the diet therapy of tcm

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

Sweet

PungentSalty

Sour

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 heartheart– Second: The weather of long summer is usually wet.

And the wetness hurts stomach and spleen. So we need to pay attention on protecting spleenprotecting 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