Definition of: Dietary therapy is the art of using food to successfully treat individuals with chronic and acute illness as well as maintain optimal health and conditioning.  The philosophy and strategies are based on Chinese medical protocols individualized for a wide range of conditions, individuals may manifest.

Chinese Nutritional Therapy is one of the oldest forms of healing. The art of cooking with the seasons, cooking food that is: locally cultivated and slaughtered with respect to the life of the plant and animal, and in the ways nature intended, is grounded in the history of traditional societies and considered a necessity for human existence. Globalism and modernization have eroded those practices and philosophies. However, around the world there is a resurgence of those values - respecting and being in harmony with nature/the environment in matters of farming and consumption.

A Practioner's Story:

Jomo's own interest in, and love for, food began around 6 -8 years old. From birth up to age 13, he was raised as a vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs); that upbringing profoundly influenced his dietary habits and beliefs until adulthood.  In the middle of his second year at Swedish Institute as he was on the cusp of unsupervised clinical practice, serious questions arose regarding his diet which by then was lacto-ovo vegan (including some dairy, eggs, vegetables/grain). 

A very rigorous and strenuous schedule of working a night schedule outdoors doing telephone construction work, from 11:00PM to 7:00AM, and attending school full time in the day from 12pm to 10pm sometimes 6 days a week, had begun to compromise his health. At the recommendation of one of his clinical supervisors to eat meat, he promptly and effortlessly made a dietary shift, adding meat (locally raised as nature intended with pasture and green grass grazing and humanely slaughtered).

The change in diet restored his vitality and strength and allowed him to complete his program of study and have a great experience in China, where meat was a daily part of most meals (aside from the monastic life). An added bonus of the change in eating habits was being able to embrace the culinary aspects of his Afro-Caribbean lineage (which coincides with Chinese culture), where similar view regarding food is embraced; nothing of the animal or plant is left to waste.

In his current continuing education course of study under the teachings of Jeffrey C. Yuen, he explores the use of food to maintain health, restore one's optimal health and treat individuals therapeutically.  The regimen for therapeutic treatments involves high amounts of food ingested over a period of time, e.g. eating kale twice a day for a month to nourish blood, or the addition of black sesame seeds to a plate of cabbage or broccoli daily for a month to restore kidney energy.

These dietary strategies are based on Chinese Medicine, not Western Medicine.