Learn How to Metabolically Balance a Seafood Dish
Simple Rules of Thumb to Balance any Food Groups for Metabolic Health
Health is all about maintaining a balanced steady metabolism and because each human has a unique body and metabolism, I have been hesitant to endorse any one-size-fits-all diets, biohacks or medicines (Maybe that is why major podcasters and famous folks, usually sponsored by some food or drug company, do NOT invite me to discuss my studies 🤔). But I do believe in simple guidelines and rules of thumb that would help us understand and balance different food types for optimal effect on our energy metabolism.
To understand the ancient approach to balancing energy, I have studied some Ayurvedic principles, Chinese medicine and parts of Avicenna's "The Canon of Medicine" (Ghanoon fi Teb in Persian/Arabic) which built upon Galen’s body of knowledge (see below). Here I will share a brief example of how I would balance a fish dish (shown here). The plate shown contains about 5 ounces of grilled wild-caught red sockeye salmon (not farm-raised) for our once weekly fish day. Here are some facts about fish:
Fish contains all nine essential amino acids so it’s fairly balanced and complete with its peptide/amino acid profile. Yet amino acids are anabolic, which means they activate our “build” and mTOR pathways (repairing injuries, building tissues and cells, both muscles and cancer cells!).
The meat is also fairly lean so it would be a cold-natured food in Asian or Persian traditions, meaning it would require energy from our body to digest so it may initially slow down our metabolism in the digestion period.
The meat, while containing muscle fibers, is fairly low in short chain and dietary fibers needed for proper digestion and gut health.
So in the plate shown here, to balance fish, we add the following, common in many ancient cultures:
Organic barley or rice, plus our own home-made whole-grain organic sourdough wheat bread, as sources of healthy soluble and insoluble fibers aiding digestion of the meat muscle tissues plus protecting our gut walls with fermented fiber.
Organic dried dill (the green flakes sprinkled on top), and organic (chemical-free) garlic from our own farm. Both of these have a warm nature, meaning they enhance blood flow and mitigate the metabolic slow-down by the cold-nature fish (Some meat types like lamb are of warmer nature because of their lower density and fat/marble content which helps with their net energy balance).
Organic lemon slices to help our stomach (gastric) acid with digesting meat and breaking down its amino acids to minimize risk of undigested proteins in our blood, leaky guts and autoimmune diseases. Lemon also has polyphenols (see below) and a strong alkalizing (citrating) effect in preventing calcium deposits like kidney stones.
The tomato sauce, home-made and canned from our own chemical-free tomatoes, as well as baked winter squash, and carrots introduce good sources of polyphenols (phytonutrients) to the dish which would help with our body’s defense and healing/recovery system in reaction to any harmful food ingredients, for example any heavy metals or contaminants in the fish (see my article The Wisdom of Using Colors in Nature to Improve Our Health
Learn How You Can Improve Your Health with Certain Vegetables).
In my book The Right Way to Eat, A Handbook About Wholesome Food (on Amazon for $12.95), I share more rules of thumbs to balance food groups.
The ancient Eastern (Asian/Persian) Energy Balancing approach to manage disease usually included steps to study the following (for details check my article Terrain Theory or Germ Theory? What Approach was Used by Ancient Persian, Ayurvedic (Indian) and Greek Physicians in Treating Disease?):
Organism: They focused on defining and characterizing the overall energetic temperament and energy flow in the organism. This is related to what we call metabolism today. They gauged someone’s “cold” or “warm” metabolic temperament by observing “whole body” indicators such as their skin firmness, color or pallor, stool or urination habits and shape, temperature and feel of their skin in places like their finger tips, etc. People’s temperaments were also categorized by their propensity in fluid retention (such as high blood pressure) and extracellular fluid build up (such as edema and inflammation) as “dry-natured” or “moist-natured.” For example, a constipated person may be judged to be of cold and dry temperament. In today’s medicine, few doctors evaluate ask sick people about the climate in which they were born or raised or moved from.
Organ: They focused on defining and characterizing the “inherent” purpose (what they called “existential divine essence” or Gohar in Persian, Johar in Arabic) and “natural” function of each organ for the whole body as as assistant of another organ. Emphasis was placed on ensuring lifestyles and diets did not alter this inherent function of the organ. For example, in today’s world, the traditional holistic physician would discourage focusing on our mobile phones from close distances because the inherent “natural” functionality of eyes do not include staring upfront at small electronic screens for hours at a time.
Food and Diet: They focused on defining and characterizing the state of energy exchange with “food” and its metabolism. Each food was categorized as “warm-natured” or “cold-natured,” depending on its contribution to the person’s metabolic state. For example, as articulated in my article about garlic, in traditional Persian medicine garlic belonged to the “warm and dry” food category and would be best suited to balance people with a “cold and moist” constitution. In modern medicine, a cold constitution may correspond to low metabolic rates (hypothyroidism or low thyroid activity, as symptomized by weight gain, low metabolism, hair loss or dry hair, dry skin, etc.) and moist may refer to conditions like edema or inflammation with extracellular fluid build up (and high blood pressure). So garlic may be contraindicated for the minority of people who already have high metabolism or low inflammation. In today’s medicine, few doctors ask sick people about their detailed dietary choices apart from sodium (salt) and sugar intake.
Ecosystem and Environment: They focused on defining and characterizing environmental impacts on the organism. For example, a person with a “cold and dry” temperament would not benefit from living in an ecosystem which is also cold and dry! Holistic physician philosophers (real PhD) enquired about the person’s living place, birthplace, workplace and professional ambiance, before they diagnosed the disease and prescribed a cure. In today’s medicine, few doctors ask sick people about the climate in which they were born or raised or moved from.
So holistic physician philosophers neither focused on the micro/nano scale nor know/care whether viruses or microbes were real (as Germ theory proponents advocate) or not (as Terrain theory proponents advocate). Their focus was helping the “visible” system “macroscopically” balance energy and matter. Although I am in awe of theoretical discoveries of reductionist science and medicine (and was trained in reductionist science), I still find much of the ancient holistic approach to treating disease wise, sound and cost-effective.