Chinese Nutrition
The Chinese nutritional approach differs from the Western approach in several key ways:
- It recognises that everyone is different, so what is good for one person may not be good for another. For this reason, a practitioner of Chinese nutritional therapy will always diagnose your individual type, so that dietary recommendations may be tailored to suit you and your particular consititution.
- It is less concerned with the composition of foods in terms of vitamins, fats, fibre etc, and more with how food affects our bodies once it has been eaten.
- Dietary recommendations are always gentle and achievable. They are not all about cutting things out - in fact they are just as often about adding in certain foods. Frequently they involve changing the way we eat, not just the types of foods we eat.
In many cases an innappropriate diet is a key cause of ill-health. For various reasons many unhealthy foods and eating practices are encouraged within our culture and these can end up damaging our digestions. From a Chinese nutritional perspective a strong digestion is central to our health. If our digestion is weak or damaged we tend to put on weight more easily and may suffer from things like bloating, wind, bowel problems, food intolerances, skin problems or low energy. Although it may seem strange from a Western perspective, a weak digestion and an innapropriate diet can also contribute to other health issues such as some types of insomnia, as well as mental and emotional problems.
Consequently, Chinese nutritional therapy concentrates on strengthening the digestion and eating foods appropriate to our individual constitutions.
Weight Loss
A combination of acupuncture and Chinese nutritional advice provides the best approach to weight loss, but nutritional advice on its own can still be very beneficial. It is important to understand, however, that this is not a magic bullet. A commitment to making changes in lifestyle is essential.