For thousands of years, Chinese nutritional therapy has been used much as medicinal herbs as a means to vastly improve health. Food was considered a tool to heal illness and prevent its development which preserved and maintained health and ensured the survival of the human race.
This nutritional model provides a holistic and qualitative concept of distinctly recommended foods that focuses on the flavor and energetic characteristics of foods as well as their thermal properties. This model works because it is founded on the fundamental principles of natural laws, is a commonsensical diet that’s easy to follow, and includes most of the foods we eat on a regular basis anyway. Chinese nutritional therapy follows a simple and very sound principle: to cool the heat, to warm the cold, add where it is too little, and to reduce where there is too much energetically.
Food energetics is based on each individual’s personal constitution, symptoms, and past medical history. All these are taken into account by a Chinese nutritional therapist who then devises a dietary plan to address a problem. This energetics will involve foods to avoid and foods to eat, how to combine various flavors, and how to prepare them. A diet plan will be specifically recommended, if there are any pre existing health issues, in order to resolve to remove exacerbating drinks and foods and to insert foods that promote natural homeostatic balance.
Basic prescriptions
As a rule, diet should be made up of:
• 5 percent raw foods such fruits and salads (except in summer)
• 5 percent fish, chicken, game, beef, and meat-lamb
• 30 to 40 percent cooked veggies such as fennel, lentils, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes
• 50 to 80 percent grains including barley, corn, millet, barley, rice, oats, wheat, and spelt
• Use of unprocessed and high quality (if possible, organic) foods
• Avoiding eating when angry, stressed, or upset.
• Chewing food well and refraining from rushing meals
• Not eating while at the desk, in front of the computer, watching TV, or while otherwise preoccupied
• Not drinking minimal amounts of fluids during meal-large portions since this dilutes the digestion process and prevents proper absorption resulting in lack of Chi (vital energy) and tiredness
• Eating foods that are appropriate for the season
• For people on a vegetarian diet, it is essential that they include energetically warming foods recommended by a qualified nutritional therapist in Overland Park.
• In general, it is recommended that you consume smaller amounts of food and eat one cooked meal a day, at the minimum. If your digestion is weak, you need to eat foods that are easy to digest (transform) and distribute through tissues.
The greater part of formulating a plan of treatment for each of my patients is a proper dietary arrangement.
Because Chinese nutritional therapy differs from the typical western concept of foods, there are often many changes to be made, more so when cooked versus raw foods are concerned.
However, alterations to a person’s diet should be made in incremental and gradual achievable steps, so that the body slowly gets used to the new ways. This approach never fails to produce results, since it is easy to adjust to the needs of the modern man and woman and is designed to match their unique constitutional requirements.