Oct 21 / Tanya Stricek

Food Energetics: A Missing Link in Functional Nutrition

Beyond macros and meal plans, let's look at the energetic side of food.

In today’s wellness landscape, practitioners are surrounded by information and tools, home health tests, wearable metrics, continuing education, food log downloads, and natural remedy choices.

Yet clients are still asking the same question: “Why do I still feel this way?”

The answer may lie in energetics, specifically food energetics.

This ancient take on food's influence on the body can offer something refreshingly simple and profoundly effective. Herbal medicines are described as energetic in nature. It stands to reason that foods will carry their own energetic properties. Many integrative philosophies look to food as more than just cellular fuel. 

The Energetic Language of Food

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), food is understood not just by its nutrients, but by its energetic action — how it influences temperature, moisture, and flow in the body.

  • Some foods warm and stimulate metabolism.
  • Others cool inflammation and calm the nervous system.
  • Certain foods create dampness, contributing to sluggish digestion or brain fog.
  • And some are drying, rebalancing when the body feels heavy or congested.

It’s a framework that mirrors what functional practitioners already see in their clients—inflammation vs. depletion, sluggish detox vs. overstimulation—but explained through an energetic lens.

While TCM offers one of the most developed frameworks for food energetics, similar ideas appear across healing traditions, from Ayurveda’s warming and cooling foods that balance the doshas to the humoral theory in Western herbalism. Each system recognizes that food carries an energetic signature that influences physiology and mood. 

Bridging Energetics and Function

At CBH Energetics, we see food energetics as the practical expression of what our bioenergetic scans reveal.

When a scan shows adrenal stress, sluggish liver patterns, or lymphatic stagnation, those findings often align beautifully with the food energetic states TCM describes as heat, cold, damp, or dry. By blending these insights, practitioners can translate scan data into simple, actionable nutrition guidance that clients can feel, not just understand.

For example:

  • A client with “cold” energy and low digestive fire might benefit from cooked, warming foods and gentle spices. Cooling spices and foods such as mint, chamomile, or cucumber may not align at this particular time.   
  • Someone showing “heat” or inflammation patterns might thrive with cooling, hydrating foods and antioxidant-rich greens. Warming foods and spices such as saffron, cayenne, or bone broth can be sidelined in favor of items that are more cooling, like radish or cucumber. 

  • A damp terrain (bloating, fatigue, congestion) may respond best to lighter, drying foods like lemon, celery, and barley.

  • A client who is dry (constipation, dry skin, dry eyes) may benefit from moistening foods such as pear, healthy fats, and cooked, moist dishes. 

This connection between the energetic terrain and body patterns empowers you to move from explaining data to making shifts in a client’s well-being.

Why Practitioners Love This Approach

Integrating food energetics into a bioenergetic or functional nutrition practice offers:


 Language clients intuitively understand — balance, flow, warmth, coolness, heaviness, lightness.
 Personalized guidance that complements your existing protocols.
 Bridging intuition and science — helping clients trust their bodies again.
 Deeper results when paired with a Balancing or Full Scan, revealing the energetic root causes of imbalance.

The Heart of a Modern Practice

A modern, heart-centered practitioner blends clinical tools with human understanding. Food energetics gives you that bridge; it helps you see the person behind the pattern and reconnect them with the energy of nourishment.
With CBH Energetics, you’re not just adding another product; you’re expanding your ability to read the body’s energetic story and support clients holistically, from brain to body to balance.

Ready to Bring This Level of Insight to Your Practice?

Join our growing network of holistic and functional practitioners using bioenergetic testing to personalize wellness care. Because balanced living—for your clients and your business—starts with balanced energy. 
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