Diet therapy is the practical application of nutrition as a preventative or corrective treatment of disease. This usually involves the modification of an existing dietary lifestyle to promote optimum health.

Your practitioner might advise you to make specific changes in your diet, such as avoiding spicy foods or alcohol. Foods are believed to either ‘heat’ or ‘cool’ the constitution, making dietary changes are an important part of the healing process. In most cases an alternative dietary lifestyle plan may be developed for the purpose of eliminating certain foods or including others, in order to reclaim optimal health.

For example, the elimination diet is often recommended for those who suffer from allergies, including those that are not food-related and are often found to be helpful in improving symptoms associated with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity in children.

Dietary considerations have always held central importance in Chinese medicine and by adjusting a patient's diet; it is possible to influence the dynamics of the individual’s body. This allows the Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner to use foods and other substances to help a patient maintain health and prevent disease, as well as to treat disharmonies when they occur. It is very common for a practitioner to educate patients on how to use food. Dietary advice is always individualized according to the patient's age, sex, and constitution, pattern diagnosis, activity level, environment and the season of the year.