Iowa expat finds China connection

Excuse me, while I check my phone

She mimicked the action of drinking, just in case something had been lost in translation. I nodded. She hadn't looked so shocked since I told her I ate cheese.

The idea of food being linked to well-being is hardly unique to China - in fact Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, is famous for his quote: "Let food be thy medicine, let medicine by thy food."

But in the West we play pretty fast and loose with the rules of what is and isn't good for you. It seems each week there is a new study extolling the virtues of tomatoes or claiming animal fats are bad for you. The next week another expert will swear you should stay away from tomatoes and eat more pork belly. The best thing to do is to pay attention to the ones you agree with and disregard the ones you don't, eventually developing a strict diet of dark chocolate and red wine.

In China, however, there is a range of set beliefs about food and how what you eat impacts your health. There is even a saying - a good doctor should first be a good chef.

Chinese friends refer to these rules for food as if they are common knowledge, citing them as if they are as logical as saying walking in front of speeding buses is bad for your health. "I've been a bit unwell because I drank cold water," a friend once told me. "It's bad for me."