"Medicine and food are homologous" means that many foods are medicines, and there is no absolute dividing line between them. Ancient doctors applied the theory of "four natures" and "five flavors" of traditional Chinese medicine to food, and thought that every food also had "four natures" and "five flavors". "homology of medicine and food" means that Chinese medicine and food originated at the same time. "Huai Nan Zi Xiu Wu Xun" said: "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and the water spring was sweet and bitter, which made the people know and avoid it. At this time, I encountered 70 poisons a day. " It can be seen that there is no distinction between medicine and food in Shennong era, and non-toxic people can be exempted.
Tai Su in Huangdi's Internal Classic in the Tang Dynasty wrote: "Eating on an empty stomach is food, and patients take medicine", which embodies the idea of "medicine and food are homologous".
"homology of medicine and food" means that Chinese medicine and food originated at the same time. "Huai Nan Zi Xiu Wu Xun" said: "Shennong tasted the taste of a hundred herbs, and the sweetness and bitterness of the water spring made the people know and avoid it. At this time, I encountered seventy poisons a day. " It can be seen that there is no distinction between medicine and food in Shennong era, and non-toxic people can be exempted.
With the accumulation of experience, medicine and food began to differentiate. After using fire, people began to eat cooked food, and cooking technology gradually developed. At the same time that food and medicine began to differentiate, dietotherapy and medicine also gradually differentiated. Neijing has excellent dietotherapy theory, such as "treating diseases with great poison, eliminating six from ten diseases;" Often poison cures diseases, nine times out of ten; Small poison cures all diseases, ten in and eight out; Non-toxic treatment, nine times out of ten; Whole grains, vegetarian fruits and vegetables, eat nutritious food, not too much, hurt its meaning, "this can be called the earliest principle of dietotherapy."
It can be seen that in the traditional Chinese medicine, there are similarities and differences between medicine and food. But from the development process, ancient times are homologous. After thousands of years of development, medicine and food are separated. If we look at the future prospects, we may return to simplicity, taking food as medicine and replacing medicine with food.
China traditional Chinese medicine has a theory of "homology of medicine and food" (also called "homology of medicine and food") since ancient times. This theory holds that many foods are both food and medicine, and food and medicine can also prevent and treat diseases. In ancient primitive society, people found the taste and efficacy of various foods and drugs in the process of searching for food, and realized that many foods can be used as medicine and many drugs can also be eaten. It is difficult to distinguish the two strictly. This is the basis of the theory of "homology of medicine and food" and the basis of dietotherapy.