I find— as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten fatter, and I find it’s a struggle to control my weight, far the opposite situation to when I was younger, when it was a struggle to gain a healthy amount of weight, and to borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, there was more fat on a butcher’s pencil.
Modern medicine now has several highly effective treatments for obesity and appetite regulation. These can be extremely valuable for people who need them. But they are not the only reason someone might become interested in understanding appetite. Some people may prefer, for reasons of cost, personal preference or simply curiosity, to explore natural, dietary and psychological approaches to regulating appetite.
Chinese medicine has an interesting way of looking at this question.
Rather than treating appetite as a simple matter of willpower, it considers the relationship between digestion, bodily heat, fluids, Yin and the movement of Qi. Two ideas are especially relevant: cooling foods and the role of Yin deficiency, particularly Liver Yin deficiency, in the development of internal heat.
Why might the Stomach become too hungry?
In Chinese medicine, the Stomach is associated with the reception and digestion of food. A healthy Stomach needs a certain amount of warmth and activity in order to perform this function.
But there can be too much heat.
Traditional Chinese medicine describes a pattern known as Stomach Heat. One of its characteristic manifestations can be an unusually strong appetite, sometimes accompanied by thirst, a preference for cold drinks, bad breath, gum problems or a sensation of heat.
This is quite different from saying that everyone who is overweight has “too much Stomach Heat”. Chinese medicine works through patterns, and excessive appetite can arise for different reasons.
The interesting question, therefore, is what might contribute to Stomach Heat in the first place.
Liver Yin and the development of heat
One of the more subtle ideas in Chinese medicine is the relationship between Yin and Yang.
Yin has a cooling, nourishing and restraining function. When Yin becomes insufficient, Yang can become relatively excessive. In the Liver, this can manifest as Liver Yang rising and, in some circumstances, as internal heat.
This is one reason that the treatment of excessive appetite does not necessarily begin with trying to “suppress” the appetite directly.
If someone has a pattern of Yin deficiency accompanied by heat, Chinese medicine may instead seek to nourish Yin and clear heat. By restoring the underlying balance, the excessive appetite may become less pronounced.
This is an important difference in perspective.
The aim is not necessarily to make a person hungry less often at any cost. It is to understand why their appetite may have become excessive and to treat the pattern underlying it.
The Liver and the Stomach
Chinese medicine also gives considerable importance to the relationship between the Liver and the digestive system.
The Liver is responsible for the smooth movement of Qi. When Liver Qi becomes stagnant or when Liver Yang becomes excessive, this can affect the harmonious functioning of the Stomach.
In some patterns, Liver heat or Liver Yang may contribute to heat in the Stomach. This can result in excessive appetite.
This is one reason that two people with apparently similar problems — for example, both saying that they are constantly hungry — might receive quite different Chinese-medicine treatments.
One person might require nourishment of Yin. Another might need Liver Qi to be regulated. Another might have a pattern of Stomach Heat. Someone else might have an entirely different digestive pattern. And sometimes, it can be all of these at once. This is what makes Chinese Medicine challenging to master.
Cooling foods
Food is another way Chinese medicine approaches the question.
Traditional Chinese dietary therapy classifies foods according to their thermal nature. This does not mean that a food is literally cold or hot in temperature. Rather, “cooling” foods are traditionally considered to have a cooling effect on the body.
Where excessive internal heat is part of a person’s pattern, incorporating appropriate cooling foods may be useful.
Examples traditionally considered cooling include foods such as:
- cucumber
- lettuce
- celery
- watermelon
- pear
- certain green vegetables
- mung beans
The appropriate choice depends on the individual, however. Someone with a cold or deficient digestive system may not benefit from simply eating large quantities of cooling foods.
This is another important principle of Chinese medicine: a food that is appropriate for one pattern may be inappropriate for another.
Can Chinese medicine suppress appetite?
It is probably more accurate to speak of regulating appetite than suppressing it.
The goal of treatment is not to override the body’s normal need for nourishment. Instead, treatment aims to restore a more appropriate relationship between hunger, digestion and the body’s regulatory systems.
For someone whose excessive appetite is associated with a pattern of Stomach Heat, for example, treatment might involve clearing heat. If Yin deficiency is contributing to internal heat, nourishing Yin may be more appropriate. If Liver Qi stagnation is involved, regulating the Liver may form part of the treatment.
Dietary advice can be considered alongside acupuncture and other aspects of Chinese medicine.
Of course, persistent or substantial weight gain can have many causes, and unexplained changes in weight or appetite should be discussed with a GP or other qualified healthcare professional. Chinese medicine should complement, rather than replace, appropriate medical assessment.
But for someone interested in a traditional approach to appetite regulation, Chinese medicine offers a fascinating alternative to thinking about hunger simply as something that needs to be suppressed.
Instead, it asks a more fundamental question:
What has caused the appetite to become excessive in the first place?
And sometimes, the answer begins not with the appetite itself, but with the relationship between the Liver, Yin, heat and the Stomach.
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