Concept of Eastern Nutrition and Healing Dietary Therapy in TCM

For four centuries, practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have believed that healthy diets can reduce the probability of illness. It is also recognized that proper nutrition should take into account each individual’s health condition. Healing diets could be used for adjusting physical imbalance, and is one of the most important therapeutic agents that can be used to build, maintain and restore health. TCM healing diets, using high quality nutritious ingredients including Chinese herbs, can significantly improve general health and wellbeing, by strengthening digestion, increasing energy and balancing body functions.

The food we consume inherently determines who we are, and the overall quality of our health. According to Eastern nutritional guidelines, foods and herbs should be selected according to an individual's body constitution, whether they be excess or deficient, warm or cold in nature. Foods used in dietary therapy include rice, beans, ginger, scallions, onions, and carrots. Medicated dietary therapy includes the use of herbs for tonification, and is often used prior to or in conjunction with other therapies to increase the effectiveness of the treatments.

Seasonal Dietary Therapy

Healthy diets are closely tied to the seasons and the rhythms of nature. Special healing diets have been used in China for over 1,000 years to help beautify the skin and face, reduce stress and improve sexual function according to the different climates and seasons of the year.

Spring is considered the season of growth and the best time to regenerate body tissues and organs. Thus foods are used to fortify and restore one’s energy. In addition, it is the season of energetic expansion; therefore foods of a warm nature are not recommended. For the prevention of hypertension and constipation, patients should ingest long fibrous green vegetables along with fruit like pears and consume more fish products.

In summer, people tend to perspire more from the heat, therefore rich and heavy foods are not recommended. Watermelon, green beans, lotus, and zucchini are recommended for clearing summer heat. Red beans cooked with lily bulb clear boils and oily skin that develop from summer heat.

As the weather becomes cool and dry in the autumn, people usually suffer from dry throat and mouth, and cough with scanty sputum. For these conditions, certain herbs are recommended for moisturizing the body and most especially for the upper respiratory tract. Pears, water chestnuts, bananas, persimmon, kiwi, millet and corn are all foods of a cool moisturizing nature.

During winter, people’s appetites and absorptive abilities are enhanced thus making it the best time for taking tonics prescribed according to each individual’s body constitution.

Eating foods according to their energetic relationships to the seasons ensure that the body is attuned to the environment. Rich foods such as special meat products are considered annul fertilization for the body’s nutritional balance.

Body Constitution Analysis

To determine the most appropriate dietary therapy for an individual, TCM theory separates people according to different body constitutions such as excess or deficient, and cool, hot or medium categories, which are determined by an examination of the tongue, pulse, and meridian system. Different medical pathologies arise from a patient’s excess, deficient, cool or hot nature.

Cool/weak-type people often suffer from poor circulation, decreased appetite, loose stools, pale tongue, slow or moderate pulse, fatigue, sexual dysfunction and desire for warmth. For cool-type people, a TCM practitioner would recommend foods that are warm or hot in nature, such as fresh ginger, green onion, radish, green or red pepper, red date, walnut, mutton, beef, and common fennel fruit. These dispel cold and restore energy.

People who feel fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, and weakness, with pale tongues and weak pulses are considered deficient types, and warm foods that tonify the body are preferred, such as red meat, egg, fish, tofu, beans, green vegetables, avocado, apples and oranges.

Hot/excess-type people, on the other hand, are more likely to suffer from constipation, hot flashes, and stress, and have a red tongue, rapid pulse and sweat. By knowing a patient’s “body type,” a TCM practitioner can alleviate many of their symptoms by prescribing foods that neutralize or counteract the body’s natural tendencies.

Food that is cold or cold in nature, such as mung bean, lotus, watermelon, pears, water chestnuts, purslane, duck, freshwater fish, honey, and chrysanthemum flower can purge fire, remove heat from the blood, and detoxify the body, and thus should be avoided by cold-type people. However, these foods can be used for hot-type people who tend to sweat heavily, suffer from stress, hot flashes, thirst, and constipation. Individuals who have agitation, red eyes, headaches, yellowish urination, constipation, bitter taste in the mouth, sores on the tongue, and a red tongue with rapid pulse belong to the category of excess constitutions. Duck, freshwater fish, clam, honey, green beans, nappa cabbage, winter melon, cucumber, tofu, watermelon, pear, banana, kiwi, wheat, corn and other foods with a cool nature, can be used to clear the heat and fire, and detoxify the body.

Age Specific Nutrition

A preventive healthcare nutrition plan is determined by the specific needs and eating habits appropriate to various age groups. Eastern nutritional dietary therapy offers menus which are prescribed depending on the specific medical conditions and whether or not the patient is in generally good health.

Children are at the most active period of metabolism and at the stage of their greatest development period, yet their digestive function is not fully developed and thus they have comparatively less absorptive abilities. Hence, for children, a special diet is necessary to encourage good bone structure and brain cell growth. 。

Adolescents are at a time of both physical and mental growth. While they have enough vitality, they have a tendency to overuse their bodies. In addition, tension from studying could also cause insomnia or even neurasthenia. Pork liver, beef, eggs, and milk are all helpful in tonifying the kidney and brain during adolescence. Adolescents should stay away from hot, spicy, or excessively sweet or oily foods, which can cause acne and emotional ups and downs that plague so many teenagers.

Adults with an active metabolism are likely to lead busy lifestyles, and women in particular face menstruation, pregnancy, and motherhood. The body consumes a great deal of energy and is susceptible to anemia. Chicken, beef, dairy products, and seafood contain a high dose of protein and should not be avoided.

Pregnant women are highly advised by many TCM practitioners to ingest a special diet which changes according to the different stages of a woman’s pregnancy. After delivery, a patient on a special diet will produce more milk for breast-feeding and enjoy a more rapid physical recovery.

Middle-aged patients experience more responsibilities in their public and private lives, as they often have to support the old and the young. Stress from family and work can lead to gradual degeneration. Consequently, sexual function in middle-aged men usually declines. For people of this age range, strengthening and regulating their body energy is essential for sustaining good health later in life. A special diet can encourage relaxation, enhance sexual function, enhance energy levels, and slow the aging process.

When people mature, the functions of their organs degenerate and resistance to disease diminishes. Some symptoms include, graying hair, decreased alertness in the ears and eyes, sore back, weak legs, softened bones, and increased night urination. Foods known to encourage healthy digestion and longevity are best for patients who are 55 years of age or older.

Food Interaction

There are many conventional practices in TCM pertaining to food. Nutrition and healing diet therapy prohibit certain foods according to particular types of disease and assert that certain foods cannot be combined with herbs to avoid unexpected reactions between foods and herbal therapy.

For example, patients with boils should avoid pork, beef, and pumpkin. Those with oral ulcers should not consume fried or baked goods. Watermelon should not be eaten with lamb, freshwater fish cannot be combined with licorice, and bananas cannot accompany sweet potato. Tofu should never be mixed with honey. Plum and duck cannot be cooked together, while eggs cannot be combined with artificial sweeteners.

Healing Dietary Menus

Weight Loss: Corn, mung bean, soybean, celery, spinach, wax gourd, cucurbit, black fungus, enoki, watermelon, seaweed, sea cucumber, clam, scallop, Shan Yao, Yi Yi Ren, Fu Ling, Chi Xiao Dou, and Qian Shi.

Face and Skin Beautification: Sesame, pine nut, black soybean, soybean, celery, bamboo, zucchini, Chinese green bean, lemon, egg white, cucumber, vinegar, honey, aloe, He Shou Wu, Bai He, Xing Ren, Yi Yi Ren, Dong Chong Xia Cao, Tian Hua Feng, Wu Wei Zi, and Yu Zhu.

Invigoration: Male: walnuts, chive, leek, gingko, lychee, lamb, deer, turtle, snow pea, Gou Qi Zi, Tu Si Zi, Shan Yu Rou, Zi He Che, He Shou Wu, and Qian Shi; Female: Chinese sticky rice, black bean, pine nuts, sesame, yellow rice, spinach, lotus, white wood fungus, bird’s nest, beef bone marrow, egg, Bai He, Sang Sheng Zi, He Shou Wu, Gou Qi Zi, Huang Qi, Huang Jin, Gui Yuan, and Hong Zao.

Tonifies Lungs: Rice, buckwheat, chayote, orange, mandarin orange, white wood fungus, wax gourd, bird’s nest, honey maltose, Xing Ren, Chuan Bei Mu, Bai He, Yin Xing, Wu Wei Zi, and Bai Bu.

Tonifies Kidneys: Soybean, pecans, chestnut, jack bean, Chinese chives, cabbage, lychee, mussels, quail eggs, chicken, ginseng, Gou Qi Zi, He Shou Wu, Yin Xing, Huang Qin, Dong Chong Xia Cao, Zi He Che, Qian Shi, Tu Si Zi, Rou Cong Rong, Shan Zhu Yu, and deer antler.

Nourishes Heart: Corn, mung bean, wheat, hawthorn, dry lily, egg plant, kiwi, lotus seeds, onion, parsley, pomfret, oyster, bird’s nest, pearls, Yu Zhu, Chuan Lian Zi, Bai He, Tai Zi Sheng, ginseng, Suan Zao Ren, Long Yan Rou, Fu Shen, and bamboo leaves.

Strengthens Spleen: Rice, wheat, apple, kumquat, mandarin orange, spinach, carrot, whitebait, beef, ham, perch, pepper, Dang Shen, Huang Qi, Shan Yao, Bai Bian Dou, Fu Ling, Yi Yi Ren, and Chen Pi.

Regulates Liver: Buckwheat, wheat, pine nuts, red bean, orange, mango, chayote, cucumber, cucurbit, mushroom, spinach, cabbage, mussel, cuttlefish, abalone, oyster, chicken, egg, seaweed, lamb, maltose, Gou Qi Zi, He Shou Wu, Mei Gui Hua, Lue Mei, Yu Jin, Bai Shao, Xiao Hui Xiang, Hua Jiao, Hu Jiao.

Promotes Diuresis: Corn, wheat, red bean, water melon, cucurbit, dry lily, carp, snakehead fish, ice fish, oyster, seaweed, lever, duck, chicken, quail, Fu Ling, Zhu Ling, Yi Yi Ren, Che Qian Zi, Mu Tong, Bia Bian Dou, and Huang Qi.

Reduces Heat : Commonly used foods and herbs are: millet, buckwheat, mung bean, red bean, garlic, cucumber, wax gourd, zucchini, spinach, water chestnut, water caltcop, celery, snail, scallop, seaweed, rabbit, egg white, duck egg, Jing Ying Hua, Ju Hua, Yu Yu Ren, Bo He, Zhi Mu, bamboo leaves, Xia Ku Cao, Tian Hua Fen, and Tu Fu Ling.

Dissipates Blood Stasis: Chestnut, taro, arrowhead, chayote, water chestnut, hawthorn, fig, red bean, carrot, mung bean, seaweed, laver, oyster, abalone, sea cucumber, jelly fish, mussel, cuttlefish, duck, Chinese chives, zucchini, beef, turtle, garlic, broccoli, black fungus, black mushroom, mushroom, Xia Ku Cao, Hai Zao, Kun Bu, Fuo Shou, Tao Ren, Hong Hua, Ji Xue Teng, Shan Ci Gu, San Qi, Ba Yue Zha, and Ban Zhi Lian.

Regulates lipid content of blood, high cholesterol, and abnormal blood pressure: Corn, soybean, sunflower seeds, sweet potato, mung bean, grapefruit, watermelon, cucurbit, pumpkin, celery, onion, cabbage, eggplant, black fungus, garlic, scallop, Shan Yao, Yu Mi Xu, Huang Qi, Tian Hua Fen, Mai Men Dong, Gou Qi Zi, Sang Bai Pi, Sha Sheng, Shi Hu, pearl powder, Huai Hua, Jue Ming Zi, Ju Hua, Mu Li, and Shi Jue Ming.

Blood circulation: Black soybean, soybean, chestnuts, cherry, kiwi, papaya, pepper, onion, ginger, celery, zucchini, taro, pomfret, hairtail, crab, jelly fish, vinegar, Chinese prickly ash, wine, Gui Zhi, Xiao Hui Xian, Ba Jiao Hui Xiang, Bai He, Niu Xi, Mu Gua, Wu Wei Zi, San Zhi, San Ji Sheng, Yi Yi Ren, Dan Shen, San Qi, Yan Hu Suo, and Bai Bian Dou.

Anti-aging: Corn, millet, black soybean, soybean and its products, sesame, walnut, mulberry, lotus seeds, black mushroom, black fungus, jack bean, spinach, cabbage, tomato, golden gourd, perch, grass carp, yellow croaker, shrimp, turtle, mussel, sea cucumber, scallop, beef, quail, American ginseng, ginseng, Dan Sheng, He Shou Wu, Gou Qi Zi, deer antler, Tu Si Zi, Wu Wei Zi, Hong Hua, and Dang Gui.

Cancer prevention: Rice, corn, hawthorn, kumquat, black soybean, sesame, jujube, cabbage, cucumber, pumpkin, mushroom, black mushroom, broccoli, black fungus, taro, onion, garlic, abalone, oyster, snail, Huang Qi, Shan Yao,
Mai Men Dong, American ginseng, Bai Bian Dou, Dong Chong Xia Cao, turtle shell, Kung Bu, Hai Zao, Fuo Shou, Bai He, and Shen Qu.