If you learn with a Chinese teacher or even if you learn Mandarin online, you will encounter the phrase yàoshí tóng yuán (药食同源) in connection to Chinese culture relatively early. It translates approximately as “medicine and food share the same origin,” and basically features Chinese thinking about nutrition, health and the relationship between the two – for a very long period. In the Chinese medical and culinary tradition, the boundary between what is eaten for nourishment and what is consumed for therapeutic effect is not a fixed line.
The theoretical foundation of medicinal food in China derives from the same classical framework that underlies traditional Chinese medicine more broadly. Foods, like medicinal herbs, are classified according to their thermal nature — whether they are considered heating, cooling, neutral, warming or cold in their effect on the body’s internal balance. This classification has nothing to do with the physical temperature at which food is served or consumed. It refers instead to the effect the food is believed to have on the body’s internal qi and on the balance between yin and yang.
Heating foods — lamb, ginger, garlic, longan, lychee, chili — are understood to warm the body, stimulate circulation and address conditions associated with cold or deficiency. Cooling foods like watermelon, cucumber, bitter melon, mung beans, lotus root… are understood to reduce internal heat, address inflammation and calm conditions associated with excess yang. Neutral foods such as rice and most grains are considered to have minimal thermal effect and form the stable base of the diet around which heating and cooling foods are deployed as needed.
This thermal classification system operates in Chinese daily life at a level of routine practicality that outsiders often find surprising. A Chinese person who has been working long hours, eating irregularly and feeling run down may describe their condition as shàng huǒ (上火) — literally “fire rising” or excess internal heat — and will adjust their diet accordingly, choosing cooling foods and avoiding heating ones until the balance is restored. A person feeling cold, lethargic and generally depleted may describe themselves as xū (虚) — deficient — and will seek out warming, nourishing foods believed to replenish their energy.
Specific foods occupy particularly prominent positions in the Chinese medicinal food tradition, either because of their specific therapeutic associations or because of the symbolic and cultural weight they have accumulated over time. Ginger, known as shēngjiāng (生姜) in its fresh form and gānjiāng (干姜) when dried, is one of the most versatile and widely used medicinal foods in the Chinese tradition. It is warming, stimulates digestion, addresses nausea and is used across a vast range of both culinary and therapeutic preparations. It appears in cooking throughout China in quantities that reflect its therapeutic as much as its flavour function.
Then, also, the soup tradition in Chinese cooking is perhaps the most direct expression of the yàoshí tóng yuán principle in culinary practice. Chinese soups, particularly the slow-cooked tāng (汤) of Cantonese cooking and the medicinal broths of traditional Chinese medicine, are constructed with explicit therapeutic intent.
A Cantonese grandmother preparing soup for her family will select ingredients not primarily for their flavour contribution but for their combined therapeutic effect on the specific health needs of the family members who will consume it. Astragalus root, Solomon’s seal, lotus seeds, dried longan, wolfberries, Chinese yam and dozens of other ingredients that would be classified as medicinal herbs in a Western context appear routinely in Chinese family soups as standard culinary ingredients.
Some Chinese language teaching institutions like GoEast Mandarin in Shanghai treat the vocabulary of medicinal food as an essential component of functional Mandarin competence! A student at the intermediate and later advanced stages should be able to follow a conversation about the thermal properties of specific foods, or read the ingredient list of a soup in a Chinese restaurant.
The owners and authors of Cinnamon Hollow are not doctors and this is in no way intended to be used as medical advice. We cannot be held responsible for your results. As with any product, service or supplement, use at your own risk. Always do your own research and consult with your personal physician before using.
