Chang Ming - Taoist Long Life Diet

We follow a diet called Chang Ming which means 'Long Life'.

It is an integral part of our training in T'ai Chi and the Taoist Arts and is based upon Taoist philosophy. It was originally formulated in China but has since been adapted for westerners when it came to Britain in the 1930's.

The diet is very similar to Japanese macrobiotics but is not as rigid, the basic principles are to eat lots of natural wholefoods especially brown rice and fresh vegetables. We try to avoid certain foods for example red meat, dairy products, sugar, processed foods, junk food, chemical additives, acid fruits, cold or raw foods, tobacco, drugs and nightshades. This last thing often surprises people, we avoid potatoes, tomatoes and aubergines (egg-plant) because they are members of the nightshade family and contain solanine which is toxic, we also avoid vegetables which contain oxalic acid like spinach and rhubarb.

Diet is very important to us and we use it extensively to help people with health problems as part of our studies in Chinese Medicine. We have seen some quite remarkable results when people with serious diseases alter their dietary intake to follow these guidelines. Rather than use recipes we try to encourage people to experiment for themselves and find ways of adapting their diet to more healthy guidelines although basically we are doing a lot of steaming and stir-frying fresh organically grown vegetables and tofu as well as plenty of Brown Rice. We also recommend people should eat locally grown foods grown in season wherever possible so this means adapting the basic guidelines to what is available locally. Although we would encourage people to give up meat we do allow white meat and seafood although not swordfish, tuna or shark which are similar to red meat. Timing is also important, for example it is best to eat earlier in the day and certainly never eat after 7pm, this is when the internal organs begin to rest before you sleep. You can find a more detailed diet list with some excerpts from the Chang Ming Diet book by our teacher Chee Soo here:

http://www.seahorsearts.co.uk/TaoDiet.htm

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Very cool. Don't precisely agree with it all, but very healthy, none the less.

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<<it is best to eat earlier in the day and certainly never eat after 7pm,>.

wouldn't that vary based on each persons internal clock

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Interesting stuff. My mother is a big fan of the blood type diet, and is constantly telling me, "You're Type O, you need to avoid the nightshade family and acidic fruits, eat lots of protein, etc." Maybe part of the blood type diet was derived from Chang Ming

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"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

“	wouldn't that vary based on each persons internal clock	”

Your internal clock is subject to the magnetism of night and day: The strength of the other forces concerning when to act (organs, or what was ingested). If you break a bone or get an injury - your body will have to work harder (if it can) to fix it, so it will be working longer than normal if it has to.

In short; the answer to your question is yes, given the current state of the body. Being together with nature is the best.

I'll let you think why instead of telling you.

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I am most definitely a night person, and don't do well with the "normal" 9-to-5 day. Unfortunately that's the schedule I'm on right now. It takes much more discipline for me to get into a healthy sleeping pattern (supposed to be in at 10:30; here I am typing at midnight) so I can function. My favorite job ever, I was on the 4-11 shift.

Even when I was on that swing shift though, I didn't typically eat anything after 9:30, so I wouldn't have indigestion at 1:00 a.m. bedtime. So, I don't know about internal organs resting, but I'm still careful about not eating 2 hours before bed.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

“	Originally Posted By: Sammygirl Interesting stuff. My mother is a big fan of the blood type diet, and is constantly telling me, "You're Type O, you need to avoid the nightshade family and acidic fruits, eat lots of protein, etc." Maybe part of the blood type diet was derived from Chang Ming	”

The blood type diet i'm afraid to say is a scam, although quite a clever one i suppose.

It was invented apparently by a man with no medical experience whatsoever, and made it up to make him money. You can actually send blood to their "Lab" for "analysis" to see if you have any allergies or specific food needs.

Recently i heard of a debunker of things like this, who sent off a sample of his dog's blood for analysis and got back the results. It said he had an allergy to this that and the other, and should eat these those and them. However it failed to notice that it was the blood of a dog.

Though there may be some corellation between blood types and certain vitamins minerals etc. the "Blood type diet" is not the way to go to find out about it. There is too little research to PROVE what blood types need what more or less, though all blood types need B vitamins to make sure that blood passes through capiliaries easier.

I agree! Just trying to tell my mom that is incredibly difficult.

However some of the dietary restrictions in the BTD sound similar to the Chang Ming diet described above ... makes me wonder if the BTD author derived his information from an older source.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

Tell her about the dog blood!

I'm thinking the guy got random sources on dietary information and nutrition, then based it around blood types to make it sound clever. So it could well be that he got some from that diet right there.

I think a good diet is worthwile. But I hardly think that chemical additions were a concern for daoists back in 12th century. They were more concerned with getting food at all, in the heights of the mountain retreats. A good daoist has a failsafe internal feeling. When I was feeling bad on a food, I knew it was for some good reason, so I skipped it. I changed my food habits every X weeks, when I had too much meat, I didn't like it anymore. But I had no big problems eating an "unbalanced" diet of italian food (Pizza, Pasta, little salad), lots of chocolate, etc. People in poor countries eat an incredibly limited variety of food, and still are healthy. The concern with fresh this, fresh that, no this and that, is most probably an invention of the "modern man" than of some "old daoist". Naturally, they ate more vegetaric, because you couldn't slaughter an animal every day without running out of them. But you hardly could carry tons of fresh vegetables from allover the country or even foreign countries into the mountains. They ate what they found there, and that was common mans food.

It's much more important how you treat yourself, your feelings, and have a healthy natural life without shiploads of "partying" till the next morning, "balancing" it with a theoretical "daoist diet".

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The diet isn't theoretical Nik, I have been following it for twenty years and so do most of my students. The diet was adapted for westerners in the 1930's using Taoist principles about natural foods, that it why it recommends avoiding artificial additives in food. Taoists in China were not all mountain dwelling hermits but ordinary people from all walks of life. Macrobiotics is also a well known diet based on similar principles and has it's roots in Taoist practises.

I can't believe that you're suggesting that ancient Taoists could not understand that fresh food is better for you, that's ridiculous. Also just because you like something doesn't mean it's good for you, if that were the case obesity not to mention heroin addiction would be considered health fads.

The idea of not eating after 7pm comes from chinese medicine and is based on the organ clock, different organs have their peaks and down periods at different times. Overall the body has its peak of energy at mid-day and is at it's low point at midnight, this is the same for everybody. After 7pm the organs are slowing down and getting ready to rest so it's best not to eat late.

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Nik, although I don't doubt monks living a meditative lifestyle ate fairly vegetarian, your explanation about meat isn't exactly correct.

The fact is, many different Taoist sects espoused many different diets, I think it's worth looking at what they all had in common and how that compares with hard science on nutrition.

For example, one Taoist movement I am fond of, felt that GRAINS stopped up the chi in your dan tien (the sect existed about the same time as the oldest copy of the Tao Te Ching was found). There have been many groups in history that have suggested that the "civilized diet" that is so grain heavy and lacking in meat and veggies, nuts, fruits, isn't so hot. Of course the more populated your country gets and the more dependent the average person is on grains and the more expensive high quality foods get, the less likely leaders are going to tell people that eating what they have to eat to not starve to death is unhealthy for them.

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"When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Cam McHargue"

The diet is definitely "western". Adding Daoist may make it more mystical or transcendent in time.

As for those toxic foods. Yes they are. However, CHinese food have a balance to them. Certain food have to be cooked a certain way and with certain spices or herbs. IT nutralizes them etc.

As for biological clock - it's already prooven the body produces healing and reparatory hormones between the hours of 10-3 a.m. ANd best if the body is at rest/sleeping. There are studies showing people that work night shift or on swing shifts developing energetic problems such as those catch all phrase deseases like fibermyalgia/MS and other autoimmune disorders. It may not be the cause but autoimmune can be brought on by extreme stress of which not resting at the time the body needs it is one.

I personally don't go with 7 p.m. I think as long as you don't go to sleep FULL - it's ok. Prefeable 45 min - 1 hour before sleeping. It all has to do with the transformation and transfortation on the processed food/energy. If it's digesting, it's not resting...


And you're right - CHinese do not do diets. Diets is Indian. The cleanses etc. The Chinese prefer tonifying to cleansing.

I prefer a combination. Cleansing do sap the body of energy.

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“	Originally Posted By: StormMountain Nik, although I don't doubt monks living a meditative lifestyle ate fairly vegetarian, your explanation about meat isn't exactly correct. The fact is, many different Taoist sects espoused many different diets, I think it's worth looking at what they all had in common and how that compares with hard science on nutrition. For example, one Taoist movement I am fond of, felt that GRAINS stopped up the chi in your dan tien (the sect existed about the same time as the oldest copy of the Tao Te Ching was found). There have been many groups in history that have suggested that the "civilized diet" that is so grain heavy and lacking in meat and veggies, nuts, fruits, isn't so hot. Of course the more populated your country gets and the more dependent the average person is on grains and the more expensive high quality foods get, the less likely leaders are going to tell people that eating what they have to eat to not starve to death is unhealthy for them.	”

My point on meat was that a) they did not consume too much of it because, there weren't anywhere near enough animals in the mountains (which does not apply to court "daoists" who could command anything they like to have brought to them), and b) it would be un-daoistical to declare a food as "bad" because it has this and that effect on the chi, instead of avoiding it when they would feel like it, and eating it when they feel desire for it. Meat is at times important, at times contraproductive. Balance is not too much, not too few.

There were for sure plenty of "daoist" sects with rules carved in stone, who had extreme ideas on "alchemy", and were preaching rules all day long. My idea of them is, they were nuts, most of them. That's my opinion. The real rule of daoism is "do what your inner mind tells you". So, the people I know of would, as me, eat for a certain period a certain food, and then feel they have to change it for some metabolic reason (some would for plain alignment to soul be capable of explaining it, some wouldn't). No "rule" necessary, your inner mind is failsafe if basing on rules of nature.

As of now, I could support the "nightsshade" thing feeling that potatoes would not be my best choice. But grains in form of bread being "bad for your qi" That sort of people probably doesn't have even the most basic, lowest development of internal body. But lots of beliefs. If someone thinks that a certain diet is mandatory for a long life, he lacks basic feelings on his own life and body. Cultivation of jing is a mind and soul thing, not based on externally balancing your food ingredients ouncewise, if you need that, your body has no foundation. A healthy body takes unbalancing to either side a long time, and reaching limits, it will tell you to replace one thing with another (like pregnants have "special" desires out of their bodies needs). It is good to listen to the bodies demands, it pretty much tells you which ingredients it needs, and which he does not like for the moment. People who lost their root often want to replace it with rules and external thinking on what to do.

__________________
"Fawning, but proud!" - (at least sometimes, in rare cases)
"Killing them all didn't make it any better..." - "Are you a freak or something ???" - Max Payne
"Theft is a crime, even in Iraq." - Me.

“	as long as you don't go to sleep FULL - it's ok.	”

Sound's more possible to me. How does any one manage to eat more than two hours before bedtime, never mind 7pm, every night

Get up, train, have breakfast, commute, work, grab lunch, work, commute - that's 7:00pm and I have a short commute right now. Prepare dinner and sort out the kitchen, grab some fruit juice, head out to train (can't eat within three hours of training), train, drive home - that takes it to 9:00pm Mon night, 10:00pm Tue, 9:30pm Wed and Friday. Cook dinner and sit down to eat, relax while eating, and it's 10:30 when I finish. There's no way I'm sitting around getting more and more tired till 00:30 the next day, I've got to get up at 6:00am to do it all again.

How do the people on this diet manage it

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