Traditional Chinese Medicine: Food Energy

Series Summary

Traditional Chinese medicine is considered a complementary or alternative medical system in most parts of the world. It includes a range of traditional medical practices originating in China that developed over thousands of years. Traditional Chinese medicine practices include theories, diagnosis and treatments such as herbal medicine, acupuncture and massage. Traditional Chinese medicine theory claims that processes of the human body are interrelated and in constant interaction with the environment. Its practitioners believe that signs of disharmony help them to understand, treat and prevent illness and disease. In this free video series our expert acupuncturist and herbalist will teach you about using dietary therapy in traditional Chinese medicine. You will learn about food energies, the importance of the spleen and how to eat to be healthy. You will also learn about the effects of emotions on digestion and why to avoid artificial sweeteners. Get tips on making several traditional Chinese medicine recipes, including a rice congee, eight treasures soup and herbal chicken soup. If you are interested in traditional Chinese medicine let our expert show you everything you need to know.

Video Transcript

"Today we're going to talk to you about the energetics of food. In traditional Chinese medicine, we consider dietary therapy one of the most vital parts of the medicine that we do. And so whereas people may understand that ginger is very warm and spicy and if they eat it, they feel the warming sensation. And in the same sense we may eat a piece of fruit like an orange or a piece of watermelon and we recognize that cooling sensation, that nourishing in the summertime that it provides for us. Well in Chinese medicine, not only do we look at the energetics of herbs and the temperatures that it may provide for us, but we also look at every single food that there is in Chinese medicine, in our culture all around us. And we look at those temperature relationships in the food. So when we look at combining foods together, when we look at the particular foods a person eats, we'll look and see how that relates to their diagnosis in Chinese medicine. Ultimately we really like for people to generally eat on the warmer side energetically because it makes our digestion very easy for us to work. So remember when we're starting to look at all of these energetics, and all these foods and herbs, to think about how the temperatures relate to that combination of foods for us."