Guided by fundamental theories of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), traditional Chinese dietotherapy (TCD) is a specialty that concerns the study of how to make good use of foods and natural nutriments as well as Chinese material medicine to preserve health, prevent and heal diseases, quicken recoveries, and slow down aging. Dietotherapy is a gem in Chinese scientific cultural heritage.

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.

In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the famous doctor Sun Simiao, who died at the age of 101, once said that when a person is sick, the doctor should first regulate his or her diet and lifestyle. In most cases, these changes alone are enough to bring about a cure over time.

TCD has remained an important component of TCM, the same as acupuncture, herbology, Tuina (massage), Qigong (energy-oriented philosophy and exercises), and so on. The therapeutic effect of TCD has been proved by clinical practice for centuries, especially that in preventive medicine, rehabilitation, and gerontology (study of old age).

TCD, as mentioned above, is based on the fundamentals of TCM in the aspects of both theory and clinical practice, such as for example, the theory of Yin-Yang, Five-Elements, Zang-Fu organs, meridians, etiology and pathogenesis (the study of causes and development of diseases), diagnostic methods, therapeutic principles, and so on.

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