These Chinese medicinal porridges - called jook in Cantonese and congee or porridge in English - can be a healthy alternative to the typical Western breakfast. Cooked in a crockpot overnight and combining specific grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, or various Chinese herbs, there are medicinal porridges for every type of ailment. Included are hundreds of herbal porridge recipes for both prevention and remedial purposes. This book is great for laypersons as well as professional readers. "Time honored combinations of any member of the grains, vegetables, meat, eggs, and/or Chinese herbs make porridge known as jook or congee. For most folk, they are breakfast foods. They are also easily made overnight in a crock pot, economical, popular among the elderly, nutritious, and delicious" -- Flavor & Fortune: Dedicated to the Art & Science of Chinese Cuisine, December, 1997 Although this style of eating has been common in Asia for millennia, it is a new idea in the West and one from which we can learn a great deal. When I was studying Chinese medicine in China, I loved to eat traditional Chinese breakfasts centered around the kinds of porridges described in this book. They tasted great and I felt wonderful. As a professional practitioner of Chinese medicine, my patients often tell me that breakfast is their most problematic meal. Once one knows how easy to make and how good for you Chinese congees are, breakfast can be the foundation of the entire day's health rather than its ruination. This book is all about Chinese medicinal porridges, or in Cantonese, jook. Usually cooked in a crock pot overnight, jook is a combination of specific grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, and Chinese herbs. These porridges can be used either as the main or supporting treatment of numerous diseases or preventively to promote good health and long life. Delicious and nutritious, they offer an easy and economical way to revolutionize the typical Western breakfast, often referred to as "a heart attack on a plate." Bob Flaws is one of the most famous practitioners, teachers, and authors of Chinese medicine in the world today. He has written, translated, and/or edited over 100 books and scores of articles on all aspects of Chinese medicine. Bob Flaws wrote one of the very first English language books on Chinese dietary therapy in the early 1980s. So his long-term interest in Chinese dietary is obvious. Chinese Medicine's Descriptions of Individual Foods Just as every medicinal herb and substance has its own individualized Chinese medical description in tcm, so does every food. In other words, in tcm, each food has its own flavors, nature (meaning temperature), direction, channel entering (or the organs on which it exerts its greatest influence), functions, indications, and contraindications. If we know each of these various aspects about a food, we can, according to both tcm theory and 2,000 plus years of Chinese written and recorded clinical experience, know what effect that food will have on any given individual. In other words, if we know the patient's tcm pattern diagnosis, we can tell if any food will either benefit that person or make them sick (or sicker). For instance, take the tcm description of rice. Rice's flavor is sweet and its nature or temperature is neutral. The directional effect it has on the qi of the body is upbearing. That means that rice tends to promote the arising of clear qi in the body. In terms of functions, rice fortifies the spleen and boosts the qi at the same time as it harmonizes the stomach. This means that rice significantly helps generate and transform qi at the same time as it promotes good digestion. In addition, rice quenches thirst, relieves mental depression, and stops diarrhea due to spleen vacuity. Therefore, rice is recommended in the tcm dietary treatment of indigestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and vexatious thirst due to summerheat. Now let us look at pork. Pork's flavor is sweet and salty. Its nature or temperature is also neutral. Its direction is both upbearing and downbearing. Its functions are that it supplements the kidneys, enriches yin, and moistens dryness. Therefore, pork is used to treat kidney vacuity low back pain, spermatorrhea, night sweats, and senile deafness, all believed to be symptoms of kidney yin vacuity according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Used Book in Good Condition