Guides & Articles
13 guides to Chinese food therapy, organised so you can read them in order instead of guessing where to begin.
What This Collection Is
The recipe pages on the site answer the practical question — what should I cook tonight? — and these guides answer the questions behind it: why does this work, when should I bother, and what is it actually for? Written in plain English, none of them assume you know anything, and all of them are honest about what the tradition can and cannot claim. The site has no medical backing, and the guides were written that way: they explain the framework properly — qi, blood, dampness, thermal nature — and they are equally open about the parts that collapse under scrutiny and the parts the evidence genuinely supports.
The fourteen are arranged on this page in a reading order, not alphabetically, for a reason: they build on each other. The beginner guide is the foundation. The four core-idea guides deepen it in sequence. The technique guides are the skills, and the last group is symptom-led for when you want an answer today rather than an education. If you only ever read two pages, read the beginner guide and whatever symptom-led page matches what is bothering you.
How to Use This Page
These are not equal. The beginner guide is the only one you genuinely need — it covers the five concepts that matter, the twelve ingredients worth buying, a four-week plan, and the mistakes people make. If you read one thing on this page, read that one.
Everything else is depth on a specific idea. The four core ideas pages build on each other in order, so if you want to actually understand the framework rather than apply it, read them in sequence. The techniques pages are the practical skills and are useful on their own. The last group is symptom-led — go straight to whichever one matches and skip the rest.
Two pages to read with the caveat they carry: tonic soups has a section on which herbs are genuinely not safe for regular use, and foods for sleep is explicit about when insomnia needs a doctor rather than an evening tea. Neither is a reason to skip them.
Start here
If you have never done this before, read the first one. Everything else on this page assumes it.
The core ideas
The framework itself. Read these in order — each one builds on the one before it.
Understanding Qi
The four types of Qi, how to tell which one you are actually low in, and the six foods that build which. Also covers what Qi is not.
Warming & Cooling Foods
The full list of around fifty foods with their thermal nature, a constitutional self-test, and a seasonal plan. The page people come back to most.
Eating for Your Spleen
Why digestion gates everything else in this system, the six signs of a weak one, and the habits that fix it without any herbs.
What Is Dampness?
The single most common pattern in modern diets, why it is fixable, and why the intuitive response (drink less water, eat less) makes it worse.
The cooking techniques
The practical skills. Two of these are enough to build a working kitchen practice on their own.
The Art of Congee
The most beginner-friendly food in the system. Ratios, timing, seven things that decide the result, and twelve variations by goal.
Herbal Tonic Soups & Broths
The blanching, layering and simmering method — plus which tonics are safe for daily use and which genuinely are not.
Herbal Teas & Infusions
The fast version, for when a three-hour simmer is not realistic on a weeknight. Steeping times and what not to combine.
Foods for Blood Nourishment
For fatigue with a pale complexion, dizziness on standing, and numbness. The blood-oriented half of the framework.
By what you want to change
Symptom-led. Go straight to the one that matches and skip the rest.
Foods for Better Sleep
Eight ingredients, matched to the five different kinds of insomnia — and an honest section on when the problem is not a food problem.
Morning Energy Routine
Why your morning energy is decided last night, plus warm breakfasts and the one habit worth changing first.
Natural Energy Boosters
Five foods for steadier energy through the afternoon, and why most people need the middle-afternoon fix rather than the morning one.
Eating With the Seasons
All five phases including late summer, with what to lean toward and what to cut back on in each.
Not Sure Where to Start?
These are the fastest ways in. Each one takes a minute and points you somewhere specific.
Common Questions
Do I need to read the guides before using the recipes?
No. The recipes work on their own — each one states its purpose, its ingredients and its method. The guides are for the person who wants to understand the system, adjust it, or know which recipe matches the problem rather than which one sounds nice. If you just want dinner tonight, use the Food Finder or the recipe library.
Which guide should I read first?
The beginner guide, unconditionally. It covers the five ideas that everything else assumes, the twelve ingredients worth buying first, and a four-week plan. Every other guide was written to build on it. If you read the core-idea pages without it, they will still make sense — but you will be re-learning the vocabulary it already covered.
Are these guides based on real evidence?
Where the evidence exists, yes, and the guides say what it is. The honest position repeated throughout the site is that much of this tradition has only partial modern research — some claims are genuinely supported, some are plausible but untested, and some are folk habit that does not survive the evidence. The guides do not hide which is which.
Where do these ideas come from?
The framework is traditional Chinese food therapy as it survives in everyday practice — the modernised, kitchen-level version, not the clinical version with needles and prescriptions. The site treats it as a food tradition worth explaining honestly, not as a medical system, and nothing here should replace a professional opinion.