Taoist thought of health preservation can be summarized as "life lies in exercise and rest". During exercise, metabolism is enhanced, decomposition and oxidation are accelerated, which can prevent excessive fat, exercise and enhance organ function. When resting, nervous nerves are relaxed, and breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature drop accordingly. Metabolic decline, reduction and synthesis are dominant, which can store energy. Motion and stillness are the unity of opposites. Exercise without rest, or rest without exercise, cannot keep the balance of yin and yang in the body. Can not achieve the fundamental purpose of health and longevity.

In terms of diet, Taoist health care has a unique skill: avoid grains, that is, don't eat whole grains. Taoism follows that people eat whole grains and accumulate feces in their intestines, which will produce foul smell and hinder the road to immortality. "Huangting Neijing" says: "A hundred grains of goblins have the same taste ... from anti-aging to rejuvenation?"

Furthermore, the function of human viscera changes with the change of solar terms. Drink different kinds of porridge in different seasons, which is summarized as follows: lily porridge in spring, mung bean lotus root in summer, corn flour in autumn and adzuki bean in winter.