SA
Hi Zoey, describe your energy today.
Z
Hi! I feel a bit slow today because I am having my period 🙂
SA
How does your spirit feel?
Z
My spirit is good, positive, inspired, as almost always.
SA
I’m so intrigued by you and your practice. The way you integrate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and cuisine is really fascinating and inspiring to me as someone who is constantly looking for holistic paths to healing. How did this journey come about, can you tell me a little about Five Seasons TCM?
Z
Thank you so much! My journey of using food for healing started when I got sick at the age of 17. At that time, I had just moved to the U.S. and the American diet, which was ladened with highly processed foods, added a lot of stress on my body. I was suffering from a variety of ailments—joint pain, acne, irritable bowel syndrome, breast tumours, and rapid weight gain. It got to the point where I knew I had to change the way I ate. After that realization and plenty of hard work, my conditions got so much better and I decided to pursue healing through foods as a career. I took the traditional western approach, getting a degree in nutrition and completing a dietetic internship. However, after almost two years of working in the dietetics field and western healthy cooking, I was very disappointed and bored. It was so restrictive and limited. It was not healing for me. I almost felt I was going to get sick again. That’s when I decided to look into TCM foods and nutrition. And that was absolutely eye-opening. I’ve been doing that since, combining east and west. I was hosting weekly medicinal dinners in New York, calling it Table 81 NYC. We fed probably around 500 guests so far, which we hope to resume doing after covid.
Five Seasons TCM () is a new brand and website that I am launching very soon, where our audience can find free recipes, knowledge on TCM nutrition, and information on herbs and foods. They will have the option to purchase some culinary herbs and blends as well, or to take a quiz to understand their body constitution to know what foods are better for them, as everyone is unique. I’m very much looking forward to launching it in early September!
SA
Existing in America where racist, sexist and discriminatory conditions seep into all institutions including the way we access health, wellness and food, what have been some of the challenges you have faced as a practitioner in the west and some of the lessons?
Z
All of my actual clients and patients (the majority of them are white) are very respectful and open-minded. They truly appreciate Chinese medicine and are interested in learning about Asian culture. I am super grateful to have them. However, I’ve definitely experienced racism online, as I have some social media presence. At the height of COVID, under my Tiktok TCM cooking videos were comments that said my dish would cause COVID-19, or looked like “the bat soup”. Sexist comments from white men are so common that I am immune from them already. It seems like, since I am an Asian girl, I am obedient, ‘wifey’, and it’s okay to tell me “you have small beautiful asian eyes.” Aside from these personal comments, the wellness industry as a whole is often discriminatory against Chinese Medicine or culture. Many white-owned brands will use TCM ingredients but never give credit. In my nutrition textbooks (yes, textbooks), “Chinese food” is always the bad example that equals a high-fat, high-calorie, fast-food diet. It is ridiculous to me that the amazingly rich cuisine of my country is just condensed to sesame chicken takeouts. Also sesame chicken as a dish doesn’t exist in China, fyi.
I am obviously bitter about these experiences, but I think the important lesson is that we as Chinese practitioners need to own the narrative around TCM more. We need to take the responsibility to educate the public, translate the medicine and culture better, and modernize it. We don’t want to be “enemies” of the western way of thinking. Rather, we should be translators and teachers. Once there is more exposure and explanation available from Chinese practitioners, ignorance fades. I encourage brands and media to feature more Asian practitioners to talk about wellness and health. It’s not that hard. You wouldn’t hire a French chef to cook Sichuan hot pot.
SA
There are so many different aspects of TCM. I had my first acupuncture session in 2018 for vaginismus, and immediately began to feel the energy that was stuck in my pelvic region flow. It allowed me to think about how energy can become stuck physically in the body, but also mentally. The notion of balancing qi is integral to TCM. Right now, we’re experiencing a lot of collective grief, despair and frustration particularly in the west where it feels like systems are not changing but instead, proliferating. I recently learned that the Black Panthers were actually integral in the widespread of acupuncture as a preventive, holistic healing treatment throughout America. How can we think about TCM as a knowledge system that can help transform the unhealthy societies we occupy?
Z
I’m glad to hear your positive experience with acupuncture! It is an amazing modality of TCM, aside from moxibustion, herbal medicine, food therapy (what I do mostly), guasha, cupping, qi gong, tui na (medical massage), etc. When you dig deep, the TCM culture here in the U.S. is closely related to politics, immigration, and social movements. Acupuncture is quite well-known in the U.S. and is included in most health insurance. However, I think only 2-3 sessions are included, which is not enough at all. TCM often requires a long-term commitment and a relationship between the practitioner and the patient. But TCM can also be done at home, easily, and at a very affordable price. The most ideal situation will be that people could moxa themselves at home (heat therapy using mugwort), do self-massage, add medicinal herbs and dietary principles into their everyday eating, and practice qi gong or tai ji as they would do yoga. TCM can be a lifestyle and it is not difficult to do if the knowledge and material (herbs, moxa sticks etc.) is available. I think there needs to be more free resources on TCM for people to practice it at home. This way, their lives can truly benefit from it.
SA
As a South Asian, I’ve seen the many ways Ayurveda and yoga has been commodified by the west, particularly, white dominated spaces. The wellness industry is a multibillion dollar industry and yet, more often than not because of white supremacy, it makes no space for those of us who are actually indigenous to these practices. As a consequence, what happens is an engagement in wellness that is not sustainable but simply treatment based – people will engage with the body but forget about the mind and the spirit. How have you seen this with TCM and how does your practice navigate the commodification of TCM?
Z
You are spot on with the commodification. I have a lot to say about this. TCM is not designed to be commodified because it is so holistic, individualized, and it requires the understanding of an entirely different “scientific” language and system. My patients or followers will ask “I have xxx, what herb should I take?” because they are so used to the western medication format, where there is a bottle of pills for a certain condition. However, in TCM, it doesn’t work that way. TCM practitioners need to utilize syndrome differentiation, which takes years of school, to figure out the root problem of the symptoms. There are at least 5 different types of PMS and the prescription of herbs for each of those can be very different. I’ve seen TCM companies in the U.S. selling herbal formulas in supplement form without guiding people to differentiate their syndrome or body constitution. This takes out the individualization aspect of TCM and is frankly very irresponsible. Also, people here want a quick fix. They are oftentimes not patient enough. TCM can be a longer process, especially for food therapy. It takes patience to learn, adapt, and change, but the results are well worth it. Imbalances do not just change after a herbal meal or a week of acupuncture, they adjust slowly from lifestyle changes that require time and effort. The process of it is also a learning process of our body. In my practice, I try to guide my patients and audience to be their own practitioner. Forget about the rigid one-fit-all standards or wellness trends, learn what your body is asking for. I offer educational classes and raw culinary herbs and ingredients as “commodity”, rather than an unnecessarily minimal/modern/western-looking box of supplements that make unrealistic claims. However, I do think the commodification of TCM can help it gain more recognition and exposure. And there are a couple of brands that I do like. For example, Elix Healing sells tincture that is personalized for women.
SA
Food is medicine! There is so much science that shows the important link between the gut and the brain. Caring for our microbiome is so important to overall wellness and yet, unfortunately, modernization through capitalism has resulted in health care professionals who would rather prescribe us with medicines than treat our diets to handle mental health and general nervous system wellbeing. The antidepressant industry is a market in which rich elites profit off the effects of miseducation, poverty, and individualism. With Five Seasons, if and how are you thinking about these concepts when presenting to a western audience?
Z
I have faith in the power of food and I created Five Seasons to guide people to think about medicine, diet, and cuisine in a different way. Healthy food is not the same for everyone. Ginger might be warming and beneficial for John, but it can totally cause excessive heat in Adam. Through Five Seasons, I want to help people to figure out their body constitution and understand what kinds of food are better for them and how their body might react and adjust to different foods in different seasons. I also included a food-herb library online, where the functions of ingredients are listed, so people can browse and seek a more natural “antidepressant” rather than taking pills. There are too many pills in western culture, from prescription drugs to supplements. You will see that on Five Seasons, almost all recipes use whole food and herbs, instead of superfood powder or tincture. I want to show the actual form of these medicinal ingredients and bring people closer to nature. The cooking process of whole ingredients is slower, calming, and fulfilling. It is a different experience from blending all the superfood products in a smoothie for 30 seconds.
SA
What are five different things you are doing/eating/reading/listening to/watching/making that are helping you stay grounded and be well during this time?
Z
Warm tea with hawthorn berry, rose, dried longan is a wonderful beverage to calm ourselves and reduce anger.
I’ve been eating all kinds of different congee that I make. They are really great for the summer and make my digestion smooth.
I’ve been listening to my boyfriend’s new song (). He was inspired by the BLM movement and created this song filled with positivity and good energy. It makes me want to stand up and walk for justice!
I’ve been painting since Covid started. I use my herbs as brushes to create textures and to transform a classic formula from memory/book to canvas. I simply love the process!
Daily self massage is a must.
With her background in clinical nutrition, professional kitchen, and TCM, Zoey specializes in mostly plant-based Chinese medicinal cuisine and holistic food therapy. She is also a meridian yoga teacher, moxibustion practitioner, and artist.