"Chinese health" medicated diet becomes popular: I hate medicine but like food

　　China News Service, Hefei, March 17th: Title: "Chinese health-preserving" medicated diet becomes popular: I hate medicine but like food

　　China News Service reporter Zhang Jun

　　Wash the fish head, cut it and set aside. Add dendrobium juice to the fish meat to make fish balls. Clean the fish tail and make soup. Remove the fish residue and put the soup into the pot. Add the ingredients including gastrodia elata, poria and angelica and stew. After fifteen minutes of preparation, add fish balls for seasoning... In Bozhou City, Anhui Province, the "Medicine Capital of China", this therapeutic dish - Cao Cao Fish Head, which is said to have been prescribed by Hua Tuo for Cao Cao, is a household name.

　　As people pay more attention to health preservation and match food with Chinese medicinal materials, specially prepared "Chinese health preservation" medicinal meals are becoming more and more popular.

On social media platforms, medicated diet recipes and medicated diet restaurants have also been followed and collected by many netizens.

The picture shows the dish Cao Cao fish head.

(Photo courtesy of Huai Kai)

　　The ancients have long explored and discussed the combination of medicinal materials and food ingredients.

In the Shang Dynasty, Yi Yin made soup and wrote the "Soup Classic", using cooking methods to treat diseases.

"Huangdi Neijing" records that "medicine is used to remove it, and food is used to follow it." Hua Tuo's health-preserving diet recorded in later generations' documents, making good use of simple ingredients and cooking, has been passed down to this day.

　　According to Huai Kai, secretary-general of the Anhui Provincial Medicinal Diet Research Association and the fifth-generation inheritor of Huaiyangtang Medicinal Diet, an Anhui provincial intangible cultural heritage, medicated diet is a food prepared with traditional Chinese medicine and food. It combines the traditional medical knowledge of the Chinese nation. With cooking experience, medicine borrows the power of food, and food supports the power of medicine, changing "good medicine is bitter" into "good medicine is delicious", satisfying people's nature of "hating medicine but liking food", which is a precious cultural heritage in Chinese cuisine.

　　In fact, many of the dishes that Chinese people cook every day belong to the category of medicinal foods, such as blueberry yam, almond tofu, dendrobium stewed native chicken, hawthorn and red dates drink... Many ingredients and spices in Chinese food belong to the same category as medicinal foods, such as yam, almond, Black beans, wolfberries, mulberries, honey, ginger, star anise, fennel... they are both ingredients and Chinese medicinal materials.

　　"Medicinal diet is not medicine. It emphasizes the word "diet", which is mainly food, with a small amount of medicinal materials." Huaikai said that the production of medicated diet pays attention to the perfect unity of color, aroma, taste, shape, meaning and nutrition.

Take Cao Cao fish head as an example. The soup is thick white in color, rich in flavor, the fish meat is soft and tender, and the fish balls are smooth.

The combination of health and delicious food is one of the reasons why medicinal diet is so popular.

　　"There is Changbai Ginseng in the north and Jiuhua Polygonatum in the south."

As a traditional Chinese medicinal material with the same origin as medicine and food, Polygonatum odoratum has a cultivation history of more than 1,500 years in Chizhou City, Anhui Province.

Local people often use Huang Jing to stew or fry it, and now it has become a gourmet business card of Jiuhua Mountain in Chizhou.

　　According to Zhu Qin, deputy director of the Chizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jiuhua Polygonatum is one of the leading characteristic agricultural industries in Chizhou. Relying on Polygonatum cultivation, the local area has developed a series of products such as Polygonatum tea, Polygonatum vegetarian food, and Polygonatum wine, which are sold on e-commerce platforms. Sales are booming.

Zhu Qin believes that the polygonatum industry must persist in developing toward industrial scale, standardization, branding, and chain development through effective means such as planning guidance and policy support.

The picture shows the chef making medicinal dishes.

(Photo courtesy of Huai Kai)

　　"The development of medicated diets must be constantly innovated under the theoretical guidance of traditional Chinese medicine, cooking and nutrition, and new products adapted to consumer tastes and the market must be improved." Huaikai said that the production of medicated diets must innovate the processing and use of ingredients, such as combining medicinal materials Grind into powder and squeeze into juice; develop herbal prepared dishes and packaged foods, including herbal tea, health pastries, soup packets, etc.

　　In addition, Huaikai plans to cooperate with medicated diet industry associations, universities and scientific research institutions to speed up the formulation of various industry standards and evaluation specifications for Bozhou medicated diet. While inheriting the Bozhou medicated diet production skills, it will also promote the Bozhou medicated diet brand at home and abroad.

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