What is nutritional counseling?
Food is medicine. It can make us sick or make us well. Chinese food therapy is a 2,000 year-old practice of healing using natural foods instead of medications to heal the body. We will work with you to recommend foods specific to your health condition, and help you to create meal plans that work for your body. Whether your goal is to lose weight, improve digestion, clear up skin or boost energy, patients are surprised at how simple but effective diet changes can be. We ask that you keep a detailed food journal for 1 week prior to your nutritional counseling appointment.
How does it work?
Different kinds of foods can be used as treatments for various ailments. Before suggesting a therapeutic diet, we consider many factors: the patient’s constitution, the nature of the patient’s illness and type of syndrome, and even the season and climate. The proper diet for the patient is based on all of these factors, not just upon the disease alone.
A prescribed diet can be used not only for treating disease, but also for maintaining a person’s good health. Garlic, for example, can be used to treat indigestion, diarrhea, dysentery, and whooping cough. But because garlic kills bacteria, detoxifies poisons, strengthens the stomach and promotes digestion, it has also been known to prevent flu.
Digestion itself is a cooking process. Metabolism is thought of as a flame that resides between the kidneys in the lower abdomen (lower burner). Above that is the Spleen/Stomach duo which represents the pot into which food goes (middle burner). Warming (yang) foods support this cooking process and increase metabolism, while too many cold/raw (yin) foods can douse the digestive fire, leading to water retention, phlegm, sluggishness and weight gain. The Chinese ideal is to eat both yin and yang types of food to keep the body in balance.
Who would benefit?
Anyone who wants to maintain health long-term would benefit from Chinese dietary therapy. Anyone who has a chronic illness could minimize the use of pharmaceuticals by eating for their constitution and in harmony with Chinese nutrition principles.
“Let the food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” – Hippocrates