The diet therapy of TCM
Chinese Medicine
• Diet
• Exercise( breathing
exercise—qi gong)
• Rest
• Acupuncture and
moxibustion
• Chinese herbal formulas
TCM Food Therapy
• The Art of Cooking and
Preparing Food to help
maintain optimal health
• Let Food be your
Medicine -- Hippocrates
Diet therapy in 5-element
•
•
•
•
•
Fire -- Bitter
Earth -- Sweet
Metal -- Pungent
Water -- Salty
Wood -- Sour
Bitter
Sour
Sweet
Salty Pungent
5 Element Meat Sources
Element
Flavor
Meat
Grain
Fire
Bitter
Lamb
Corn
Earth
Sweet
Cow
Grain
Metal
Pungent
Horse
Rice
Water
Salty
Pig
Bean
Wood
Sour
Chicken
Wheat
Diet therapy in 4 seasons
• The pulse tends to be taut in spring, full in
summer, floating in autumn, and sunken
in winter
Features of four season
• 四季氣候的特點
春溫
Spring: Warm
夏熱
Summer: Hot
秋燥
Fall: Dry
冬寒
Winter: Cold
How to diet therapy in four seasons?
nourishing yang in
spring and summer
time,
nourishing yin in
autumn and winter
time.
Spring
• Spring is the season of new
birth and new growth.
According to TCM, spring
belongs to the wood element
and dominates liver
functioning.
• The principle of diet therapy
in spring:
– to protect and nourish liver.
Diet selection
Good: Hot and sweet food
Avoid: Sour and astringent food
• Spring foods: Chinese yam, bamboo shoot
and mushrooms.
summer
• heart over-function, and there is too much yang
qi flows outward to the exterior part of the body.
• There are two principles of diet therapy in
summer:
– First: Focus on protecting heart
– Second: The weather of long summer is usually wet.
And the wetness hurts stomach and spleen. So we
need to pay attention on protecting spleen.
Diet selection
• Good: Bitter food, sour and salty flavors
• Avoid: Hot and ice-cold food
• Summer foods:
– bitter gourd, watermelon, strawberries, tomatoes,
cucumber, wax gourd, lotus root, lotus seed,
bean sprouts, duck and fish.
•
It is a Chinese tradition in summer to make soups
for clearing summer heat, eliminating dampness
and promoting digestion.
Fall
• lung system, dominates the skin,
respiration, body fluids metabolism
• The dry weather usually causes an
itchy throat, a dry nose, chapped lips,
rough skin, hair loss and dry stools.
• Principle of diet therapy in fall:
– Focus on protecting Lung and ying
energy
Diet selection
• Good: sour and moisture food
• Avoid: Hot and spicy food
– Fall foods : lily bulb, white fungus, nuts or
seeds, pear, lotus root, pumpkin, honey, soy
milk
Winter
• Winter is also a good time to boost
the natural constitution of the body
and improve symptoms associated
with chronic conditions.
• Energizing herbs such as ginseng,
wolfberry, angelica, rhemannia root,
can be used for this purpose.
• Principle of diet therapy in winter:
– Focus on protecting kidney
Diet selection
• Good: Hot and spicy food
• Avoid: salty and hot food
– Winter foods:Mutton, beef, goose, duck, eggs,
rabbit meat, Chinese yam, sesame, glutinous
rice, dates, longan, black fungus,
Suggests
• Eating native foods
• eating locally-grown foods and those in
season.
• Natural, home-grown and chemical-free
products are the most nutritious foods.
5、 external application about
the women’s diseases
• The head is regarded as "the house
of essential substance" in TCM,
essence from the organs are
gathered there, and blood and qi
always flow through it.
• Medicinal pillows can make the
properties of herbs enter through the
head.
• Treat:dizziness, poor memory, ear ringing,
blurred version, anxiety, facial paralysis
due to strokes, shoulder pain and jaw pain.
• It also has been reported that these
pillows are also effective for headache,
insomnia, hypertension and neck
problems.
• In TCM, the feet are the start of
the three yin meridians and the
end of the three yang meridians
with more than sixty acupoints
below the ankles.
• Bathing the feet regularly can
stimulate the acupoints, activate
the flows in the meridians, and
thus enhance body functioning.
Tuina--massage