In this “natural medicine”,  rooted in the ancient philosophy and wisdom of Taoism and generally Chinese culture, two main cornerstones of Chinese medicine are on the one hand the energies in nature and their correlation with that of the human body and on the other the influences of our emotional and our physical state on health.

Turning the focus on food in this section, and putting the above into context, the first and most straightforward principle here is that, since we all need to eat every day to live and maintain ourselves, what we eat is a crucial factor to our health and therefore, food can be medicine. In line with this, being a good cook in the tradition of Chinese culture means also to know how to heal and maintain good health by knowing what and how to eat.

Hereby it is not necessarily the material aspect of the food we eat that matters, but the main essence lies in the energetic state of it.

Now, to make this make sense, let us look at it from a broader perspective. Coming back to the aspect of the energies in nature; a fundamental principle here is that there are different energies in our body, which need to be in balance and there are different energies in the different natural resources – so in other words, a pear carries different energy than a blueberry, whereby it is in this context not about the  material, the vitamins or anything. Instead, it is about taking this food with its specific energies as a “medium” to balance or enhance the energies in our body. For this reason, according to your individual energy state, you would need an individual combination of “foods”, which corresponds to your individual needs, in order to nourish and harmonize your system. 

To determine these right combinations and nourishment needs for eating healthily and balanced according to Chinese medicine, there are principles of seasonal, local, and the thermal characters as the guideline.

With today’s technology and globalization, in the developed part of the world, neither season nor locality play a role anymore in our diets. People are guided to take the “most nutritious product according to modern science, without knowing if their body really can process and take the nutrition of these foods coming from far far away. – A metaphor in Chinese says: “ a pear needs its environment/energy to become a pear and not a grape!”. Now, I am not saying, that nutrition, vitamins and all the material components do not play a role in our diet; those aspects are just only half the story, and for a fully balanced, nourishing meal, the other half of the story is vital.

If you would like to dive deeper and/or get suggestions on your diet according to TCM/CCM, feel free to book a consultation.