Chinese Medicine

Every year after autumn begins, a number of those who are weak physically are accustomed to prepare Chinese medicinal foods for the purpose of tonification.

And a lot of restaurants also begin to launch Chinese medicinal foods by bombarding on advertisements. However, we should beware that taking improper Chinese medicinal foods can lead to diseases too.

Improper Chinese medicinal foods

Miss Wu’s mother, who is retired, heard that Chinese medicinal foods can benefit to physical health. So she bought Ginseng, Astragalus and Jujube etc. from the herbal shop and then stewed them with chicken in a soup pot. That night the whole family enjoyed this tasty soup. Unfortunately Miss Wu found that she was so excited and could not fall in sleep at all that night. She was so thirsty that she had to keep drinking water and going to the toilet.

As a matter of fact, although chicken soup stewed with Ginseng, Astragalus and Jujube etc. can tonify blood and Qi, it is superfluous to Miss Wu, who is relatively healthy, and leads her to suffer from excessive internal heat.

By contrast, Mr. Lee was not so lucky. Mr. Lee and several friends gathered in a small restaurant. The boss recommended a new dish of “Fu Zi Yang Rou Bao” (Monkshood lamb pot) and claimed that this dish can warm Yang, nourish kidney, and benefit to physical health. Mr. Lee had always considered himself as kidney deficiency so that he ordered this dish. However, Mr. Lee felt a sudden palpitation and chest tightness after that meal. He did not feel good until his friends rushed him to hospital for treatment.

The cause is very simple. Because the chefs did not know the rules of compatibility of herbal medicines, he just randomly put Astragalus, Monkshood in the pot along with lamb. Lamb is of heat nature and can work as warming Yang, while Monkshood also works as warming Yang. What’s more, Monkshood contains aconitine, which have side effects to heart rhythm. Therefore, the dish of “Fu Zi Yang Rou Bao” (Monkshood lamb pot) has induced cardiac arrhythmia as Mr. Lee has a slight heart trouble.

Chinese medicinal foods

The traditional Chinese medicinal foods are by no means a simple sum of foods and Chinese herbs. On the contrary, Chinese medicinal foods need to be prepared under the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theoretical guidance. Chinese medicinal foods are the special food with ingredients of herbs, foods and spices, which work not only as delicious food, but also preventing and treating illness.

It would inevitably lead to above-mentioned improper Chinese medicinal foods if someone just pieces together some herbs blindly without some basic medical knowledge.

One of main raw material in Chinese medicinal foods is Chinese herbs. About 500 Chinese herbs can be used as food in commonly used 4000 kinds of Chinese herbs, in which 60 are relatively safer and more delicious with fresh fragrant smell, including

1. Tian ma (Gastrodiae Rhizoma);
2. Ren Shen (Ginseng Radix);
3. Du zhong (Eucommiae Cortex);
4. Fu Ling (Poria);
5. Dang gui (Angelicae sinensis Radix);
6. Sha shen (Glehniae/Adenophorae Radix);
7. Chen pi (Pericarpium citri reticulatae);
8. Zhen zhu Fen (Pearl powder);
9. Dong chong xia cao (Cordyceps sinensis);
10. Jue ming zi (Semen cassiae torae);
11. Tian dong (asparagus cochinchinensis);
12. Ding xiang (Syzygium aromaticum);
13. Huang qi (Astragalus Radix);
14. Bai shao (Paeoniae Radix Alba);
15. Gou qi zi (Lycii Fructus);
16. Gan cao (Glycyrrhizae Radix);
17. Mai dong (Ophiopogonis Radix);
18. Lu rong (Curnu cervi pantotrichum);
19. Shan yao (Rhizoma Dioscoreae);
20. Shu di (Radix Rehmanniae Preparata);
21. Ling zhi (Ganodorma lucidum);
22. Shou wu (Radix Polygoni Multiflori) etc.

These medicines are mainly of herbs.

The application and compatibility of these “Medicinal and Edible” herbs and food should follow the traditional Chinese medicine theory. So that they can complement each other and coordinate each other, otherwise there will be errors or poor results.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has a strict taboo on the Chinese medicinal foods, mainly including herbs incompatibility, herbs and food incompatibility, food incompatibility and avoiding certain food as someone is ill.