On November 17, 2023, the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly announced that 9 more traditional Chinese medicinal materials have been included in the目录 of substances that are both food and medicine. These include Codonopsis, Cistanche, Dendrobium candidum, American Ginseng, Astragalus, Ganoderma lucidum, Cornus officinalis, Gastrodia elata, and Eucommia ulmoides leaves. So, what exactly does it mean for something to be both food and medicine? And what does being included in this目录 signify? When food meets medicine, combining nutrition with medicinal effects, turning "good medicine tastes bitter" into "good medicine tastes delicious," this is what we often refer to as the concept of "food and medicine homology." Food and medicine homology means that many foods are both food and medicine, and both food and medicine can prevent and treat diseases.
Ancient medical practitioners applied the theories of "four natures" and "five flavors" of traditional Chinese medicine to food, believing that every food also possesses "four natures" and "five flavors," and that food can be consumed and used medicinally.
What are the benefits of "food and medicine homology" that make it so highly regarded from ancient times to the present? —The method of dietary therapy is indispensable. Chinese medicine has been inextricably linked with diet since its inception, with the earliest medical treatment being dietary therapy. The functions of food and medicine homology align with modern nutritional immunology concepts, including the following aspects:
- Provide nutrients needed by the immune system. Nutrients in food can enhance cellular nutritional metabolic functions, giving cells powerful energy, and at the same time activate cellular immune genes, increasing cellular immune activity and multiplying the number of immune cells, thereby improving human immunity.
- Has natural cleansing effects without side effects.
- Dietary therapy for health does not produce any side effects, while long-term use of medicines to treat diseases often leads to various side effects and dependencies, and may also affect certain aspects of human health. Regulate endocrine balance to balance the human body and regulate endocrine glands, so that endocrine functions are normal. Dietary therapy can provide rich vitamins, minerals, and their macronutrients.
- These substances, in the process of participating in the body's biochemical reactions, can effectively regulate the body's metabolic functions and help maintain the body's endocrine balance. Most of these substances included in the目录 of food and medicine homology have health benefits such as enhancing immunity and anti-fatigue. Daily consumption helps prevent diseases and improve people's health. It is also a concrete implementation of the strategy of "adhering to the equal importance of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and inheriting and developing the cause of traditional Chinese medicine."
American ginseng, included in this list of substances that are both food and medicine, is recorded in the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" (2020 edition) as the dried root of Panax quinquefolium L. (Araliaceae family). American ginseng has a history of being consumed as a food ingredient in provinces such as Shandong, mainly used for brewing tea, cooking porridge, making soup, and incorporating into dishes. American ginseng tastes sweet and slightly bitter, and is cool in nature. It can supplement qi and blood, and has the effects of nourishing yin and qi, promoting fluid production and quenching thirst, relieving irritability, clearing虛火, strengthening vital energy, and anti-fatigue. Because of its cool and tonic nature, anyone who wants to use ginseng but cannot tolerate its warming tonic effects can use it as a substitute. **Company Creed: Your health is our persistent pursuit.