Maintaining Health with Chinese Medicine Diet

Western medicine has only discovered in the last century what Chinese doctors have known for millennia. The foundation of a healthy diet is regularity and balance. You should eat calmly, slowly, and at regular intervals throughout the day.

You know all that, right? Chinese medicine takes it to a whole new level.

We separate food into flavors: salty, bitter, sweet, spicy, sour, and bland – each of which acts on the body in a specific way. Foods also have temperatures due to their inherent nature as well as the way they are prepared. The goal is to find balance — to get a little of each flavor and temperature every day. It sounds strange, but look at it this way: bananas are good for you. They’re full of potassium, vitamin B6 and lots of other good stuff. So why not eat only bananas all day every day? Bunches and bunches of bananas and nothing else. How healthy would you be?

Because every person has different needs and predispositions, no one diet is good for everyone. While some people must eat foods that are warming and energizing, others benefit from foods that are cooling in nature. Also, specific food cravings or food allergies can draw attention to imbalances within the body that can then be treated by changing the ratios of food flavors and temperatures being ingested.

As a part of your treatment, we will talk about how to find balance in your diet and get all six flavors into your meals.