David Foster Acupuncture

04/25/2025

Latin chicken stew!
Boil the chicken for 25 minutes, then take it off to shred with fork.
Separate pot simmer garlic and onions in oil for a few minutes before adding chopped veggies of choice, teaspoons of salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, cumin, and a bay leaf or two.
Let all that simmer a few minutes, then add broth and a can of tomatoes.
Simmer 30 minutes, then add a tbspn of capers and some olives and cilantro if u like!
Serve over grain of choice

✅ From a Chinese medical perspective:
It’s important to eat protein that is cooked and easy to digest—hence the emphasis placed on soups, congees, and stews.

✅ the sourness of the capers and olives can help to offset the sweetness of the tomatoes and chicken!

acupuncturenyc

04/24/2025

DGMW. Emergency medicine is amazing and has its place, to say the least. Consult your physician. But just because you have a diagnosis does not mean you don’t have agency.

Dietary changes, exercise, herbal medicines, and acupuncture are no less scientific than medications. They’re just a lot less harmful.

I’m gonna brag now.
My decades of anxiety symptoms faded medication- free with Chinese medicine and quitting refined sugar.
I was diagnosed with gout disease 20 years ago and have never been relegated to medications (or abstinence from booze!)
I had an objectively torn rotator cuff that after a year just healed with acupuncture and qi gong.
I used to have the most insane eczema you could imagine of my feet every summer. It’s just gone. I don’t have a dermatologist.
I’m not close to perfect, nor am I special. Just lucky to be introduced to another paradigm of, that’s right… SCIENCE

04/09/2025

Honestly not getting any promo incentive here... Genuinely wishing to thank these companies (and my wife for finding them — for offering high quality alternatives to junk food for our once baby, now almost 4 YEAR OLD! (whattt???)

From a Chinese medical perspective, ice cream is one of the worst things for us. It’s cold temperature constricts blood vessels in the enteric nervous system, which impedes digestion, its dairy is potentially inflammatory, and its sugar is objectively inflammatory.

Don’t get me wrong. We’re not insane (says every insane person)— we’re fine with the occasional summertime treat, birthday parties, etc. but imo it should be way less normalized. Instead, we use to satiate her. She loves it and isn’t the wiser (yet)!

Same goes for #365 which doubles as a solvent for when we need to administer bitter or sour granulated chinese herbs for particular cold or viral symptoms. She loves taking her herbs, mostly because she loves the apple sauce she gets with them!

Once again, if you never introduce toxic crap like M&M’s or Hersheys to your kid, they won’t be the wiser—at least not until they’re older, with a stronger foundation and metabolically more resilient.

Our daughter goes just as ape s**t for her 85% chocolate as many do for the aforementioned junk. Thank you for manufacturing one of the few dark chocolates sans

Not writing to brag, but to encourage and inform! We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves for letting them indulge here and there, NOR SHOULD WE BE TOO EASY ON OURSLEVES. Sugars harmful impact on the brain and body is well documented and scientifically evidenced.

It isn’t enough to be better than most other American parents, as we’ve set a pathetically low bar.

04/07/2025

There is a longitudinal circulation of gases, blood, and fluids in the body that obviously traverses the vortex that is the gut, and if compromised, can cause pain and discomfort. Suppressing these symptoms with medications might help in the short-term but will likely exacerbate their root cause, and cause other issues in the body.

We have all experienced stomach pain. Either we ate something wrong, a medication we took had side effects, it might related to one’s menstrual cycle,

04/02/2025

Along with “literal” and “apparently,” it seems we’ve lost the definition of holistic and made it synonymous with “alternative.” Honest mistake—well, maybe honest most of the time, but I think it’s important to understand the uniquely steep challenge of practicing medicine that is actually holistic. BECAUSE YOU MUST KNOW MY SUFFERING (I’m actually young gen X but surely my conditionings are “on the cusp” as we say in the dips**t astrology world)

A holistic doctor, for example, would almost never give magnesium to someone who suffers from bloating, lack of appetite, or sensitivity to cold temperatures. We would never prescribe licorice to someone who experiences hypertension or a lot of gastric bloating either. If you come to me about constipation I have to know whether you suffer sinus issues, how those issues manifest, if you have a big appetite or small, if you prefer summer or winter, if you get headaches WHERE on your head do you get them? Do you crave sweets? Have a bad temper? “Sleep like a baby,” or sleep like an actual gd baby?? After I have all of these answers I can begin to form a diagnosis. That, AND ONLY THAT, is 🎤

03/27/2025

It’s not easy to get toddlers to eat well in America. Our sweets are much sweeter than the rest of the world’s, our food quality is lower, and observation of peers just exacerbates the vicious cycle.

The which Chinese medicine knew and wrote about LITERALLY thousands of years before modern docs took notice, is not just something fun to talk about while scrolling. It is real. It is a threat that should be taken as seriously as politics or your work.

Here we have porridge masquerading as oatmeal, with a few drops of maple syrup and sprinkles of cinnamon, cooked in half water half for added protein. Roasted sweet potato with also with a dash of cinnamon and syrup, a few raisins to wet the palette, the remainder of which will be held hostage, and avocado chopped bite size of course

Yams in Chinese medicine strengthen digestion, walnuts support brain health, as does the fat in avocado of course. We do regular oatmeal on occasion as well, but I like to diversify her gut microbiota with different grains such as quinoa or millet, the latter of which is used in one Classical Chinese formula to help settle the stomach.

Good luck! How do you feed your little? We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves for letting them indulge here and there, NOR SHOULD WE BE TOO EASY ON OURSLEVES. Their future physiology is depending on our fortitude and lack of ignorance. It isn’t enough to be better than most other American parents, as we’ve set a pathetically low bar.

03/25/2025

The diuretic effect of coffee obviously dries the stomach—of pathogenic fluids, yes—but also potentially of healthy gastric juices and mucosal organ fluids. If you are already subjectively lacking in this respect coffee will make it worse. Possible Chinese herbal families would revolve around licorice or ginseng.

The stimulant aspect of coffee can dry the blood, so if we are already vulnerable in this respect we’ll feel jittery—not just awake. Possible herbal families might revolve around Angelica, red dates, or Moutan bark.

03/18/2025

t’s not easy to get toddlers to eat well in America. Our sweets are much sweeter than the rest of the world’s, our food quality is lower, and observation of peers can exacerbate the vicious cycle.

The which Chinese medicine knew and wrote about LITERALLY thousands of years before modern docs took notice, is not just something fun to talk about while scrolling, or with your clinician while in their office. It is a real threat that should be taken as seriously as politics or your work.

Here we have a dollop of white rice bordered by alternating bites of raw tofu, crispy breaded tofu, and chicken cutlet! Also steamed string beans then finished with a dash of salt and a ton of butter!

For some reason my toddler has an affinity for raw, unseasoned soy, which is odd imo, but I’m not gonna argue with. She is also very particular about plating design and quantity served in the vein of fine dining! No big messy mountains of slop tolerated in this house.

Good luck! How do you feed your little? Do you believe in using bribery to a degree? What are your tricks of the trade?

03/12/2025

In Chinese medicine sleep is promoted by the body’s “yin,” which more or less translates as these neurotransmitters, also hormones such as estrogen—basically anything that promotes healthy fluids and neurological “anchoring” for the body.

The less adherent we are to the body’s natural rhythm, the more we strain its ability to adapt, which is to say these neurotransmitters have a USE IT OR LOSE IT behavior.

If your usual bedtime is 1am, try 12:30 for a month, then work your way down. If your usual is 12am then you’re not far off! If you truly have to work late or overnight this presents a challenge you might wish to consider for the future. For these people it is advisable to eat as much healthy fat and tryptophan containing foods as possible, so as to nourish their YIN.

03/05/2025

Anything more cliche than a gratitude practice? Still, I think it bears logical merit when properly considered. It could be much better, sure, but for most of us on most days it could be much much worse.

03/04/2025

It’s not easy to get toddlers to eat well in America. Our sweets are much sweeter than the rest of the world’s, our food quality is lower, and observation of peers just exacerbates the vicious cycle.

IMO the 2 biggest threats to our children’s future well being are obviously screens to their brains and our notoriously garbage foods to their bodies.

The which Chinese medicine knew and wrote about LITERALLY thousands of years before modern docs took notice, is not just something fun to talk about while scrolling or with your clinician while in their office. It is real. It is a threat that should be taken as seriously as politics or your work.

Here we have leftover Spanish rice, roasted butternut squash with olive oil, cinnamon, and a dash of maple syrup, a few plantains, roasted carrots with plenty of butter, & organic also leftover.

Rice in Chinese medicine is considered a beneficial digestive aid that generates healthy stomach fluids if used in moderation. The plantains and maple are admittedly sweet but they get her to eat the and the acridity of the cinnamon should help digest the sugars. has many health benefits and helps her love carrots, and although American kids eat WAY too much dairy—hence all the phlegm, mucus, and diarrhea—if it helps her eat more (organic) chicken it’s ok in moderation.

Good luck! How do you feed your little? Do you believe in using bribery to a degree? What are your tricks of the trade?

02/27/2025

Does anyone else struggle with this like me?
Easy to sit and relax through dinner when the days done, but my fellow workaholics have trouble sitting still to optimize digestion at other meals earlier in the day. The less we rest to digest, the less healthy nutrients, hormones, and neurotransmitters our stomachs will produce. The less of those we have, the quicker comes disease. As much as possible, in the words of Brand Nu, slow down