Strictly speaking, there is a difference between medicated diet and dietotherapy. Although medicated diet contains "food", the concept of "food" in dietotherapy is far broader than medicated diet, including all diets including medicated diet. Therefore, dietotherapy is not necessarily medicated diet, but medicated diet must have dietotherapy effect. Because the two have the same purpose, strict subdivision seems to be of little significance. Medicinal diet is also different from general Chinese medicine prescriptions. Although the general prescription of traditional Chinese medicine has the effect of treating diseases, it does not have the delicious and artistic modeling functions of medicinal diet. Therefore, it can be said that medicated diet therapy is both a science and an art.
3. Medicinal diet is an important part of Chinese diet culture. It has been washed away by thousands of years in the long history. Not only has it not been eliminated, but it has widely penetrated into people's lives and is deeply loved by people of all ethnic groups, deeply affecting people in Southeast Asia such as Japan and South Korea and even Europe and the United States. This is one of its characteristics.
4. "Pay attention to the whole and give food dialectically". That is, when using medicated diet, we should first comprehensively analyze the patient's physique, health status, disease nature, season, geographical environment and other aspects, judge its basic syndrome types, and then determine the corresponding dietotherapy principles and specific prescriptions, which is the second feature of medicated diet therapy.
5. "Pay equal attention to prevention and treatment, 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 food, as long as the method is proper, the effect of preventing and treating diseases and strengthening the body is more obvious, which is the third feature.
6. "Medicine and food are homologous, and good medicine tastes bitter." Because of the bitter taste of traditional Chinese medicine decoction, many people, especially children, often refuse to accept it In addition, taking medicine to treat diseases will bring negative psychological influence to people, and medicated diet is mostly both medicine and food, which has the characteristics of color, fragrance and taste of food, so people can enjoy delicious food and achieve the purpose of preventing diseases, strengthening their bodies or treating diseases, which is the fourth characteristic of medicated diet.
7. The main task and content of medicated diet therapy is to study the theory of combining medicine with food, explore the prescription of ancient Chinese medicated diet, reform the processing technology of raw materials and diet, and improve the curative effect of disease prevention and treatment.
8. For thousands of years, the concept of "homology of medicine and food" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, but TCM nutrition has only formed a relatively independent discipline in recent decades. Nowadays, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards and the enhancement of health care and disease prevention awareness, more and more people hope to achieve the goal of health and longevity through food or diet. Therefore, it can be predicted that medicated diet closely related to people's lives will also be promising.