Stay young with herbs and spiritual exercise
JAKARTA (JP): What makes the Javanese diet different from a Western one?
If you are on Javanese diet, you have to be able to control not only your appetite, but your emotions as well, through what a jamu (traditional herbs) expert calls spiritual exercises.
"In the West, when you are on diet, you should not eat this and that, while in Java, you have to be able to control your emotions as well," Dr. Martha Tilaar told participants of the ongoing first Asian Conference on Dietetics.
The three-day event, which was opened on Monday by Vice President Try Sutrisno, involves some 500 participants from 18 Asian and Pacific countries.
Taking the so-called spiritual exercises, one would be able to avoid stress and negative thinking while fasting, which will keep him or her young, according to Tilaar.
There are a variety of Javanese diets, and ways of fasting as well. Some people do not eat anything for a certain period of time, while others eat only rice or vegetables. There are also those who do not eat meat, or do not use salt.
"Spiritual exercise is part of the inner care to obtain health and beauty," Tilaar explained about Javanese philosophy.
Beauty is an expression of harmony between the outer and inner health. The elements of the inner care are spiritual exercises and jamu. Body and facial treatment is included in the outer care.
The use of herbs as a medicine as well as for health maintenance among the people is as old as the civilization itself. In Indonesia, it can be traced in ancient literature as well as in the reliefs at the Borobudur and Prambanan temples in Central Java, Tilaar pointed out.
`Dangerous'
Tilaar, president of Sari Ayu Jamu Company, said women are more in need of jamu than men given that women have certain life cycles which are not experienced by men, such as menstruation, child labor, breast feeding and menopause.
According to the Javanese culture, entering a new cycle means entering a new world, which can be "dangerous". Therefore women must be prepared to face the danger through various rites and ceremonies and at the same time it is recommended that they take jamu.
Jamu for men is different due to the different hormone. Single and married women have different jamu, too, in accordance with their biological development.
"We have the love herbs specially formulated for married women to improve vitality, dispel female frigidity and enhance feminine charm," Tilaar said.
Herbs for fertility are a traditional formula for women longing for a child, and helps improve blood circulation around the uterus and stimulate ovulation, said Tilaar, who gave birth to her first child at the age of 42.
The other speakers at the session were Dr. Lou Yi from Xinjiang Clinical Nutrition Research Institute in China, who talked about the Chinese medicated diet, and Itaro Oguni from the Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Shizuoka, Japan, who discussed the use of green tea to prevent cancer.
Oguni said the crude death rate from cancer in Shizuoka, where the people habitually drink green tea, was lower than the average in the rest of the country.
Even though current data shows that green tea is capable of reducing the risk of cancer, it is necessary to carry out further research to obtain the final proof that green tea is effective in preventing human cancer, Oguni said. (sim)