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‘Food is so powerful’: how Zoey Gong, TCM influencer, food therapist and dietitian, uses traditional Chinese medicine to heal
- Zoey Gong is far from the stereotypical TCM practitioner – she has tattoos, a striking appearance and nearly 60,000 followers on Instagram and 170,000 on TikTok
- The influencer, food therapist and dietitian reveals how she got into traditional Chinese medicine, the philosophy behind her cookbook and her favourite recipe
Reading Time:5 minutes
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Gone are the days when traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was seen as pseudoscience in the West. In New York, at least, people cannot seem to get enough of the 3,000-year-old practice.
Shanghai-born Zoey Xinyi Gong, a TCM food therapist and registered dietitian based in the city, is far from the stereotypical TCM practitioner.
With nearly 60,000 followers on Instagram and 170,000 on TikTok, Gong has a solid fan base. Sporting a vibrant orange-hued hairstyle, red lips and loud tattoos, her striking appearance inspires her followers to see TCM in a new light.
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From introducing massage points to relieve period cramps to harnessing the power of TCM herbs to alleviate post-traumatic stress disorder, or teaching her followers about tongue diagnosis – looking at one’s tongue to learn about the body’s overall health – Gong lives and breathes the art of TCM.
Gong’s passion for TCM and nutrition did not develop until she moved from Shanghai to New York at age 16. Three months after she moved to the United States, Gong began to develop issues such as skin rashes, allergies, joint pain and even breast tumours.
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“I was so young, confused and stressed at that time. I went to see doctors, but they couldn’t do much. They were just giving me steroids,” Gong recalls. “I went to the hospital every two weeks to get a steroid shot for my allergies.”
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