In traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese dietotherapy (TCD) plays the same important part as acupuncture, herbs, Tuina (massage) and Qigong in preserving health, preventing and healing diseases. The therapeutic effect of TCD is based on the fundamentals of traditional Chinese medicine in the aspects of both theory and clinical practice, i.e. the theory of Yin-Yang, Five-Elements, Zang-Fu organs, meridians, etiology and pathogenesis, diagnostic methods, therapeutic principles, etc.

Chinese medicine classified food into "four natures" i.e. "cold", "hot", "warm" and "cool" in line with their actions and curative effects. The foods of "cold" or "cool" property can be used to treat hot-natured diseases; while the "hot" or "warm" foods are used in treating the cold-natured diseases. Some foods may be neutral in nature. The following are listed the foods in different natures:

1). Food are cold or cool in nature: Barley, millet, buckwheat, greenbean, coix seed, celery, spinach, lettuce, green cabbage stems, turnips (white), bamboo shoot, lily bulb, lotus root, eggplant, tomato, water melon, white gourd, sponge gourd, cucumber, bitter melon, apple, pear, orange, banana, rabbit's meat, frog's meat, duck's meat, duck's egg, crab, sea couch(es), fresh water snail, kelp, laver, green tea, soy sauce, table salt, rock candy.

2). Foods are hot or warm in nature: Glutinous rice, Chinese sorghum, pumpkin, hot pepper, ginger, scallion, onion, leek, funnel green, garlic, parsley, mustard greens, date(s), walnut kernel, plum, arbutus, pomegranate, longan, peach, cherry, apricot, chestnut, pineapple, spirit, vinegar, black tea, pepper, coffee, chicken, turkey, sparrow's meat, mutton, vineson, dog's meat, spotted silver carp, grass fish, trout, red sugar.

3). Foods are neutral in nature: Polished rice, wheat, corn, soybean, pea, small red bean, cabbage cauliflower, carrot, fungus, silver fungus, mushroom, yam, day-lily buds, peanut, potato, lemon, grapes, cherry apple, olive, lotus seed, pork, beef, goose meat, spring chicken, pigeon's meat, quail's meat, egg(s), quail's egg, carp, mandarin fish, eel, yellow croaker, turtle, jelly fish, abalone, white sugar, honey, jasmine tea, wulong tea.

In traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), meridians (jing) are pathways through which the qi and blood of the human body are circulated. They form a specific network, which communicates with the internal organs and limbs and connects the upper and lower, exterior and interior portions of the body. Food can also be classified by the meridians it acts on

1). Some foods tropic to Heart meridian: Wheat, lotus seeds, lily bulb, red bean, longan, pork skin.

2). Some foods tropic to Liver meridian: Tomato, sponge gourd, papaya, haw, eel, pork liver.

3).Some foods tropic to Spleen meridian: Polished rice , wheat, millet, snap bean, water melon, pork.

4).Some foods tropic to Lung meridian: Ginger, onion, (white) turnip, pear, lily bulb, almond, water chestnut.

5).Some foods tropic to Kidney meridian: Duck's meat, mutton, dog's meat, walnut kernel, sesame, prawn.

(From China.com)