Food supplement is a method to maintain health and treat diseases by adjusting the types and ways of diet. The significance of food supplement has two aspects, one is to nourish the weak body, and the other is to supplement some nutrients that the human body lacks, so as to achieve the purpose of expelling diseases and prolonging life.

Food supplement should be based on the principle of dialectical tonic, which varies from person to person, from time to time and from illness. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the decline of visceral function in the elderly is mainly due to the imbalance of yin and yang. Therefore, food supplement should be adjusted according to the situation that yin and yang are superior to aging, so as to adjust the balance of viscera function. For example, if you are hot or have a fever, you should eat more cold food. If you have body cold or cold syndrome, you should eat more warm food. Only such complementary food is "appropriate" and can achieve the expected effect. The following lists the commonly used complementary foods according to different properties for reference.

1. Hot food

Longan meat: nourish the heart and soothe the nerves, nourish blood and strengthen the spleen.

Litchi: Sweet and nourishing, beneficial to people's color.

Maltose: tonify the middle-energizer, moisten the lungs and relieve cough.

Lentils: spleen and stomach, dampness and summer heat.

Hawthorn: Xiaoshi Jianwei, Huoxue Huayu.

Walnut: tonify kidney and strengthen yang, astringe lung and relieve asthma.

Cereals: flour, broad beans, soybean oil, wine and vinegar.

Vegetables: ginger, garlic, onion, leek, coriander, mustard seed, carrot and Allium macrostemon.

Fruits: plums, olives, papaya, dark plum, millet, grapes and jujube.

Sugar: honey, white sugar and granulated sugar.

Animals: chicken, pheasant, duck, dog meat, mutton, beef, venison and cat.

Fish scales: crucian carp, shad, carp, shrimp, eel, silver carp, silver carp head, shad, loach and abalone.

2. Cold food

Mung beans: clearing away heat and toxic materials, relieving summer heat and removing troubles.

Water chestnut: resolving phlegm and resolving stagnation, clearing away heat and promoting fluid production.

Chrysanthemum: clearing liver and improving eyesight, dispersing wind and dissipating heat.

Pear: Raw food can clear away heat and quench thirst, while cooked food can nourish yin and moisten dryness.

Watermelon: clearing away heat and quenching thirst, relieving summer heat and diuresis.

Cereals: Millet, Buckwheat, Tofu, Douchi, Soymilk.

Cucumber vegetables: amaranth, rape, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, wax gourd, bamboo shoots, taro, eggplant, loofah, wax gourd and mushrooms.

Fruits: water chestnut, lotus root, sugarcane, ginkgo, persimmon.

Animals: rabbit meat, elk meat.

Scale: snakehead, eel, frog, crab, turtle, turtle, clam, oyster, etc.

3. Ordinary food

Lotus seeds: nourishing the heart and calming the nerves, benefiting the kidney and stopping astringency, strengthening the spleen and stopping diarrhea.

Black sesame: nourishing liver and kidney, moistening dryness and relaxing bowels.

Yam: tonify the spleen and stomach and benefit the lungs and kidneys.

Cereals: wheat, glutinous rice, japonica rice, black beans, soybeans, peas and cowpeas.

Cucumber and vegetable: gourd and pumpkin.

Fruits: loquat, green plum and peanut.

Animals and birds: pork, goose, goose, pigeon, bird's nest.

Fish scales: whitebait, squid, shark, herring and mandarin fish.