It can be understood that Chinese dietotherapy is a branch of Chinese medicine and has never been separated. The homology of medicine and food is one of the most valuable contributions of primitive medicine in China to human beings. Whole grains are beneficial to the human body but not to the body, so they are "neutral". This is the most important standard for China's original medicine to choose food. This standard is based on "people-oriented", not on the examination of experimental animals by western medicine.

In the process of struggling with nature, primitive humans gradually discovered that some animals and plants could satisfy hunger and cure diseases, and accumulated a lot of valuable experience. Neijing in the Warring States Period is the first monograph on medical theory in China. The theory of political leaders of the five permanent members advocates: "Great poison cures diseases, and ten go to six; Often poison cures diseases, nine times out of ten; Small poison cures all diseases, ten in and eight out; Nontoxic treatment, nine times out of ten. Food, meat, fruits and vegetables are exhausted, and they are not used to it and hurt it. " The book spoke highly of the role of dietotherapy, which is also a great progress in dietotherapy theory.

Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, treated exogenous diseases. After taking Guizhi Decoction, he should "drink more than one liter of hot porridge to help his medicine" and avoid eating cold, sticky, spicy and other foods during taking the medicine, which shows that he attaches importance to diet health preservation and its auxiliary treatment.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, many monographs on dietotherapy appeared. For example, Sun Simiao's "Thousand Women" Volume 24 is devoted to dietotherapy. He advocated that "as a doctor, you should know the source of the disease, know what it is committed, treat it with food, treat it with food, and then order medicine", which embodied the principle of "people-oriented". Since then, monographs such as Dietotherapy Materia Medica and Edible Materia Medica have systematically recorded some food formulas and drug formulas. In the Song Dynasty, there was a special course of dietotherapy in Shengji Tongzhi, which introduced the dietotherapy methods of various diseases. In the Song Dynasty, Chen Zhi wrote a book "Supporting the Aged and Supporting the Family", which was devoted to the health care of all kinds of people, focusing on the important role of diet health care. The book "Drinking and Eating" compiled by Hu Sihui, a dieter in Yuan Dynasty, inherited the tradition of combining food, nutrition and medicine, and made a lot of discussions on people's daily diet, which can be called the first monograph on food science in China. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in Ming Dynasty contains more than 300 kinds of cereals, vegetables and fruits, and more than 400 kinds of animals, all of which can be used for dietotherapy. In addition, the emergence of Lu's Materia Medica of Food, Lu's Spectrum of Sexy Diet and Fei's Three Foods and Nutrition has made dietotherapy and health preservation science develop in an all-round way.

Chinese medicine says that "drug therapy is not as good as diet therapy". Long-term use of drugs to treat diseases often produces various side effects and dependence, and taking a large amount of drugs may also have an essential impact on human health; Dietotherapy uses common foods in our daily life, with accurate collocation and fine production, which plays a natural role; Over time, the human body has stimulated its self-healing ability, thus gaining health from the inside out.

In this standard, Chinese medicine has no clear boundary between food and medicine. After the food is mixed, it will be cold or warm if you leave the "middle" slightly; If it deviates far from the "middle", it is "cold" and "hot"; If it is farther away from "Zhong", it is "medicine". And dietotherapy, through collocation, pursues mild taste and targeted effect.