Chinese Medicated Diet

In The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic, a medical classic in TCM which appeared approximately in the Warring States Period, several medicated diet prescriptions were recorded. In Shennong's Herbal Classic, which was published approximately in about the Qin and Han Periods and is the extant earliest monograph on materia medica, many sorts of medicaments which are both drugs and food were recorded, such as Chinese-date, sesame seed, Chinese yam, grape, walnut kernel, lily bulb, fresh ginger, Job's-tears seed, etc. In the book Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases written by Zhang Zhongjing, a noted medical man, in the East Han Dynasty, some noted medicated diet recipes were recorded, such as Soup of Chinese Angelica Root, Fresh Ginger and Mutton, Decoction of Pig-skin, etc., all of which now still have important values. Sun Simiao, a well-known doctor in the Tang Dynasty, listed and discussed such questions as dietetic treatment, dietetic treatment for senile health are and health preservation, etc. in his books Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies and A supplement to Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies.

Medicated Diet is divided into two types; dietetic Chinese drugs and medicated diet for dietetic treatment. Dietetic Chinese drugs, also known as "edible Chinese drugs," "dietetic materia medica" or "medicinal food," refer to drink and food which can be used either for prevention and cure of diseases, or for health care and recovery. Dietetic Chinese drugs of this type include cereals, fruits, nuts, vegetables, seasonings, birds and animals, aquatic products and so on, but 70 kinds will be discussed in this book.

Medicated diet for dietetic therapy is a diet made from salutary drugs, food and condiments. Concretely speaking, medicated diet can be prepared either from edible Chinese drugs alone, or from Chinese crude drugs and food according to certain prescriptions, by processing and cooking. In light of its form and process, medicated diet can be divided into eleven kinds: Fresh juice, medicated tea, drink, medicated wine, decoction, medicated gruel, honey extract, medicated cake, medicated pancake, soups.