A brief history of the development of medicinal diet, the composition of medicinal diet is:

Our ancestors had to forage for food in nature in order to survive. Over time, it was discovered that certain animals and plants could not only be used as food to satisfy hunger, but also had medicinal properties. In the primitive stage of human society, people did not yet have the ability to separate food from medicine.

This phenomenon of combining food and medicine formed the source and prototype of medicinal diet. Perhaps it is precisely based on such a situation that traditional Chinese medicine says that "medicine and food are of the same origin".

Modern archaeologists have discovered many medicinal foods in primitive times, and modern ethnology has also found that some ethnic groups in primitive times will make foods with medicinal effects. All these prove that medicinal diets can indeed be said to have originated in the primitive era of human beings. Of course, this primitive form of medicinal diet cannot be said to be a real medicinal diet, and people at that time did not consciously use the medicinal properties of food.

The true medicinal diet can only appear in the era of civilization after humans have already had a wealth of medicinal knowledge and accumulated rich culinary experience. So when did the real meaning of medicinal diet originate in China, and how did it develop and evolve? Since the advent of writing in China, there have been words for medicine and food in oracle bone inscriptions and gold inscriptions.

The combination of the word medicine and the word diet to form the word medicinal diet was first seen in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Biography of the Daughters. Among them, there are words such as "Mother mixes medicinal food and thinks about it". "History of the Song Dynasty: The Biography of Zhang Guan" also has a record of "flea from the medicinal diet".

These records prove that at least more than 1,000 years ago, the name of medicinal diet appeared in China. Before the term medicinal diet appeared, there were records of the preparation and application of medicinal diet in ancient Chinese classics.

Medicinal diet is composed of three parts: medicinal herbs, ingredients and seasonings. Take the properties of medicinal materials, use the taste of ingredients, borrow medicinal power from food, and help food with medicine, the two complement each other and complement each other. Therefore, medicinal diet is not only different from ordinary Chinese medicine prescriptions, but also different from ordinary diet, it is a special food with medicinal effects and delicious food, which can cure diseases, strengthen the body and fight aging.

<>Under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine, gastronomy and nutrition theory, medicinal diet is strictly in accordance with the formula of medicinal diet, matching traditional Chinese medicine with certain foods with medicinal value, using China's unique dietary cooking technology and modern scientific methods to make delicious food with a certain color, fragrance, taste and shape. (In short, medicinal diet is a beautiful and long food made by matching medicinal herbs and ingredients.) It is the product of a combination of traditional Chinese medical knowledge and culinary experience.

It "combines medicine with food", which not only takes medicine as food, but also gives food medicinal use, medicine borrows food power, and food helps medicine, and the two complement each other and complement each other; It not only has high nutritional value, but also can prevent and cure diseases, health care and strengthen, and prolong life. In the technical operation and special application of modern medicinal diet, it is also "eight immortals across the sea, each showing its ability", because medicinal diet is a special food, so it also has its characteristics in the cooking method, in addition to the general food cooking method, but also according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine processing to process the raw materials. For example, the lotus leaf phoenix breast, the cordyceps steamed pot chicken, the ginkgo chicken of Guangchun Hall, the ginseng bear paw of Jilin, the fried ginseng mountain chicken slices, etc., all have their own characteristics and are well-known.

There are also new developments in the production of dietary therapy and medicinal diets, such as Xu Chunfu's "Ancient and Modern Medical System" 90 volumes, which contain various types of food and drink such as tea, wine, vinegar, soy sauce, sauce, vegetables and vegetables, meat, fresh fruits, cheese crisp, candied fruit, etc., which mostly meet the requirements of nutrition. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, special attention was paid to the therapeutic and medicinal diet of many diseases and the elderly. Among them, the more famous Gao Lian's "Zunsheng Eight Notes" records the diet suitable for the elderly in great detail, such as 38 kinds of porridge and 32 kinds of soup.

Cao Cishan's "Lao Lao Hengyan" in the Qing Dynasty paid special attention to the application of medicinal diet for the elderly to prevent disease and maintain health, and discussed the porridge for the elderly in the most detail, proposing that "porridge can benefit people, especially for the elderly", and divided the medicinal porridge into three products, the upper grade "light and clear smell, fragrant and delicious", the middle grade "Shaoxun", and the lower grade "heavy turbidity", advocating: "The elderly have a daily diet porridge, no juice, hungry and eaten, but also able to be strong and healthy, and live a long life." In the book, 36 kinds of high-grade porridge are proposed, such as lotus rice porridge, gourd porridge, almond porridge, walnut porridge, wolfberry leaf porridge, etc.; There are 27 kinds of medium-grade porridge, such as Poria porridge, red bean porridge, jujube porridge, and longan porridge; There are 37 kinds of porridge, such as rehmannia porridge, mutton liver porridge, etc., which are commonly used by future generations to nourish the elderly, strengthen the spleen and kidneys and generally weaken the common medicinal porridge.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that medicine and food are homology in China, and medicinal diet is to eat with medicine to achieve the purpose of disease prevention, health care, treatment and treatment. Since about the end of the Tang Dynasty, some dietary therapy works have been no longer satisfied with the health care effect of single food, and have begun the development of compound formulas, and the representative work that opened up this new stage is the "Food Doctor Heart" by the famous Sichuan doctor Zan Yin at the end of the Tang Dynasty. The "Food and Medicine Heart" was originally two volumes, classified by symptoms, and each category was divided into several or dozens of squares.

By the time of the Song Dynasty, medicinal diets had developed again. The Taiping Shenghui Fang, compiled in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Shengji General Record, published later, are two important treatises on medicine, both of which have several volumes devoted to food treatment. Most of the dietary prescriptions listed in the two books are in the form of medicinal food cooked together, and there are many kinds of porridge recipes, soup recipes, rice recipes, cake recipes, and winning recipes.

The section "Diet Therapy for Diseases" in the second volume of Hu Sihui's "Drinking and Eating is Essential" in the Yuan Dynasty describes dozens of kinds of medicinal diets, which is also extremely valuable. There are also about 150 kinds of food and drink, many of which are also medicinal diets, such as soup soup, congee noodles, etc., with ingredients and preparation methods, and indicate the diseases treated.

The main popular medicinal diets in modern times are nothing more than porridge, pastries, soups and dishes, which are mostly based on dishes, and restaurants specializing in medicinal diets have appeared. Commonly used medicinal diets include Cordyceps duck, ginkgo whole chicken, astragalus stewed chicken, fried snails with rice wine, lotus seed pork belly, eucommia fried lamb kidney, lily porridge, lotus leaf porridge, purslane porridge, poria cake, yam cake, angelica mutton soup, yam cream soup, etc. Many diseases have medicinal diet prescriptions, more and more people are more and more concerned about dietary therapy, and many doctors and chefs are constantly developing new varieties of medicinal diets and publishing some medicinal diet recipes.

In order to promote medicinal diet, China's health administrative department has announced dozens of traditional Chinese medicines that can be added to food, such as jujube, wolfberry, oyster, bitter almond, kelp, lotus seed, sour jujube kernel, licorice, monk fruit, poria cocos, fragrant herb, safflower, perilla, etc. Of course, there are more traditional Chinese medicines that have been included in the medicinal diet but do not have qualified status, and how to further develop them rationally is a topic that relevant experts are working on.

According to the literature, the origin of medicinal diet therapy and health care in China can be traced back to the Xia Yu era. At this time, there were already a variety of cooking methods, such as Yi Yin in the Shang Dynasty to make soup, and he was a master of cooking skills and served as the chef of the soup king.

The source of medicinal diet can be divided into several stages: the ignorance period, the embryonic period, the foundation period, the formation period, and the comprehensive development period. The period of obscurantism (ancient times), the embryonic period (summer to spring and autumn), the foundation period (Warring States to Han), and the formative period (Jin to Tang).

"People live on food" means that in order to survive and reproduce, human beings must "fill their stomachs" to maintain their physical needs. One of the most important things for primitive people was foraging, and the food at that time was completely dependent on the gifts of nature. There are many types of food eaten, and it is inevitable to accidentally eat inappropriate food, which can cause adverse reactions.

Han Feizi Five Worms said: The world of antiquity ......The people eat fruits, melons, mussels, clams, fishy and foul smell, and hurt the stomach and stomach, and the people have many diseases" "Huainanzi Cultivation Training" also said that "the ancients and the people, the grass and the people, the grass and the grass, the fruit of the trees, the meat of the food, the harm of many diseases and poisons." All of them show that the ancestors in ancient times were indeed tormented and troubled by diseases caused by harmful diets.

After a long period of life practice, people gradually realize which foods are beneficial to eat; What is harmful and unsuitable for consumption, "Huainanzi Xiu Wu Xun" says that "Shennong tastes the taste of a hundred herbs, the sweetness and bitterness of the water spring, so that the people know what to avoid, and at this time, they encounter seventy poisons in one day", which vividly illustrates the situation that the ancestors avoided poisonous food and ingested non-toxic food in the process of looking for food. At the same time, it was discovered that there were many kinds of food that could not only be used as food to satisfy hunger, but also had some medicinal properties. In the primitive stage of human society, people did not yet have the ability to separate food from medicine.

This phenomenon of combining food and medicine has formed the source and prototype of medicinal diet, which is the theoretical basis of "medicine and food homology" in traditional Chinese medicine. Primitive people used natural wildfires to artificially make fires, because of "burnt meat on the fire, burnt grain on the stone", so that people can obtain richer nutrition, make food more in line with health requirements, and enhance the body's ability to resist diseases. Modern archaeologists have found a lot of medicinal foods in primitive times, of course, this primitive medicinal diet prototype can not be said to be a real medicinal diet, at that time people still consciously use the medicinal properties of food, are unconscious actions in life.

Despite the state of ignorance, it is a difficult and long step, and it is also an important step in the history of human development.

Medicinal food was prescribed during the Qin and Han dynasties.