Chinese Medicine Nutrition Therapy

Nutrition, nourishment, or aliment, is the supply of materials – food – required by organisms and cells to stay alive. Nutrition consultation in Chinese Medicine is to provide clients the dietary advice combining appropriate foods and food-like Chinese herbs. According to Chinese medicine theory foods are classified in a way similar to Chinese herbal medicines. For example there are foods with cold,  cool, warm and hot properties. There are foods that nourish our bodies and foods that help eliminate or drain the pathogenic factors. When a clinical pattern is identified by the practitioner, certain foods are recommended to either tonify the body or eliminate the pathogenic factors in addition to the acupuncture treatments.  There are also Chinese herbs that are suitable to be consumed like foods. They are called food-like herbs. These herbs are usually mild, with little or no side effect even in long term use. There are about 60 herbs listed as food-like herbs according to the reference published by China State Administration of Drugs. In the practice of Chinese nutrition, these herbs may be recommended to the patients and become a part of patient’s daily diets.

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