Under this general guiding ideology, in order to reconcile yin and yang, qi and blood, cold and heat, deficiency and excess of the human body, so as to keep it relatively balanced and coordinated, some drugs are often used to prevent diseases and resist aging through various tonic methods, so as to achieve the health-keeping purpose of "Yin and Pingyang are the secret and God is the cure" as ancient physicians said.
The ancients also paid attention to the recuperation of the usual diet. Eating certain foods is conducive to eliminating diseases and delaying aging, that is, food supplements or dietotherapy.
Medicinal diet refers to a dietary dish based on the theory of "homology of medicine and food", which takes medicinal materials as raw materials and is cooked with specific foods according to a certain dose. The nature of medicine and the taste of food need to complement each other.
There are hundreds of medicinal foods in China. For example, Gastrodia elata Turtle (nourishing yin and blood, treating vertigo), Polygonatum tablets (strengthening the body, invigorating qi and nourishing yang), stewed chicken with Astragalus membranaceus (invigorating qi and blood, tonifying deficiency), walnut quail eggs (tonifying kidney and brain, nourishing liver) and Cordyceps duck (tonifying deficiency and tonifying kidney, relieving asthma). Taking Cordyceps duck as an example, it is cooked with 9 ~ 15g Cordyceps sinensis and a properly seasoned duck. Cordyceps sinensis is warm and sweet, nourishing kidney and moistening lung, stopping bleeding and resolving phlegm, and can be used to treat chronic cough and asthma, excessive phlegm and less blood, impotence and nocturnal emission, and soreness of waist and knees. Stewed or steamed with ducks can improve human resistance.
There are many records about porridge in medical books of past dynasties. "Yu Su Wen Ji Zhen Zang Lun" said: "When porridge enters the stomach, it will be exhausted, and then the deficiency will live." Porridge is a thing, easy to digest and absorb, suitable for all seasons, especially for the elderly and infirm. Rice is the main raw material of porridge, japonica rice is the best, followed by indica rice, and new rice is especially sweet. Eating porridge with conditioning function often has a certain effect on resisting diseases and prolonging life.
Generally, there are cereal porridge (benefiting heart qi, astringing deficient sweating and relieving vexation), mung bean porridge (relieving fever, clearing away summer heat and detoxifying), bean porridge (invigorating spleen, harmonizing middle energizer and tonifying deficiency) and jujube porridge (nourishing stomach, invigorating spleen and calming nerves).
Good medicine is bitter in the mouth. Coptis chinensis/Anonymous
The root and stem of Coptis chinensis are extremely bitter, and it is listed as the top grade in Shennong Herbal Classic. Although coptis chinensis is bitter, it is a good medicine. As the saying goes, "good medicine tastes bitter and is good for disease." There is a touching legend about the origin of its name.
According to legend, a long time ago, there lived a doctor named Tao on the Phoenix Mountain in Shizhu County, Sichuan Province. His family has a garden that specializes in planting herbs, and he uses them to treat diseases. Because of his superb medical skills, people from far and near came to ask him for treatment. Dr. Tao often goes out, so he hired a helper named Huanglian to manage the garden. The helper is kind-hearted, upright and honest.
One spring, Dr. Tao's only daughter went out to play and saw weeds with small green flowers growing on the hills in the suburbs. They are very beautiful, so she picked some plants to take home and planted them in the garden. The helpers fertilize and water all kinds of Chinese herbal medicines planted in the garden every day, and take better care of this wild flower.
One day, Teacher Tao got a strange disease. She was feverish all over, vomiting and pulling, and after a few days she was all skin and bones. Dr. Tao hasn't come back from treating people in other places, so Miss Tao's mother had to ask another local doctor to treat her daughter. This famous doctor is a friend of Dr. Tao, and he is very careful in diagnosis and treatment. But Miss Tao didn't even take three doses of medicine, and her stomach became worse and worse, and she was still bleeding. Her mother stayed in front of the bed all day, too anxious to eat or sleep. She cried at the thought of her daughter's illness. The helper was very anxious when he saw it. what should he do ？ Suddenly, he remembered the little green flower. He had a sore throat last month. He accidentally picked a leaf and chewed it. Although it was extremely bitter, after an hour, the sore throat actually eased. Then, he chewed two more leaves, and the pain stopped that day. Miss Tao's illness, can this kind of flowers and plants be cured? Might as well have a try. Thinking of this, he even pulled out a plant with roots and stems, fried it into a bowl of soup and served it to Miss Tao's mother when she went to cook. Who knows that if you drink it in the morning, it will be much better in the afternoon; After two more drinks, it's all right. At this time, Dr. Tao came back. When asked about it, he was very moved. He even thanked the helper and said, "My daughter has damp heat in her stomach. Only drugs that clear away heat and dry dampness can cure her. This kind of grass with green flowers seems to have the effect of clearing heat and drying dampness! "
But not long after, the helper died of illness. In memory of this rescuer, Dr. Tao named this bitter traditional Chinese medicine Huanglian, which has the efficacy of clearing away heat and toxic materials.
Coptis chinensis tastes bitter and cold. It is mainly used to treat eye pain caused by heat toxicity, canthus injury and tears, and has the effect of improving eyesight. It can also be used for the treatment of diarrhea, abdominal pain, dysentery and swelling and pain in women's vagina. This product is bitter and cold, and it is easy to damage the spleen and stomach if taken for a long time. It is forbidden for people with spleen and stomach deficiency and cold. Use with caution those who suffer from dampness and body fluid damage due to yin deficiency.