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Dietotherapy
By peace | May 24, 2007
Chinese dietotherapy is a natural therapy welcomed in many countries.
China has a long history of dietotherapy. Confucius (551-479 BC) died at the age of 72, which was considered a long life 2,000 years ago. It is because Confucius had a special diet. He once wrote in Analects of Confucius, (Lun Yu, a record of speeches by Confucius and his disciples, as well as the discussions they held) that, among many other principles, food with changed flavor, corrupt food, and food with bad color could not be eaten.
Dietotherapy refers to the treatment of disease by taking common foodstuffs, which according to the chinese are sometimes called by the name of medicinal foods. The intake of food is necessary for the maintenance of everyone’s daily life and activity. Food contains the various nutrients which provide the energy supply for the body’s growth and activities. The old Chinese saying that “Food is the Number one need for the people” reflects the utmost importance of food in the daily life.
Nutrients are essential for people during illness to overcome pathogenic factors and repair tissue damage, and to resist and prevent diseases while in good health. The art of dietotherapy roughly includes the following: Firstly, investigating the nature of food for preventing and treating diseases. In this sense, food itself is a remedy. For instance, in scurvy, a disease due to vitamin C deficiency, the eating of oranges, tangerines, or other fruits which are rich in vitamin C is helpful. Again, garlic behaves both as a food and as a remedy for bacillary dysentery. Secondly, investigating curative effects achieved by carefully selecting certain kinds of drug and adding them to food to complement each other. For instance, rice porridge is readily digested and nutritionally beneficial to patients. However, when radix discoreae, poria, or coix seeds are added, the porridge would have a strong anti-diarrhoea action by strengthening the spleen and improving digestion.
During the last few decades, cancer and cardiovascular diseases have replaced infectious diseases as the major enemy to human health. These two categories of disorders, especially cardio-vascular diseases, are closely tied to food habits. Coronary heart disease, the most common cardio vascular disease, results from high blood cholesterol which accumulates on the walls of the coronary vessels and leads to sclerosis.
Topics: All Posts, Food, Health |
