Chinese food therapy (simplified Chinese: 食疗; traditional Chinese: 食療; pinyin: shíliáo, also called nutrition therapy and dietary therapy) is a mode of dieting rooted in Chinese understandings of the effects of food on the human organism, and centred on concepts such as eating in moderation. Its basic precepts are a mix of folk views and concepts drawn from traditional Chinese medicine. It was the prescientific analog of modern medical nutrition therapy; that is, it was a state-of-the-art version of dietary therapy before the sciences of biology and chemistry allowed the discovery of present physiological knowledge. It now qualifies as alternative medicine.