Reestablishing Health One Meal at a Time

Within the history of Chinese medicine, nutrition has been integral to preserving, promoting and reestablishing health. Unlike Western nutrition, which focuses on the biochemical properties (such as vitamin and mineral content) of food, Chinese nutrition emphasizes its energetic aspects. When applied to health, the energetic properties of different foods can be used to harmonize or balance an individual suffering from a particular disorder. We typically talk about food as being warming, cooling, moistening or drying.

For example, if a person tends to be deficient, cold, and fatigued, we would recommend eating warming nourishing foods, such as ginger, garlic and lamb, while avoiding cooling foods such as cold raw vegetables or ice cold drinks. On the other hand, for people with robust constitutions and tendencies to being hot, we might recommend avoiding spicy foods and alcohol. In each case, the beauty of Chinese nutrition is that it follows Chinese medicinal principles thus allowing us to provide dietary recommendations specific to each individual’s needs. Once one understands how to integrate the appropriate foods into their daily lives, health can be promoted and reestablished.