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{{data|12 November 2020}}
Some of those who read my previous post, [[Good Humour, Good Health|the one about humoral medicine]], may have found some of its tenets strangely familiar. Especially if they had ever dabbled in oriental systems of alternative medicine. That's why today I'd like to follow up on that post with a brief comparison of western humoral medicine with Indian Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) – particular in terms of their dietary advice. The foremost difference, obviously, is that both Ayurveda and TCM are still widely practiced, while the medical rules invented by ancient Greeks, and later adopoted by Muslims and Christians, have been largely forgotten (although not quite in Ibero-American countries).
== <big>आयुर्वेद</big> ==
Water bounded by earth produces a ''dosha'' called ''kapha'' (pronounced ''{{small|KAP}}-hah''). ''Kapha'' is heavy, cold and moist; in the human body, it's responsible for holding everything together and, when in excess, it manifests itself in the form of phlegm. Fire bound by water is ''pitta'', which is hot, light and… not dry. Wait, what? It's not dry, because it contains water, but it isn't moist either, because the moisture is evaporated by the fire. So what do you call something that's neither dry nor moist? Consider food: if it's too dry, then what you do is to baste it with something fat, right? And this is what ''pitta'' is like – fat, oily, unctuous. In your organism, in keeps digestion running and the associated "humour" is bile. And then there's the third ''dosha'', called ''vata'', which is a combination of air and void. It's dry, light and cold. In your body, it's responsible for breathing and motion and it's excess shows as… not a liquid this time, but something rather gaseous. What you get by combining air and void is wind, and this is exactly what builds up in your colon when you've got too much ''vata''.
Just like in humoral theory, the domination of any one ''dosha'' in your organism determines you your physique and your temperament. A ''vata''-type person is usually thin and bony, dark-skinned with thin, dry hair, an elongated and wrinkled face, and is quick-tempered, impatient and wavering. If you're a ''kapha''-type person, then you might be heavily built with pale skin, thick, oily hair and a round, soft face, slow, but persistent. And you can tell someone is a ''pitta''-type person by their muscular physiquefigure, ruddy complexion, soft hair with a tendency for early greyness and baldness, a face with sharp contours, as well as their high impulsiveness and motivation. But that's not all, for there are also people whose bodies are dominated by not one, but two ''doshas'' (''vata-pitta, vata-kapha'' and ''pitta-kapha'' types), as well as those who have all three ''doshas'' in balance (the ''vata-pitta-kapha'' type). This way, there are only three ''doshas'', but as many as seven different temperaments.
If you've read my post about humoral dietetics, they you might have guessed by now that the goal of Ayurvedic diet is to keep the ''doshas'' in balance. For example, a ''kapha''-type person should eat foods that decrease ''kapha'', while a dual ''vata-pitta'' type should consume things that increase ''kapha''. But how can you tell what foods increase or decrease which ''doshas''? Well of course, by taste! There are six tastes, each combining the qualities of two different elements. Sweet is combines earth and water, which means it increases ''kapha''; it's the heaviest and moistest, as well as the most widespread of all six tastes. Salty is a marriage of water and fire, so it increases ''pitta''. Sour is fire and earth, and thus decreases ''vata''. Pungent is a combination of fire and air, which makes it the hottest and driest taste, decreasing ''kapha''. Bitter is air plus aether, it's the lightest and coldest of tastes, and it increases ''vata''. And, last but not least, the astringent taste, which combines earth and air, and therefore decreases ''pitta''.
== <big>中醫</big> ==
Understanding what traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is all about was made somewhat easier courtesy of Dr. Guta Kulczycka, who explained some of the concepts to me and recommended the relevant literature.
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Chiny - klarowanie masła.jpg}}|thumb|upright|Clarification of butter in a ca. 1550 illustration to the ''Food Herbal'']]