The title of this article sounds like a quote from either an Ayurvedic doctor or a Sasang practitioner, like myself. But surprisingly, the quote comes from an article about a huge clinical study, developed by the NIH, that is now underway (2023). Basically, the study goals are to develop algorithms that predict individual responses to various food and dietary patterns:
- To examine individual differences observed in response to different diets by studying the interactions between diet, genes, proteins, microbiome, metabolism and other individual contextual factors
- To use artificial intelligence (AI) to develop algorithms to predict individual responses to foods and dietary patterns
This paper, details structure of the clinical study involving Western dietary principles. These principles aren’t about qi, warming or cooling foods or which organs are being affected. They are about biochemistry, gut microbiome and genetics. I think that this could be really interesting for a number or reasons.
One of the things we can tell from a person’s Chinese astrology, besides which organs are weak and which are overly strong, is whether they would do best on a Paleo diet or a Vegetarian/Vegan diet. But it can be very difficult for some people who need a very warming diet and believe in eating vegan to start eating meat, especially lamb.
People often get wed to a Western dietary plan that works for some people but not for them. They see the data and forget that this data is statistical. A certain percentage of people do well when eating a certain way and others do not. But that is rarely, if ever, pointed out. With Sasang we can tell into which percentage someone falls and whether the diet in question would work for them.
When the NIH study is done, it’s possible that Western medicine will find a way to do this too. It won’t be as specific as whether to eat blueberries or blackberries. But, since chemistry and energy are different ways of looking at the same phenomenon, it is quite likely that there will be some overlapping information pertaining to each individual.
It’s going to be quite awhile before we have data from this research, but the study is underway. It’s a very large study, using AI to develop tailored algorithms for people. It will be less specific but should be very economical to apply.
However, you don’t have to wait, the Korean Sasang System has over a century of data on how to determine Constitution and you can start eating the perfect diet for you today or maybe tomorrow. The first step for improving your health is eating the right foods. The right foods for you. Also, if you are an acupuncturist and would like to learn Korean Sasang dietary prescription, you might want to start with taking care of yourself.
Here are links to the NIH research paper and a review of the study that was presented on NPR.
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