Most people associate the term "diet plan" with weight loss, but in traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, regulating your weight is only a small part of what a diet plan can accomplish. TCM views food as powerful medicine that can correct internal imbalances in your qi, or vital life energy, and help you feel your best. For optimal results, consult a TCM practitioner for a diagnosis and dietary recommendations.
Body Types
If you want to tweak your diet for optimal health, a good first step is to identify your TCM body type or constitution, since each type benefits from a different diet plan. Some people are easily flushed, seldom feel cold and tend toward frustration and bad temper. This "hot" type benefits from eating more raw fruits and vegetables, notes Michael Tierra of the East West School of Planetary Herbology in Santa Cruz, California, and author of "Planetary Herbology." The "damp" type tends toward fatigue and weight gain, and would benefit from less fat in the diet and lighter, spicy foods.
Causes of Imbalance
In addition to your body type, symptoms of illness often arise as a result of overwork, stress and poor diet --- qi deficiency, in TCM terms. TCM identifies different deficiencies according to your symptoms. If your sex drive and willpower seem drained, chances are you've injured your kidney qi. Sugar cravings are a common symptom of spleen qi deficiency. PMS, menstrual cramps and mood swings often arise from a stagnation and depletion in liver qi --- in turn a product of feelings of restriction and limitation, according to Anasuya Batliner, Asian Bodywork Therapist, on her website "My Body Wisdom."
Diagnostics
In a typical TCM diagnosis, the practitioner will evaluate how you look, speak and smell, as well as any symptoms you report. She will usually look at your tongue to determine its color, shape and coating. Finally, she'll feel your pulse, since its depth, strength, and any patterns reveal a lot about your qi. These diagnostic tools reveal a great deal about your internal health. If your tongue is light purple or bluish purple, it can indicate you suffer from cold, stagnant qi, according to the website Sacred Lotus Arts.
Food as Medicine
Different types of food carry different types of qi. When you emphasize certain types of food in your diet, you gradually correct qi imbalances. The most important food category in TCM is "hot" versus "cold." Food "temperature" in TCM refers to the way a food makes you feel, more than its physical temperature, according to the website "Food Energetics." Raw vegetables are cooling, while cooked meats, stews and hot spices, such as ginger, are warming. The flavor of a food also determines its energetics. In TCM, there are five flavors: sweet, pungent/spicy, salty, sour and bitter. Each of these flavors indicates the food's effect on the body.
Goals
The best Chinese diet plans will help you achieve three goals: correcting qi deficiency or stagnation; balancing your constitutional type; and harmonizing you with the cycle of the seasons. If you need to balance your liver qi, consider caffeine to be enemy number one. While it can temporarily help you feel less draggy, caffeine tends to amp up the feelings of tension that cause liver qi congestion in the first place, Batliner notes. If you tend to be cold, or if it's late fall or winter, choose warming foods that are cooked and naturally sweet, like pumpkin, mushrooms, ginger, chives and leeks, advises the website of the Shen Nong Foundation of TCM.
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