The issue with saying “chinese medicine” is that is a beyond broad brush. fungi, bacteria, animals and plants. all of them. it’s not a thing. much of TCM is actually food. Many things like basil we eat, TCM sells the woody stems (from any variety I may add) as a medicine. the famous covid medicine the government promoted through TCM is another fantastic example if good ideas without any form of.professionalism. I was contacted by the AG gov to source certain plants for them. one example.being mint. I told them we cna supply 5 different types of mints (spanning 3 species and a hybrid) and they simply said, yes, any. just need a price and weight.
I refuse to work with such lack lustre morons. unfortunately they exist at the higher levels, even in our medical community The only advantage of western medicine is purity and label laws. in person, they can be just as corrupted.
If you guys don’t do it already. Get blood work done yearly. More if you want to see if your lifestyle changes impact your health.
I get my blood health, immune system, kidney functions, liver functions, blood lipid profile, hormones, thyroids, and vitamins checked.
It’s not that expensive and you can see if there’s anything you need to improve. I’m currently trying to improve my LDL (on the higher end but not high) while my HDL is good. There is always something to improve and monitor.
So what you’re saying is, not only does the average restaurant fare here make me feel like ending it all, but if I keep eating it that will actually speed things up?
I never get enough sodium. My blood pressure is very low, low enough that I will start to feel faint if I stand up straight without moving around. I do blame my “conscious” diet and following the advice of “medical professionals” that “sodium is bad for you” for so many years. If we didn’t need sodium, our bodies wouldn’t be addicted to it. I never have enough.
When you sweat all the time, like anyone in Taiwan right now, you need something to make sure the water you drink doesn’t all go out through your pee and sweat. There might be people who eat too much salty food, but when your body is craving them, it’s usually because you need them due to dehydration and a need to quickly get them into your body, which will force you to drink more liquids (that wont straight flush out, because of the salt). Salt tablets and electrolyte drinks were created and are used by athletes and others for a reason.
Added sugar, on the other hand, is more complicated. There are people who need sugar immediately at certain times (diabetics) and plenty of people who have digestive issues which prevent them from eating too much fiber. For those people, a low fiber, sugary food will give them a burst of energy while a salad with a truly healthy dressing will have them uncomfortable on the toilet. We all learn what our individual bodies need and we act on it. It is a problem, however, when people become addicted to sugar they don’t need and then fail to consume “healthy food”
I suspect many Chinese medicine is random herbs with western medicine added to it, meaning if you double dip you will overdose which causes organ issue. Like acetaminophen destroys your liver completely if you overdose on it. This means if they laced some herbs with it, and you take ones your western doctors give you, this will destroy your liver. That and many herbs may have been imported from china where chemical residue limits might not be enforced at all.
It’s well known that most here don’t cook, because it’s economically unfeasible to do it. When cooking costs more than eating out, you will eat out.
I’m starting to think they just won the genetics lottery. They have smog, eat low nutritional foods, and don’t really partake in physical activities. Their older populations still smoke and chew betel nut. Americans with similar environments have a lower life expectancy. They’re definitely built different here. I personally would not eat their traditional foods or take on their lifestyle. Just keep doing things that you know work for your body. Taiwanese will take care of themselves lol
I doubt it. Taiwanese in Taiwan have to walk more than people in the US. A LOT more. When I go back go the US, unless I make a very conscious effort to get planned exercise in, my muscles pretty immediately start to disappear. You walk ten steps to the car, drive it somewhere, park close to an entrance to wherever you’re going, walk ten more steps, sit down again, etc. Heck, when it was really cold out, we’d drive down the block to go to a neighbor’s house. Like, 200 meters tops. In the car. Even if you’re driving your scooter right up to an entrance in Taiwan, you still need a decent amount of agility to get around the other scooters and blockades in your path. People who take public transit probably walk at least a total of one km getting from their home to the public transit, walking within a place like an MRT station, then walking from the stop to the actual destination, and then doing the reverse to get home. I would love to see if there’s a correlation between overweight and unhealthy people here and how they get around. I’d be willing to bet kids whose parents drive them around on the backs of scooters and park their expensive cars directly in front of the entrance have worse health outcomes than those who walk everywhere. I’ve noticed since I got here how many more kids, especially boys, have gotten more overweight and less capable of climbing up even one flight of stairs without needing to catch their breath. We dont need to talk about their inability to even walk one lap around the track without needing to stop and dramatically catch their breath. Unless they all have asthma? How long have people been saying that “sitting is the new smoking”?
Another thing to consider, at least for cancer. Taiwan’s geology means a lot more radioactivity from granites, and other igneous rocks that exist in nature. Do you think there’s some correlation for that?
People almost do not walk or move anywhere in the states. It’s either too hot or too cold and they drive everywhere. American roads are also a literal pedestrian purgatory (most roads are unwalkable).
No, Americans do NOT walk, like the other guy says they walk about 10 steps to the garage with their car, and maybe 20 steps from the parking lot to where they’re going, and that’s about the extent of physical activities Americans get. To make things worse they do not design their roads with pedestrians in mind at all, and anyone too poor to drive know it all too well. Heck people even have cops called on them because they decided to walk 200m to the next mall instead of drive, because it looks “weird”. Most American “stroads” simply do not allow for walking at all and sidewalks are really just for decoration.
I’ve tried biking around Austin by the way and found that it’s actually not a bad way to traverse Austin, because it’s really about the same speed as a bus. The problem is I feared for my life all the time, as the road condition meant I had to go to the middle of the road where I’m going to get run over by drivers, and I felt incredibly out of place biking. Then there’s the rampant bike theft…
It is always good idea to check up often. the key point being it is easier to prevent a problem rather than fix/cure one. I have some issues with doctors in Taiwan bot wanting to do their job. but it is easy enough to insist, and that is an issue for another thread perhaps.
no haha. your disdain for food in Taiwan is just personal preference. everyone has the right to choose their taste. or has the right to defend their genetic basis for their taste. that aside, taiwa.ese cuisine is right up there,though truly barely recognized. it is quite good.
When it comes to restaraunt quality standards and all that in Taiwan, I am right there with you! it’s a problem from the top down From FDA to greedy grandma on the sidewalk, that’s cultural.
exactly lol. S you know, probably most of us know all too well. kidney issues are rampant in Taiwan. like alarmingly scary. the fact the government had to offer such good services for such a condition just shows how vast the issue is
even if its free/cheap/available. it is a major life inconvenience and no one wants this level of bullshit in their lives. What’s important is: What are the main causes?
Indeed. I work outside slot, and sweat a lot. a thick blooded canadian doing farming and logging in southern taiwan. I eat salt, I always have vitamin and electrolyte pouches for work as well. but again, the issue isnt that we dont need sodium, the issue is that many people probably are ingesting far too much. a farmer working in 35 degrees 7 days a week needs more than the office worker working indoors with ac 5 days a week. it’s a balance. my feeling is that everything we eat already has loads of sodium (and sugars, preservatives and other chemicals, as per label ingredients) so we tend to get more than enough! that’s the thing. people think it’s not salty, but some saucy meals probably have a gram to a gram and a half of actual salt in it. then you eat a few a day. it’s not a deficit for many.
surely there are those that dont get enough. but I am going by average food fare here while eating.out, there is generally more than enough. and what seems to me to be too much. people trying to be healthy and eating.more raw food meals absolutely need to add salt, as i do when cooking at home as well.
And please, you talk about America and Americans like there aren’t 330 million of us plus a few million people who literally just walked here.
Everyone seems to be a gym, cross fit, kayaking, biking, hiking, basketball, dancing, swimming, rugby and on and on. Kids are at soccer, baseball and lacrosse and everything else. People in big cities are not driving everywhere, when there are subways and buses etc. They walk a lot and that’s not including the touristy places. With lots of step ups.
The hyperbole out of you is getting on par with TL. Think about that.
And I eat salt every day, crunch that pink stuff right across my eggs and hash browns. I walk, several times a day and see lots of people in my community walking every day. Heart is good, liver is good, kidneys good. I just don’t eat a lot of shit. Lots of fruits and raw veggies, and gallons of coffee.
this is really the point I keep repeating. no issues with salt, the question is too much of it. food here is largely filled with let’s just call them flavor enhancers. taiwanese enjoy a strong flavor. dont let the raw fruit and white rice fool you, it is dipped in enhancers and spread with sauce quite often therein lies the issue.
curries here at least come in jars and bags with loads of preservatives. I wont comment on india as I have never been. but the curry in Taiwan is also laced with fuck tons of chemicals that may or may not be ultra beneficial to our longevity. read the labels, see the ingredients list.
I’m not a huge fan of Taiwan curry though, but it’s really based on Japanese curry. Indian curry is actually quite good, or at least according to the few Indian restaurants I have been to…
I agree, they base it on plant ingredients to make flavors, not extracts and laboratory concoctions. the flavor pops far more than the sweet as all hell japanese “curry”
Same with Apple Sidra. I hated it because it had a chemical taste. In Germany I saw apple soda, like diluted apple juice that’s been carbonated. Those taste great, and they had no added sugar either. I lost weight in Germany because of the disgusting black bread I had been eating daily. They were disgusting but 2 slices is a meal, and I lost weight from it.
I wish they had those in Taiwan.
I remember distinctly seeing the name of some chemical company on the bottle of Apple Sidra…
The only advantage of western medicine is purity and label laws. in person, they can be just as corrupted.