Traditional Wisdom for Digestive Health: Insights from Greek Medicine

If you experience digestive difficulties you know that you're not alone. But why? Why are digestive problems so common in our modern culture?

It is easy to point to the obvious - lack of access to healthy food on the one hand, stress and other lifestyle factors on the other.

But there may be something deeper, that goes back to the way we see ourselves, our bodies and our food...

Modern view: body as machine
The modern view of the human body has origins in 17th century Europe with the development of the mechanistic view of the body by René Descartes. In this view, the whole = the sum of the parts, not more, and there is not an inherent way to draw connection between those parts.

This view has benefits and drawbacks. The benefits include all the miracles of modern medicine, in which the molecular causes of so many disease have been discovered, for which we can be grateful.

The drawbacks in terms of digestion include that food gets reduced to the raw nutrients it contains, and digestion to the simple receptacle into which these nutrients are deposited. What is missing is the complex world of our senses and bodily experience, the integration of the parts and the whole, and the dynamic interaction that humans constantly experience in relation to our living environment.

Traditional view: body as an integrated whole
Prior to the mechanistic view, the predominant view in relation to health and medicine was that of philosophers going back at least to Ancient Greece. The body was seen to be animated by a subtle substance called "pneuma" that is akin to "qi" of Chinese Medicine and "prana" of Ayurveda. This pneuma moved through the organs from the power of the three "faculties," including the "natural faculty" or "nutritive faculty" that influenced digestion.

The processes of digestion, metabolism, and elimination were seen as being interconnected, not separate, and together formed the "natural faculty."

If we look at things from this bigger picture, more holistic and integrated view, we can make connections between things which otherwise are not clearly related in the mechanistic view. For example:

• Overburdening the digestion may lead to congestion in other areas of the body
• Not eliminating properly can lead to elimination through improper channels, i.e. the skin as seen in certain skin conditions
• Irritation in the gut can lead to inflammation in other areas

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The qualities of nature in all things
In addition the human body, there was a way in which all of nature could be seen as an integrated whole. All of the universe was seen to be created by four elements, and these four were then defined in terms of their qualities of heat and moisture:

• Earth - cold and dry
• Air - hot and moist
• Water - cold and moist
• Fire - hot and dry

The four qualities of hot, cold, damp, dry could be applied to anything: people, plants, foods, seasons, ages, locations and more.

These qualities can be perceived by our sense organs. In terms of food, the way we can identify the qualities in them is quite natural:

• Warm temperature i.e. cooked foods are hot
• Cold temperature i.e. raw foods are cold
• Foods containing water, i.e. soups are moist
• Foods lacking water, i.e. crackers are dry

But with a little more reflection, more is obvious:

• Spices are heating
• Fatty foods are moistening
• Tart foods are drying
• Fresh fruits are cooling
• And much more...

The more we learn to recognize the common energetic qualities of all things, the more clear and intuitive it becomes.

Putting it together - diet and the qualities of nature
By seeing the human being as an integrated whole, which shares common characteristics with all of nature, including the foods we eat, we can begin to see a different way of interacting with food to keep our guts and bodies healthy and happy.

What is the best food any particular person at any given time can then related to:

• Their geographical location
• The season of the year
• The person's age
• The person's own individual temperament
• And much more

Geography
Every place has its own unique climate. The good news is that every place has its own local food. To start with then, eating locally is the easiest way to eat food that aligns with the energy of that particular place.

In Vermont, for example, we have a climate which is colder than a lot of other places. Therefore, to balance that out, for most of the year except for the heat of summer it's best to eat warming foods, such as:

• Cooked foods that are served warm
• Good quality fats
• Grass-fed animal products
• Spices cooked into meals
• Warm tea with meals

Season
Every place also has its own version of seasons. Classically, the association is as such:

• Winter - cold and wet
• Spring - hot and wet
• Summer - hot and dry
• Fall - cold and dry

Therefore to find balance, it's best to eat foods which are opposite in quality to that season, i.e. to eat cold and moist foods in summer.

Keep in mind though the geographic variations here. For example, in Vermont the winter is so cold that the air becomes very dry, which is compounded by indoor heating, so in Vermont what's needed in the winter is warm and moist foods.

Age
Traditionally, the ages of life have their own qualities:

• Age birth to 30 - hot and moist
• 30-40 - hot and dry
• 40-60 - cold and moist
• 60+ - cold and dry

Again, this is just one of many factors. However, as an example, it helps explain how children can tolerate cold or raw foods better than older adults, who may benefit more from warm, cooked foods.

Individual temperament
There is of course so much individual variation, and this is where understanding one's own nature, or temperament is important. Traditionally there are four:

• Phlegmatic - cold and wet
• Choleric - hot and dry
• Melancholic - cold and dry
• Sanguine - hot and wet

To understand one's own nature and tendencies can become a key to understanding how best one can find health and balance through food and through optimal digestion.

Conclusion
To sum it all up, we can say that if we take a more traditional approach to seeing the human body as an integrated whole, and to seeing the natural world in intuitive, energetic terms, that can lead us to different choices about the foods we eat.

We may find, for example:

• That eating cold foods like ice cream can be difficult to digest in the winter
• Eating hot, spicy foods if we run hot can give us digestive discomfort
• If we tend toward constipation we may want to avoid drying foods like crackers
• We may want to eat drying foods like white rice if we have diarrhea
  

Here are some suggestions for further reading:
- Greek medicine as practiced in contemporary times as Unani medicine
- Greek medicine practiced as Tibb
- Western Herbal Energetics and the Four Humors System
- Greekmedicine.net

Blog post by Nick Cavanaugh.  Book a comprehensive wellness consultation with Nick in-person or online here.