herbal healing and cooking seek to bring balance to our meals and thus to our body and mind.

Chinese medicine makes no clear distinction between food and medicine.  As the Chinese say, food and medicine are from the same source. Respect for the healing properties of food is woven into the fabric of everyday cuisine. Although some herbs are particular potent and used only for severe illness, many herbs and other beneficial ingredients are as common in Chinese cuisine as ketchup and mustard are in the United States.

Traditional Chinese medicine celebrates the relationship between food and health. The tradition offers a highly developed system of using the intrinsic properties of different herbs and foods to maximize each individual's well-being in a changing environment, enhancing the body's own natural powers for health, healing and rejuvenation.

In addition, foods can bring individuals in harmony with nature, human cycles and other parts of the environment as the act of eating is a regular and profound interaction with one's surroundings. Seasonal dishes can bring a person in line with the time of the year. Some foods can counteract a constitutional tendency toward lethargy or restlessness. Different dishes are advised for certain phases of a woman's cycle. And as we age, the best choices for building energy in our bodies changes. Eastern medicine approaches the body as a garden to be tended rather than engineered.