Chinese Medicine Food Energetics - A Holistic Diet

Chinese medicine nutrition has been used as a way to improve health just as much as medicinal herbs for thousands of years. The food was used to heal the disease and to prevent its occurrence. Thus the life was preserved and continuance for the human kind was maintained.

This nutritional model offers a qualitative, holistic concept of individually prescribed foods focusing on the thermal nature and flavour of foods and their energetic properties. It works because it is rooted in basic principles of natural laws, and is the common sense diet easy to follow and that includes most foods we eat anyway. The basic principle is simple: to warm the cold, to cool the heat, to reduce where there is too much and add where there is too little, energetically.

Depending on personal constitution, previous medical history and symptoms, food energetics are combined and dietary plan is devised. It will contain foods to eat and foods to avoid, how to prepare it and how to combine different flavours. If there are any pre existing health conditions to resolve, the diet plan will be specifically prescribed to eliminate aggravating foods and drinks as well as introducing foods to improve a natural homeostatic balance.

Basic recommendations are:

Generally, diet should consist of:

50-80% grains: corn, barley, millet, oats, rice, spelt, wheat.

30-40% cooked vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, beans, cabbage, lentils, fennel.

5% meat-lamb, beef, game, chicken and fish.

5% raw foods such as salads and fruit, except in summer.

-Use high quality, unprocessed foods, organic if possible.

-Never eat when stressed, angry or upset.

-Do not rush meals and chew food well.

-Do not eat while otherwise preoccupied: watching TV, eating in front of the computer or at the desk.

-Drink minimal amounts of liquids during the meal-large amounts dilute the process of digestion and prevent correct absorption, leading to tiredness and lack of vital energy.

-Eat seasonally appropriate foods.

-For those on a vegetarian diet, it is important to add energetically warming foods that will be prescribed by a qualified practitioner.

-Generally speaking, eat smaller quantities of food, and at least one cooked meal a day. If the digestion is impaired in any way, it is essential that the food should be easy to transform (digest) and transport through tissues.

In my clinical practice, the major part of devising a treatment plan for each of my patients is an appropriate dietary arrangement.

Often there are many changes that need to be made as the Chinese medicine diet differs from the common western intake on foods, especially when raw versus cooked foods is concerned.

However, changes to diet should be made gradually and in small, achievable segments, so that the body gets used to the new ways slowly. It never fails to produce results, as it is devised to suit unique constitutional needs and is easy to adjust to the needs of a modern men and women.