Food Therapy

Food therapy is one of the four major branches of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM), along with acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Tui-na. It is the art and science of creating diets using the inherent energy of whole foods to promote health, prevent disease, treat TCVM disharmonies and to compliment and support treatment of chronic disease along with such therapies as acupuncture, herbal medicine or western medicine. Species, age, geographical location, season, personality and current imbalance or disease are all taken into account when creating diets. Food ingredients are chosen based on their energetic properties, which include both their thermal energetic property (“temperature”) and their taste. Chinese food therapy recipes are developed according to TCVM theory (Yin-Yang, Five Elements, Eight Principles and Zang-Fu Physiology and Pathology) and are specific to each particular patient and health conditions.

The goal of food therapy is to restore and maintain balance in the body. By its very nature this therapy is slow and gentle without the potential side effects of herbals or western medicine.