Mary, Well, now I have to defend my profession. Traditional Chinese Medicine is what I practice, and the raw foods stuff and it go hand in hand in my mind. I am guided by what I actually see in my patients. TCM states that foods and herbs have heating and cooling and other properties AND that if food or herbs are prepared in any way, including cooking, it ALTERS its properties/effect. Foods that are not fresh are also altered. This means cooking makes food "hotter" - which to me accounts for many of the "heat" syndromes I always treat, infections, fevers, inflammations, menopause hot flashes, irritability, insomnia, night sweats, rashes, etc. When I take patients off all the processed food and move them onto a more natural foods diet with more raw and fresh foods these things go away - at times people come in wanting acupuncture or herbs but all I do is insist they go onto a raw foods diet and then return for another visit, because I cannot even diagnose them according to TCM until they are less toxic. > And then to make things worse foods supposedly have heating and cooling > properties (according to Chinese food theory and Ayurveda). Also > "building up" and on the other hand "eliminating" properties. We are > missing out on a lot of these aspects by not knowing they exist. I > guess that's where instincto could help--I haven't managed to tune in > that much as yet. I would rather live outside than indoors. I'm > instincto about that. Mary J. When I read a post like yours I think TCM is very easily misunderstood. Patients I see are indeed affected by TCM theory and, I believe it is very accurate, as I have used it successfully for years. I don't have much training in the instinctive eating theory but after reading the anopsology text someone here referred me to, it does confirms a lot that practical experience has shown me. According to TCM, we eat to replenish our QI, not to obtain vitamins or protein or minerals - not that we don't, but the concepts are entirely different. SHENG is a Chinese word denoting fresh, raw, birth; and sheng foods contain vital energy or QI. Qi can have different properties (heat/cold, moisture/dryness, yin/yang, tonifying/clearing) and too much of any one type of food (for example all dried) will alter your qi. Regards, Roberta