Dietary Therapy is the first pillar of Chinese medicine.* It included the use of foods and herbs to restore balance and healing. You have the most control here on what you eat and we will help you understand what to eat and why.
Diet therapy is a time tested, centuries old method of understanding the nature of the food we eat. The Taoist monasteries examined foods and herbs not by calories, vitamins, and minerals, but by how the body reacted thermally to the food and herbs. For example if a particular food made the body hot, the food was classified as “hot or Fire”, if the food or herb made the body feel cold, the food or herb was classified as “Cold”. These temperatures help describe the nature of Qi or the homeostasis that maintains the healthy flow of blood. Cold, cool, neutral, warm, and hot/fire are the main categories of foods we will discuss and train you on. It will be important to avoid cold and hot category foods. The link below will help you.
Macrobiotic principles are a major part of the diet, so it depends where you are located on the planet. It is important to eat the foods that are part of your local environment. For example most people live in the temperate zone where there is 4 seasons, so in winter, the warming foods are most appropriate and in summer, the cooling foods are most appropriate. Those living in polar regions, the warming and hot foods are vital to survival. In tropical regions at the equator the cooling and cold foods are vital to survival. Likewise, people in polar regions to not need to eat imported fruits from the tropics, nor do people in the tropical regions, need a high fat diet like the Eskimos in the polar regions.
The main reason we feel that dietary therapy is so important is that it will enhance and balance every aspect of your life in terms of physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual wellness. All the methods we will teach you here will have a stronger and more positive impact to your Taijiquan, Qigong, neigong, mediation, and acupuncture sessions when the diet is optimal and balanced. No food is “bad”, there are just certain foods that are not right for you at certain times. My teacher of this diet would not give acupuncture to patients unless they practiced the diet. Without good Qi from diet, acupuncture will not be much benefit. We believe this to be true not just for acupuncture, but for taijiquan, neigong, and life in general.
The diet is excellent for metabolism as well. If you are over weight, it will help assist in the body to adjust to your original weight. Same as if you are under weight. This diet will help you gain the proper weight you should be.
Yongnian Tai Chi 