Dietary Therapy

TCM considers what you eat to play a significant role in health, so much so that they say 'Food is the first medicine.'  According to TCM, each food has a temperature nature, ie. it is either warm, cool, or neutral.  Each food also has a groups of flavours which make it inclined to affects one or more organs.  Health is maintained when the diet is a balanced combination of foods that have different natures and different flavours.  Conversely, when the health is out of balance, it is possible to get back to balance by cutting out foods of a certain nature for a period of time or eating more of a certain nature and flavour than another.   For example, the excess consumption of spicy food can make constipation or hemorrhoids worse.

There are many foods that are commonly consumed in North America that are know to aggravate or create many common conditions.   For example, the excessive consumption of coffee or chocolate will make Heat (this is a TCM term) in the body and could overstimulate the appetite.  As another example, the excessive consumption of red meat, alcohol, and greasy/oil food will generate Damp-Heat (this is also a TCM term) in the body and this could aggravate conditions like eczema, yeast infection, arthritis, constipation/diarreah/IBS/colitis, gallstones, and kidney stones.