Chinese Medicinal Diet

Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history，and is a significant component of traditional Chinese culture.It summed up and accumulated a history of fighting against diseases，and numerous physicians’valuable experiences through long-term medical practice.Combining with other disciplines，it finally formed a medical system with a unique theory.Since ancient times，Chinese traditional medicine has atheory of”medicine and dining have the same origin”，believing that the concept of medicine and food are relative，some food is medicine too，and can cure disease as we11.It is based on this theory that medicinal diet came into being，taking health care with the combination of herbal medicine and normal diet.

The raw materials in medicinal diet are main food and herbal medicine.The kind of food can be quite broad，including most of the common food in our life，such as cereal（grain，corn，etc.），vegetables（potatoes，beans，etc）and potherb；meat，fish，turtle，lobster，crab and some insects，snake；fruits，nuts and some wild fruits.Besides，some seasoning，aromatics and tea are esculent.The herbs must be esculent too，thus they should have following characteristics:firstly，not poisonous，such as lanceolata，wolfberry fruit，ginseng，etc；secondly，chewable，such as lanceolata，Chinese yam，poria，etc；thirdly，delectable，not too bitter，nor smelly，such as fennel，amomum，amomum medium，cassia，etc.Thus only a few herbs in traditional Chinese medicine are suitable for medicinal diet.They can be classified mainly into four categories:reinforcing deficiency herbs，interior-warming herbs，dissipating dampness herbs and digestive herbs.The herbs with strong resistance and the toxic ones should never be used in medicinal diet.

The recipe for medicinal diet is quite different from those of（everyday）diets.

There are two principles:Firstly，follow the dominating and auxiliary position given in prescriptions；secondly，follow the blending principle of diets.Medicinal diets should not only achieve the effect of dietotherapy，but also fulfill the standard of color，smel1，taste，shape and quality for dietary.

The importance of the ingredient is not decided by the dose but its medical effect.Generally speaking，though ingredients like rice，flour，vegetables and meat occupy a large proportion，they are not the priority.

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