Food is the first necessity of the people, which illustrates the importance of diet for human beings. However, while everyone eats three meals a day, some people live to be over a hundred, while others die young or suffer from chronic illnesses. Excluding factors like regular exercise, this main difference is primarily determined by diet. Because a reasonable diet requires scientific principles, and it can also be used to alleviate ailments, cure diseases, and strengthen the body.
Scientific diet can lead to health and longevity, while improper diet can cause diseases.
Dietary therapy, based on traditional Chinese medicine and dietary culture, is characterized by improving physical and mental quality and optimizing the quality of life. It can satisfy hunger and strengthen the body, enhance beauty and appearance, nourish qi and generate blood, balance yin and yang, support the righteous qi and expel pathogenic factors, prevent illness, treat diseases, and prolong life.
Dietary therapy emphasizes the combination and dosage of foods. Which foods can be paired? Which combinations produce adverse effects? First, one should understand the properties of food. The properties of food
Food has four natures and five flavors: cold, cool, warm, and hot natures, and sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty flavors. Cold-natured foods have effects such as clearing heat, purging fire, detoxifying, relieving constipation, and drying dampness. Warm-natured foods have effects such as warming the middle jiao to dispel cold, supporting yang and replenishing fire, tonifying the kidneys and strengthening yang, and supplementing qi and strengthening the middle. Sour flavor can stop sweating, relieve diarrhea, and secure essence. Bitter flavor can clear heat and purge fire, stop coughing and wheezing, and promote bowel movements. Sweet flavor can tonify deficiency, harmonize the middle jiao, and relieve pain. Pungent flavor can induce sweating to release the exterior, promote qi and blood circulation, transform dampness, and whet the appetite. Salty flavor can soften hard masses and dissipate nodules.
The principles of dietary therapy
1. Apply treatment based on syndrome and body constitution; the nature of the food must match the body's condition. This is the fundamental principle of dietary therapy.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) regards all foods as similar to medicines, with each food having its own nature, flavor, meridian tropism, and different functions. TCM believes that a healthy person maintains a state of "yin-ping yang-mi," where qi, blood, yin, and yang are in harmony, and their diet and daily life are normal. Some people, although without obvious symptoms of illness, may already have signs of imbalance between yin and yang. For those with a constitution偏向于 heat, it is advisable to eat cool-natured foods such as mung beans, cucumbers, watermelon, lotus seeds, duck, and river fish, and to consume less pungent, dry, warm, and hot substances. For those with a constitution偏向于 cold, it is advisable to eat warm-natured foods such as chives, ginger, garlic, longan, mango, beef, eel, and chicken, and to consume less cold and cool-natured foods.
2. The "five flavors should be balanced, and the nature and flavor should be used to counteract."
Generally speaking, "pungent disperses, sour astringes, sweet moderates, bitter purges, and salty softens." Flavors that are the same have similar effects, while different flavors have different effects. When balancing the five flavors, it is necessary to pay attention to the antagonism and coordination between foods of different natures and flavors when using them. For example, soft-shelled turtle and amaranth, chicken and eel, honey and green onions are generally not used together because their natures and flavors are incompatible. Balancing the five flavors also emphasizes that the proportions of foods with different natures and flavors should be appropriate when used. Using nature and flavor to counteract emphasizes using food to correct the excess or deficiency of yin and yang.
3. Moderation in eating is important; do not eat a wide variety of foods at once; what the stomach likes is what nourishes it.
"Eat with moderation and balance the five flavors." In the process of dietary therapy, one must first understand the patient's condition, make a judgment, and then formulate a targeted dietary therapy plan. The diet must be reasonable and of appropriate quality. Only when the "stomach likes" the food can it be digested and absorbed, providing nourishment to the body.
Precautions for dietary therapy
1. Formulate prescriptions meticulously, adjusting the structure of medicinal and food ingredients according to differences in age, gender, and season.
2. Pay attention to the contraindications of medicinal foods. "Sour affects the sinews; excessive consumption causes urinary retention. Salty affects the blood; excessive consumption causes thirst. Pungent affects qi; excessive consumption causes a hollow sensation in the chest. Bitter affects the bones; excessive consumption causes nausea." Therefore, for the contraindications of dietary therapy, one must first pay attention to moderation, secondly to the contraindications among fruits, vegetables, and grains, and thirdly, for formulas primarily using medicinal herbs, to pay attention to the contraindications of the five flavors. "Heart disease contraindicates salt. Liver disease contraindicates pungent flavors. Spleen disease contraindicates sour flavors. Lung disease contraindicates bitter flavors. Kidney disease contraindicates sweet flavors." One should also be aware of the contraindications between medicinal herbs, such as the "Eighteen Incompatible Medicines" and "Nineteen Fearful Medicines."