Not stating the obvious...

It is Chinese belief that for a whole month after birthing a baby, the new mother should eat foods that are very warming (lots of ginger) as well as drink liquids that are very warming as well (like red wine). The theory is that a woman's body has just been through an extremely traumatic event (well, that's definitely a no-brainer) and in order to expel anything that may still be stagnant (particularly blood), the woman should be consuming warming foods. Basically, it's a lot like applying a hot pack to an injury or a sore area to make sure that blood is flowing to flush out whatever toxins may be stuck in that particular area. As long as the blood is flowing normally, the area will recover quicker due to good oxygenation and other good stuff a body needs to heal itself. According to Chinese belief, doing so will also help keep the mother's body healthy for a long time and help keep her strong and youthful into old age.

Having had the experience of Chinese medicine help me where Western medicine could not (those foul-tasting soups cured me of my hyperthyroidism), I definitely try to keep an open mind about such things. I figured that if these things have been around for thousands of years, not all of it can be bunk. One of the major tenets of Chinese medicine is that diet has a huge effect on how your body works. For example, as I have eczema, I have found that foods that are spicy to aggravate it more, along with things that are high in sugar (like Coldstone's ice cream) or too much alcohol (particularly too many shots!). Alas, I love the spicy AND the sweet, but as everyone says nowadays, moderation is key.

This is all very well and good, you say, but how does this tie in with Sagacious Grandmother? Not long after having delivered Tyler, I was spoiled by my MIL and aunts who prepared all these lovely dishes for me, all containing lots and lots of ginger. I didn't think anything of it at first, but as the days went by, I realized that my eczema was acting up BIG TIME. In fact, my grandmother also prepared a lot of meals specifically for me that were also highly ginger-y. The result? Eczema on my face, neck, trunk, arms, and legs!

I pleaded with my grandmother to stop making those special meals, or if she couldn't/wouldn't, to at least severely cut down on the amount of ginger. She would flatly refuse, saying that I needed to have the ginger so that I would have lots of vitamins for my son and be healthy (as I still needed to flush out whatever toxins may still be in my system). Whenever I pointed out my latest rash or how much worse it was getting, her standard reply was to "put more lotion on it". Needless to say, I was getting more and more aggravated.

Finally, after the first month had passed (and therefore, no more ginger!), my skin started to clear up. Though the rashes never went away, they were just really dry, at which point putting more lotion on it was the obvious solution. One day, my grandmother cooked something for me that contained a lot of ginger (without my knowledge). As I was eating it, the dry skin on my face started to get itchier and itchier.

"Hmm," my grandmother said as I was scratching at my face and neck. "Maybe you shouldn't eat so much ginger and other 'hot' stuff. Your rash is looking worse."

As Homer Simpson would aptly put it: "D'oh!"