Prof. Seungho Baek's Medical Insight

Picking one constitution out of eight is daunting; ruling out one or two is manageable. The first six rule-out questions — on meat, digestion, fried food, wheat and sour taste — with what each answer does and does not tell you.

Vesicotonia digests even less than Renotonia, but stores well and can stay healthy on little food. For this constitution, the amount and timing of meals matter more than the food list — and they are the hardest part to control.

Renotonia is Soeumin, but often outgoing and a good eater — closer to Colonotonia than to Vesicotonia. In my view its diet is one of the easier ones to manage. A practical everyday guide, with constipation and portion size at the centre.

Pulmotonia has the weakest liver in ECM, so its diet arguably matters more than any other’s. But keeping the full chart is nearly impossible. A realistic everyday guide: build meals on greens and seafood, and never eat the harmful foods alone.

Cholecystonia’s weak point is a large intestine that turns cold and sluggish easily. So for this constitution, how warm the food is matters more than which food it is. A practical everyday guide.

Hepatonia stores everything — nutrients, energy, even thoughts. That makes a strong liver forgiving about what you eat, but unforgiving about how much. A practical guide to everyday eating for the strong-liver constitution.

I once scored surprisingly low on an IQ test — because I didn’t care about it. In KTM the brain is a passive organ that carries out what the mind and the five zang organs ask of it. That changes how we should think about intelligence.

You don’t need to know your own constitution to learn from how constitutions fall ill. Each type is a clear picture of what happens when one organ weakens — and that picture applies to anyone whose organ goes the same way.

“I’ve been diagnosed Pulmotonia — how should I live?” Before answering, it helps to know what KTM physicians themselves think of the constitutional diet. Four honest observations from inside the profession.

When I was in clinic, I took the constitutional pulse, gave constitutional acupuncture — and told patients neither their constitution nor what to avoid eating. Here is why, and what I would do differently now.