Hi there... hope you are well... I just went to
a Chinese Herbalist because i have had a cough for
over a month now... and not from a cold... no fever achy sneezy
watery eyes...etc... just a cough... some times i have
almost gagged from this cough and it is starting to make me horse

a friend who is a nurse looked at my throat and said that there
are pustules... and it feels like i have a piece of popcorn
stuck in my throat... so i went to a chinese herbalist i used to go to...
she says no rawfoods it makes you cough more... no cooling foods... all
warming foods... is there a way to have the best of both worlds...
because i am a singer and i can't have this cough any longer... besides
the fact that i have almost pulled muscles in my back from coughing so much...
would pouring hot water over the vegies i usually have for a salad so it
would then be soup i suppose...work??? and what do i do for breakfast if i can't have fruit... cause she said no fruit at all... i appreciate the help

love laugh and dream

Hi, I had a persistent dry cough a while back too, not a cold. I was going thru a busy period, losing weight, and not eating well.... went away when back into my juicing and slaws.

Greens and carrots is what I always come back to.. and a chunk of aloe vera in my juice, something a little controversial but I do it. A little apple pectin is nice to keep on hand too..

hope you feel better

Why not follow the herbalist's advice whole hog, warming foods + warming herbs + no fruit, etc., and then when you are feeling well, try your raw food diet again? There is no harm in trying this. I don't do 100% raw foods and don't feel like there is something "wrong" with me because of it. Were you not given any herbs by that Chinese herbalist? Sure hope so; they, as you know, are sometimes spectacularly effective.

Best of luck.

yes i have the herbs... i will cook them up into the witches brew in the morning...
and you are probably right about just doing as she has told... i've heard brilliant stories about this woman...curing people with in curable diseases... atleast by western medicine standards... i have just been enjoying the raw foods... so i suppose i will just start heating up my salads...i will sadly miss the fruit... ah well... it's not for so long...

love laugh and dream

Chinese Medicine has a dogmatic rule against anyone eating food raw, not just people with coughs. I imagine that the rule dates from a time when people fertilized their fields with human manure, and the rule was based on real valid observation that people who ate the crops raw often did get sick.

As far as the warming/cooling foods idea, I've heard from other sources that fruits tend to be cooling, but I would not assume that other foods are cooling just because they are not eaten warm.

Good point, "frances". There is an inherently warm quality to some foods, eg, shrimp, garlic, cilantro; and then there is the socalled "energetic chill" imposed on foods by their temperature, as opposed to the inherently warm quality. It is my understanding that consuming a food with a warming quality straight from the refrigerator is also not good for you, as it cools off your stomach rapidly, slowing down digestion, etc. etc. We were just not designed, I don't think, to eat a lot of cold food. Cold liquids are said to be particularly unhealthful in large quantities.

Yes, I know that the chinese have a rigid rule about eating raw food. Maybe the origins of this thinking are indeed as you describe. They need to lighten up a bit, but it is hard to undo old, old practices.

Warm food also effects you though mentally, or internally, it's said; i've read about it in other cultures as well (like indian technique for different levels of energy and if they're off balance) - so i'm sure it's not only because they got sick and figured raw food was bad

your stomach has a very warm temperature and uses energy to heat up whatever enters it, so it would not effect your digestive system unless you ate frozen things for a long time - like nothing but freezer pops for a day or something might have an effect on you, i believe

I don't think I could stop eating fruit; i wouldn't know what to eat hahah

i hope you get better and the lady sounds really cool; i'm interested in asian technique with the feet and the foot massaging...looks really cool

Chinese medicine distinguishes between certain qualities in the person that can make them predisposed to deal well or not so well with cooling foods. THere is no rigid rule against it per se. (Am by no means an expert, but have been reading around and had treatments. My acupuncturist was in favor of me eating raw to help with excessive internal heat)


Check out the Book Healing with WHole Foods by Pitchford. it lists several warming foods (even thought hey are consumed cold, and raw, their energetic quality is warming). I do remember that cherries for example are a warming fruit. In contrast, banans and watermelon are VERY cooling. So, there is a spectrum.

You can achieve internal warming also through:
sunshine
energy work
strengthening the kidney energies (Pitchford lists a lot of foods that help with that, many of them raw)

Warming veggies I remember off the top of my head: all root vegetables (beets, carrots, ginger etc)

A cough with gagging often comes from post nasal drip. had a persistent cough for months myself and my ND diagnosed postnasal drip (thank Heavens, all others were giving me useless pills). I started using a neti pot regularly and it went away:

[www.youtube.com]

Boy did that ever help. (I learned the hard way that mixing the stuff very well is crucial, so stir stir stir, else it stings in your nose). Cough subsided within a week. I have picked this up as a daily routine once I started seeing the effects of it.

Best wishes