(1) Moderate diet with five flavors.
The ancients thought: "Diet is moderate, and it is only when you are 100 years old", which reflects the ancients' understanding of the importance of controlling diet. "frugality" means moderation, control and not eating or drinking. For example, Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty once pointed out: "Those who are good at keeping in good health can't eat enough and drink too much", and should "eat all the fruits and vegetables, and never overdo it".
The ancients also believed that "the five flavors are harmonious and cannot be partial." There are four flavors of "cold, hot, warm and cool" and five flavors of "sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty" in food. Each of the five flavors has its own taste, and each takes its favorite dirty; Each has its own prohibitions, and it also hurts the five internal organs. As Wang Bing said, zang-fu organs are "born of five flavors, but also damaged by five flavors", and the five flavors are used to harmonize diet and balance yin and yang to adapt to the changes of yin and yang in human qi, blood and zang-fu. If the five flavors are out of balance, it is easy to hurt the five internal organs and get sick. It is believed that: "acid hurts tendons, bitter hurts bones, sweetness is not good for meat, and bitterness is bad for gas, which promotes life." Explain the interests of reconciling the five flavors.
To achieve a moderate diet and reconcile five flavors, the daily diet should be regular and quantitative, and should be light. "Eating at dusk is not like eating in the morning" advocates. "A bowl of porridge in the morning, don't teach enough at night." "Shou Shi Bao Yuan" pointed out: "If you are thirsty, you will not drink too much, and if you are hungry, you will not eat too much." "Doctor of Stupid Children" said: "Even if it is palatable to eat Mo Lang, eating only eight points is enough." Zhang Gao's Medical Theory in Song Dynasty pointed out that the taste should be "fat-free, sour and salty", that is, the daily diet should be light vegetarian, and the dishes that are fat, sweet, greasy and sour and salty should be eaten less. There is also a record in Neijing that "salty is forbidden due to heart disease". Modern medical research shows that the incidence of hypertension is10% among people who eat 10g of salt every day, while the incidence of hypertension increases twice for people who eat twice as much salt every day. It can be seen that the emphasis on light diet in ancient times coincides with the idea of controlling salt and animal fat in modern medicine to prevent cardiovascular disease.
(2) Eat regularly, and things are suitable for me.
Diet is regular, "regular" means routine, certain regularity and standardization. The viewpoint of "five grains are the nourishment, five fruits are the help, five livestock are the benefit, five vegetables are the filling, and the smell is combined and served" embodies the living characteristics of the ancient people in China-vegetarian diet, supplemented by fruit and vegetable meat, blending five flavors and eclectic diet. If this law is violated, it will lead to the imbalance of yin, yang, qi and blood in the body and cause diseases. For example, "Neijing" says: "The change of the cream beam is enough to give birth to a big ding." Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "fat is sweet to help damp, phlegm is produced to turn into heat". In modern times, it is believed that the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases is related to excessive partial consumption of animal foods and increased cholesterol and triglycerides, while proper vegetarian diet can reduce the incidence. This shows from one side the importance of the dietary law of "five grains for nourishment" in health preservation.
Another important viewpoint of "having a regular diet" is that "things are suitable for me", that is, the taste of food should be adapted to the yin, yang, qi and blood conditions of the human body, and what kind of appropriate food to eat should be decided according to the needs of the human body. If people's physique is divided into cold and heat, they advocate eating according to the principle of "heat is cold, cold is hot, deficiency is tonic, excess is diarrhea, and dryness is moist".
(3) Diet should be timely and supplemented in four seasons.
Under the guidance of the idea of "correspondence between man and nature", the ancient Chinese people attached great importance to the relationship between diet and seasons, and put forward the "four seasons and five supplements" method of diet health preservation. That is to say, with the change of seasons, the diet should be adjusted according to the health status of human body to make up for the deficiency of Yin and Yang's qi and blood: spring, summer, autumn, winter and four seasons.
The ancients advocated keeping in line with the four seasons in health care, with the view that "saints nourish yang in spring and summer and yin in autumn and winter" and "wise people's health care must be suitable for cold and heat in four seasons". This view has been regarded as the aim by later generations of health care experts, who pay attention to eating foods with different tastes in different seasons, climates and times in order to adapt to the environment and the four-season changes of yin, yang, qi and blood of human body. For example, "Eating and Eating is Right" expounds the suitable food in four seasons. "In spring, it is appropriate to eat wheat to cool it; Summer is hot, so you should eat glutinous rice to cool it; Autumn is dry, so you should eat hemp to moisten it; Winter is cold, so it is advisable to eat dates to heat them up. " "Book of Supporting the Aged and Longevity" gives a detailed account of the diet and health care of the elderly in the four seasons: "In spring, it is advisable to reduce acid and increase sweetness to nourish the temper, and you should not drink too much wine, and the water mass is also sticky and fat, which will hurt the spleen and stomach; Summer diet should reduce bitterness and increase spice to nourish lung qi, and the diet should be warm and soft, so as not to make it too full, especially if it is cold and greasy; In autumn diet, it is advisable to reduce acrimony and increase acidity to nourish liver qi, and the new grain is not suitable for eating, which is moving and chronic; In winter diet, it is advisable to reduce salt and increase bitterness to nourish the heart. " These four-season tonic health principles are of great benefit to health and longevity.
(4) Clean diet and avoid eating.
Food hygiene is also an important viewpoint of ancient people's health preservation, which holds that food should be fresh, clean and full of vitality; If necessary, fashion should distinguish whether it is toxic or not, and be careful from the mouth.
For example, Eating Diet is about to advocate that pigs and sheep are inedible when they die of epidemic disease, that raw materials are inedible when they are smelly, and that the rice is inedible when the pulp is old. The Herbal Medicine for Dietotherapy also states that the turtle is inedible when it is barefoot, and that the dog is inedible when it dies. "Living with Interest Diet Spectrum" also states that "the liver, liver and blood of puffer fish are particularly toxic".
Different physical properties have opposite commandments; There are different diseases, such as eating properly and avoiding it. In Jia Ming's Diet Need to Know in Yuan Dynasty, 325 kinds of diet properties and taboos were discussed. The so-called "fitness" means to treat diseases with foods that are suitable for eating; And "taboo" means that unsuitable food should be fasted, also known as "taboo". There are 63 dietary taboos listed in Compendium of Materia Medica.
"Living with Interest Diet Spectrum" contains: "Glutinous rice is too sticky and difficult to melt. Children and patients should especially avoid it. " And so on, there are many records in ancient medical books, which form a major feature of Chinese diet health theory.