1. Traditional Chinese medicine medicated diet refers to a special diet with the functions of strengthening the body (health care), preventing and treating diseases. That is, under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory, different drugs with therapeutic effects are organically combined with food, and reasonable cooking and making techniques are adopted to process into catering food with color, fragrance, taste, shape and effect. Dietotherapy refers to the treatment of diseases by diet, and its application basis is also based on traditional Chinese medicine theory. Therefore, medicated diet is an important part of Chinese traditional medicine.
2. Strictly speaking, medicated diet is different from dietotherapy. Although medicated diet contains "food", the concept of "food" in dietotherapy is far broader than medicated diet, which includes all diets including medicated diet. Therefore, dietotherapy is not necessarily medicated diet, but medicated diet must have dietotherapy effect. Because the purpose of the two is the same, strict subdivision seems to be of little significance. Medicinal diet is also different from the general Chinese medicine prescription. Although the general Chinese medicine prescription has the efficacy of treating diseases, it does not have the delicious and artistic modeling functions of medicinal diet. Therefore, it can be said that medicinal diet therapy is both a science and an art.
3. Medicinal dietotherapy is an important part of the Chinese nation's dietetic culture. It has been washed away by thousands of years in the long river of history, not only has it not been eliminated, but has spread widely into people's lives and become popular among all ethnic groups, deeply affecting people in countries and regions such as Japan, South Korea and even Europe and America. This is one of its characteristics.
4. "Pay attention to the whole and apply food dialectically". That is, when using medicated diet, we should first comprehensively analyze the patient's physique, health status, nature of illness, seasons, geographical environment and other aspects, judge its basic syndrome types, and then determine the corresponding dietotherapy principles and specific prescriptions, which is the second characteristic of medicated diet therapy.
5. "Both prevention and control are appropriate, and the effect is obvious". Medicinal diet can not only cure diseases, but also strengthen the body and prevent diseases, which is one of the characteristics different from drug treatment. Although the raw materials of medicated diet are mostly mild and nourishing drugs or ordinary foods, as long as the methods are proper, the effect of preventing and treating diseases and keeping fit is more obvious, which is the third characteristic.
6. "both medicine and food are used, and the good medicine is delicious." Because of the bitter taste of traditional Chinese medicine decoction, many people, especially children, often refuse to accept it Furthermore, taking medicine to treat diseases will give people a negative psychological impact, while medicated diet is mostly used as both medicine and food, and it has the characteristics of color, fragrance and taste of food, so people can enjoy delicious food and achieve the purpose of preventing diseases, keeping fit or treating diseases, which is the fourth feature of medicated diet.
7. The main tasks and contents of medicinal dietotherapy are to study the theory of combining medicine with food, explore the prescription of ancestors' medicinal diet, reform the processing technology of raw materials and diet, and improve the efficacy of preventing and treating diseases.
8. For thousands of years, the concept of "homology of medicine and food" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, but it is only in recent decades that Chinese medicinal dietetics has become a relatively independent discipline. Nowadays, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards and the enhancement of awareness of health care and disease prevention, more and more people hope to achieve the purpose of health and longevity through food or diet. Therefore, it can be predicted that medicated diet, which is closely related to people's lives, will also have a bright future.