Dietary Therapy

Chinese Dietary Therapy uses thousands of years of knowledge about the healing effects of foods to provide a wholistic treatment of internal diseases of all kinds. Instead of looking at the composition of foods in terms of vitamins, minerals, fibre, fats and so on the Chinese dietary approach is to consider the energy of a food - that is, what it does to you when you eat it. A simple example is a chilli pepper which has a hot energy.

This means that chillis, along with other strongly heating foods, are not recommended for diseases or problems where heat is a contributing factor.
As well as the energetic 'temperature' of a food, there are many other aspects to consider, such as which organs or parts of the body the food effects, whether it is drying or moistening, and other attributes.

A detailed understanding of these functions of foods in the terms of Chinese medicine allows a Chinese Dietary Therapist to recommend changes in the foods eaten that move the diet in the desired direction for healing. These modifications very rarely involve a drastic change in diet or a strict dietary regime to stick to, normally the advice is to eat a little more of these things, and a little less of those - an approach that has been called 'the dieatry tilt'.

Any dietary suggestions given will be tailored to your individual circumstances. You may not have the time to cook regularly, or may have a schedule that prevents you from sticking to set meal times. There may be certain foods you do or don't like. Whatever your lifestyle and food preferences, there will be simple changes you can make to your diet to improve your health.

The guiding principle of Chinese Medicine has always been to treat illness first with diet, resorting to other methods only if this fails. Yet sadly, this approach has been lost by most practitioners of Chinese medicine who now focus only one one therapy (eg acupuncture) without a wider understanding of the importance of diet in good health.

Dietary therapy is often combined with other Traditional Chinese therapies - for instance acupuncture or tui na - but is also very effective as a therapy of its own.

What To Expect

A Dietary Therapy appointment last for roughly 90 mins. One or two follow-ups at roughly monthly intervals are recommended - these last no more than an hour. You will be asked about your general health and your diet and digestion. You may be asked to keep a simple food diary for a week or two. The therapist will also take your pulses and look at your tongue.

This information is used to make a Chinese diagnosis, which will be explained to you. Specific dietary recommendations will then be discussed. After your session you will be provided with a printed pack of information detailing all of the suggested dietary changes, and other information regarding supplements, herbs or recipes as appropriate.

neil kingham Chinese nutrition / Dietary therapy bristol, chepstow, portishead, usk, crickhowell