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Nutrition and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): a system’s theoretical perspective

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 75, pages 267–273 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an entirely coherent system, with internal logic and consistency of thought and practice. Though TCM has a long history, it is not easily accepted by Western medicine due to its theoretical and conceptual complexity. TCM nutrition is an ancient but burgeoning discipline, and its main goal is to use food as a means to achieve balance and harmony within the body. Compared with modern nutrition, it has unique beneficial concepts, such as the holism, diet suggestions based on syndrome differentiation, the idea that the spleen–stomach is the “root” of post-heaven, and the homology of medicine and food. Until today, it is difficult to evaluate whether TCM nutrition could play a major role in the treatment of various diseases. The limitations mainly include: the scope of application is limited, lack of evidence-based research, and the constitution differentiation need the cooperation of clinicians of TCM. In contemporary China, the inheritance, innovation, and broadening the scope of applications of TCM nutrition is very important. The government should establish a system in which TCM nutrition and modern nutrition coexist, and perform higher specialist training for dietitians of TCM. Moreover, TCM nutrition should integrate the research methods of modern nutrition, and involve adjustment to target populations, the formulation of age-specific nutrition principles, and an emphasis on the research and development of nutritional food, thus fully demonstrating the advantages and characteristics of TCM nutrition.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Wenpei Zhu (International Education College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University) for her help in correct the terminology and concepts of TCM.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 81673656 and 81374048), and the Opening Project of Zhejiang Provincial Preponderant and Characteristic Subject of Key University (Traditional Chinese Pharmacology), Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (No. ZYAOXZD2019002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China

    Xinyu Zhao & Daozong Xia

  2. Five Branches University, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Xinggui Tan

  3. Department of Nutrition, The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China

    Hongfei Shi

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  1. Xinyu Zhao
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  2. Xinggui Tan
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  4. Daozong Xia
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Contributions

XYZ and XGT conceived, wrote, and revised the manuscript. HFS and DZX contributed to the writing and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final paper.

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Correspondence to Daozong Xia.

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Zhao, X., Tan, X., Shi, H. et al. Nutrition and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): a system’s theoretical perspective. Eur J Clin Nutr 75, 267–273 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-00737-w

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