I have been on a constitutional diet for more than ten years. I am a Vesicotonia — one of the two Soeumin constitutions of Eight Constitution Medicine (ECM) — and I began the diet as a newly qualified physician, because I did not think I should recommend something to patients that I had not tried myself. This is a report on what that decade of a constitutional diet actually felt like, stage by stage, and what I concluded.
In Summary
- First three months: a clear “awakening” — better sleep, a lightness I had never felt, and new, obvious reactions to foods that had never bothered me before.
- Three months to a year: good condition held; reactions to unsuitable food continued, less sharply.
- One to five years, and five to ten: I kept the diet, yet my health slowly declined — and diet, herbs and acupuncture stopped helping. The cause lay elsewhere.
- Now: I keep the diet loosely, react to almost nothing, and feel as well as I did in my twenties — after restarting basic exercise and putting down the burdens on my mind.
- My conclusion: a constitutional diet matters, but lifestyle and state of mind often matter as much or more. Do not let the diet become a source of pressure.
How Strict Should a Constitutional Diet Be?
In Korean colleges of Korean Traditional Medicine (KTM), the traditional healing system of Korea also known as Hanbang (한방), students learn Sasang constitutional medicine; ECM is usually learned after graduation. I was lucky enough to start my career at a clinic specialising in ECM, so I met it straight away — and I received constitutional acupuncture and followed the diet in earnest before advising anyone else to.
There is no agreed answer to how strictly a constitutional diet should be kept. The strictest view, associated with Korean physician Dowon Kuon, who developed ECM in the latter half of the twentieth century, is that harmful foods are best avoided entirely. I hold little influence in the ECM world, but for what it is worth, I do not agree. Here is the experience behind that opinion.
Start to Three Months: The Awakening
I think of the early period of constitutional acupuncture as a time when the body wakes up, and that is what I felt. The difference in my sleep and my quality of life was unmistakable — a lightness I had never managed to feel no matter how long I slept.
At the same time, foods that had never produced any reaction began to. An upset stomach, or a sudden dip after feeling well, could be traced back to something unsuitable I had eaten. ECM reads this as a healthier body regaining the ability to reject what does not suit it promptly. One caution from the clinician’s side: a strong or worsening reaction should be reported to your practitioner, not simply assumed to be part of recovery.
Three Months to a Year: Holding Steady
This was the stretch where the benefit of the acupuncture carried my condition. I had a heavy patient load and, for the first time in my life, back pain — but overall I was well. Reactions to unsuitable food continued, though less sharply than at first.
One to Five Years: Keeping the Diet, Slowly Declining
I kept the diet steadily, if not as strictly as at the start. When I did eat pork occasionally, I ate it with garlic or other warming foods, and I barely reacted.
This was also when my health began, slowly, to decline — and I do not think diet was the cause. It was in this period that I came to feel mental health matters as much as food. That is why I say a constitutional diet is not everything.
Five to Ten Years: When Nothing Worked
This was the low point. The diet, herbal medicine, and constitutional acupuncture — which I was by then administering to myself — all seemed to do nothing. Tests showed nothing abnormal. I remember wondering what the point was of living long if it meant living frail.
Now: Simple Things
Keeping the diet has become natural and effortless, but I am not especially strict about it, and I hardly react to anything. Yet my health feels as though it has returned to the best of my twenties.
I put that down to concentrating on simple things: I started doing the minimum exercise I need again, and I let go of the tasks that had been weighing on my mind. Since then, herbal medicine that used to do nothing for me works again, and I have a sense that things will keep improving.
What I Take From It
You could object that I am judging a diet by one person’s experience, and that is fair. But there are plenty of people around the world who live long, healthy lives without ever following a constitutional diet.
So I do not think anyone needs to carry the pressure a constitutional diet can create. It is a useful tool, and it helped me — especially at the start. But lifestyle and state of mind are often more important than the diet itself.
Summary
My decade on a constitutional diet went from a striking early awakening, through steady years, into a decline the diet could not fix, and back to good health once I restored exercise and lightened my mind. The diet matters; it is not the whole story. Keep it as a guide, not a source of anxiety.
Related reading: When Eating Only What Suits You Backfires: A Constitutional Diet That Went Wrong · How Strict Should You Be With Your Constitutional Diet?
