Medicinal diet refers to a diet that is prepared under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory by combining Chinese medicinal materials and food ingredients through different cooking methods to achieve the functions of health care, disease prevention and treatment, recovery promotion and anti-aging.
The efficacy of medicated food
As early as two thousand years ago, ancient doctors realized that diet has physiological and pathological effects on the human body. According to the different nature of the symptoms, choose food of different nature. For example, people with cold stomach pain can drink ginger and brown sugar water. Ginger tastes spicy and warm, while brown sugar tastes sweet, which has the effect of dispelling exterior pathogens, warming the stomach and harmonizing the middle.
The five flavors have specific correlations with the internal organs of the human body. For example, sour enters the liver, sweet enters the spleen, bitter enters the heart, pungent enters the lungs, and salty enters the kidneys. The five internal organs of the human body have different affinities and repulsions to the five colors and five flavors, and thus have different therapeutic effects.
1. Treatment (治療)
The medical saint Zhang Zhongjing once said, "The taste of food may be suitable for the disease or harmful to the body. If it is suitable, it will benefit the body, but if it is harmful, it will cause illness." "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" and "Golden Chamber Prescriptions" 《傷寒雜病論》、《金匱要略方論》 record prescriptions such as Baihu Decoction, Zhuye Shigao Decoction, Guati Powder, Shizao Decoction, and Ganmai Dazao Decoction (白虎湯、竹葉石膏湯、瓜蒂散、十棗湯、甘麥大棗湯). In addition to using Chinese medicinal materials, they also adopt a large number of dietary conditioning methods to combine medicine and food to treat acute and serious diseases.
For example, the Shizao Decoction, which is used for expelling diuresis, contains Dazao, Gelsemium elegans, and Daji, and is combined with ten jujubes to alleviate the toxicity of the drug, invigorate qi and protect the stomach, and reduce post-drug reactions. It can be seen that the food and medicinal materials are properly matched, which has the effects of conditioning, prevention, and treatment.
2. Health (養生)
"Huangdi Neijing·Suwen·Zangqi Fashilun" states: "Five grains are for nourishment, five fruits are for assistance, five animals are for benefit, and five vegetables are for filling. Take them together with their flavors to replenish the essence and qi." Medicine and food have the same origin. A variety of meat and vegetarian ingredients are combined with medicinal materials for comprehensive use to learn from each other's strengths and overcome their weaknesses, so as to give full play to the role of dietary nutrition on the human body and achieve the purpose of health preservation.
For example, fried chicken with celery. Celery tastes sweet, bitter, cool and non-toxic. It belongs to the lung, stomach, and liver meridians. It has the effects of calming the liver and clearing away heat, dispelling wind and dampness, relieving restlessness and swelling, cooling blood and stopping bleeding, detoxifying and ventilating the lungs, strengthening the stomach and promoting blood circulation, clearing the intestines and facilitating bowel movements, moistening the lungs and relieving coughs, and lowering blood pressure. When paired with chicken, celery is sweet and slightly warm in nature. It can warm the middle and nourish the spleen, replenish qi and blood, nourish the kidneys and improve essence, and it is rich in protein. The combination of the two meets the current needs for balanced nutrition.
How does Chinese medicine determine what medicinal food a patient needs?
1. Constitution (體質)
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that people can be classified into 9 major physical characteristics, including:
※ Peaceful constitution 平和質
※ Qi deficiency constitution 氣虛質
※ Yang deficiency constitution 陽虛質
※ Yin deficiency constitution 陰虛質
※ Phlegm-damp constitution 痰濕質
※ Damp-heat constitution 濕熱質
※ Blood stasis constitution 血瘀質
※ Qi stagnation constitution 氣鬱質
※ Special constitution 特稟質
For example, people with qi deficiency are afraid of cold and easily catch colds, have a weak voice, and feel tired and weak. The principle of diet therapy is to strengthen the spleen and replenish qi. Medicinal materials and ingredients such as poria cocos, longan, and yam should be selected. By regulating the functions of the spleen and stomach, helping the body absorb nutrients and nourishing the limbs, the symptoms can be improved.
People with damp-heat constitution often feel heavy and tired, have oily faces, are prone to acne, have bad breath, and have abdominal distension. The principle of dietary therapy is to focus on light tonic, and it is advisable to choose medicinal ingredients that clear heat and remove dampness, such as celery, mung beans, coix seeds, red beans, etc.
2. Symptoms
According to the coldness and heat, deficiency and excess of the symptoms, the dominance of yin and yang, and the four properties and five flavors of the food, as well as the characteristics of rising, falling, floating and sinking as well as the meridians, we can match the medicated food suitable for the patient to regulate his body. For example, people with weak spleen and stomach and diarrhea should not drink cold drinks, eat raw and cold food, salads, melons and fruits. People with skin problems such as eczema and urticaria should not eat foods with high histamine or that cause allergic reactions in the body.
3. Others
Adapt to the times
Different seasons can be eaten with medicinal foods suitable for the characteristics of that season:
- In spring, we should let the Yang Qi rise and avoid eating acidic foods
-
Summer is hot, so it is advisable to clear away summer heat, replenish qi and nourish yin. Hong Kong's summer climate is humid from July to August, and bacteria are easily bred. The diet should be hygienic and light. It is not suitable to overeat raw, cold and greasy foods to avoid increasing the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. Medicinal diet is mainly light tonic. You can choose medicinal materials and ingredients such as Codonopsis pilosula (黨參), Poria cocos (茯苓), Chinese yam, Coix seed (薏苡仁), lotus seed, Euryale ferox (芡實), bitter gourd, pork tripe, and shiitake mushrooms for tonic.
-
Autumn is dry, so moisturizing should be the principle
- It’s cold in winter, so it’s good to take supplements
Different people make different choices
- Infants, teenagers, adults, and the elderly each have their own characteristics. For example, children have a high basal metabolism, so they need more calories.
- Children are full of vitality, and balanced nutrition can fully support the speed of growth and development.
- Elderly people have reduced gastrointestinal adaptability or chronic diseases, so their diet should be low in calories, fat, sugar, and protein, supplemented with vitamins and appropriate inorganic salts.
- Women have physiological characteristics of menstruation, uterine bleeding, pregnancy and childbirth. For example, during pregnancy, they need to eat more extra food to support the growth of the mother and the fetus. After childbirth, they need to eat foods that can promote lactation and regulate qi and blood to replenish the body's consumption and secrete milk for the baby to drink.
Different local conditions
Different regions have unique climates and living habits, and people's physiological characteristics and pathological tendencies are also different, so the combination of medicinal foods also varies from place to place. For example, Hong Kong has a hot and humid climate, so we buy a lot of dehumidifying herbs and ingredients to eliminate the heaviness and fatigue of the body; China's northwest plateau has a cold and dry climate with low rainfall, so local residents eat more cheese bones, meat, cow and sheep milk.
🥘 Recipe:
Different types of medicinal food
- Fresh juice: Juice obtained by mashing and pressing juice-rich plant fruits, stems, leaves and tubers. It needs to be stored in a sealed and refrigerated place to prevent fermentation and deterioration.
- Tea: A drinking liquid made from light medicinal materials with aromatic volatile ingredients, brewed with boiling water and soaked. Not suitable for frying or boiling.
- Medicinal wine: It is made by soaking and brewing Chinese herbs, and is divided into "wine", "li" and "lao". "Wine" contains common medicinal ingredients; "li" contains sugar in addition to common medicinal ingredients; "lao" contains medicinal ingredients and sugar, as well as the lees produced by winemaking.
- Soup: A liquid preparation made by boiling or soaking Chinese medicinal materials and food ingredients in water, removing the residue and extracting the juice.
- Medicinal porridge: porridge mainly made from cereals, with vegetables, fruits, fish, meat, eggs, milk, medicines, etc.
- Honey paste: a thick paste made by boiling and concentrating fresh medicinal juice, fresh fruit juice or decoction of medicine and then adding honey. It has nourishing effect.
- Dishes: refers to dishes cooked with ingredients such as vegetables, eggs, meat and fish, which can be cooked by stir-frying, sautéing, roasting, stewing, simmering, braising, steaming, boiling, stewing, roasting, baking, blanching, braising and frying.
- Rice: Cook the Chinese medicinal materials and rice together, or cook the rice with the juice extracted from the Chinese medicinal materials.
Disclaimer
♥️ Healthy Express - We do not provide medical advice
All content in Health Information provided and shared on this website is for general informational reference only and has no legal or medical use. It cannot replace the diagnosis and treatment of any professional medical personnel. Consult a professional health care provider before starting any new eating habits or other therapies.
The prescriptions and articles quoted are only intended to facilitate consumers' one-stop purchase of raw materials for adjunctive therapies and to provide information about the original author for customers to follow and refer to. The product introduction content of this website is not intended to announce, display, sell the text, we respect the copyright of the original author's work, the copyright belongs to the original author of the column work, we only provide the ingredients and materials of the formula.
The content (videos, descriptions, links and reviews) provided by the Company and the above articles are purely personal experience sharing. This content is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or physical health condition, and nothing contained therein should be misinterpreted. Nor shall it apply to self-diagnosis or self-treatment of any disease, health, medical or physical condition.
Disclaimer: We do not provide online diagnosis and treatment with individuals, the content is general information only, please be sure to consult your doctor for any personal health problems.
Please do not use this content to avoid seeing your own doctor or health care professional or to replace the advice they give you. Consult your doctor or healthcare professional before performing any of the actions contained in this content.
