Dietotherapy 食疗

The "Yangsheng" refers to the improvement of health and the prolonging of life through the proper care and nurture of one's mind and body.

Dietotherapy

The Dietotherapy(食疗shíliáo)(Dietetic treatment) in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a specialty that concerns the study of how to make good use of foods and natural nutriments as well as Chinese medicine to preserve health, prevent and heal diseases, quicken recoveries, and slow aging.

TCD is based on the fundamentals of TCM in both theory and clinical practice, including for example, the theory of Yin-Yang, Five-Elements, Zang-Fu organs, meridians, etiology and pathogenesis (the study of causes and development of diseases), diagnostic methods, therapeutic principles, and so on.

It is understood in TCM that like herbs, foods also have different natures and flavors, accounting for their actions of reinforcing or reducing, and ascending or descending. Foods are able to balance Yin and Yang, and Qi and blood in the body, according to TCM. To prevent and cure diseases, both foods and medicines can have important effects since they share the same source, are based on the same theory, and have similar medicinal actions; hence, in TCM, food and herbs are combined in clinical(clinical means involving or relating to the direct medical treatment or testing of patients) use.