community. I hope that your healing journey is filled with self-discovery, curiosity, resilience and the unwavering belief in the power that resides within you. Until next time, I'm Rose Whippage, wishing you a journey filled with love, laughter and endless possibilities.