ABOUT DIETARY THERAPY

Traditionally in Chinese medicine, it is assumed that people will be taking care of themselves. This means, eating well, exercising, and taking care of one’s emotions. As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, my primary role is to encourage and help people to do so. It is a matter of fact in Chinese medicine that eating well is one of the pre-requisites of good health. As I learned from one of my teachers, if you want to be healthy you have to eat well, and if you want to eat well you have to make it yourself. Food is the most basic form of medicine. In fact, Chinese doctors consider that acupuncture and herbology should be used only if diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes do not produce results. In modern society, exactly the opposite is true. Dietary changes are the last thing on people’s minds, when they should be the first. So many of the ailments that people suffer from in the modern world – cancer, allergies, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, etc. – all have a link to diet. I can think of no condition that cannot be improved with dietary changes.

Our society does not support healthful eating, nor does it support the process of making dietary changes. At best, people are faced with an overwhelming amount of conflicting information about diets. These diets, and all of the information that comes from them, focus on 3 components of food – protein, fat, and carbohydrates. By contrast, Chinese dietary therapy, like all of Chinese medicine, focuses on the individual. Although there are basic pieces of information regarding healthful eating that apply to almost everyone, the concern is mostly focused on individual physiology and prioritizing specific dietary considerations.

More than anything, I find that some of the most basic information contained in Chinese medicine about food and diet is the most important. I spend more time in the course of a day discussing these issues with patients than almost any other topic. Changing diet without proper understanding of why does not help people, but only leads to short term results. Chinese medicine offers a level of understanding that empowers people, and allows them to make changes and create a diet that is personalized and can evolve and change with their needs

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