Besides being busy with work and school, preparing some Chinese medicinal cuisines, or yaoshan, for yourself, your family, or friends is another great opportunity to showcase your culinary skills! However, medicinal cuisine differs from ordinary cooking; it has many taboos, which can be categorized into incompatibilities between medicinal herbs and foods, incompatibilities between foods, incompatibilities between medicinal herbs themselves, and dietary restrictions for patients. To elaborate on this, the content is so extensive it could be a field of study in itself. Here, I have summarized some of the most common and practical essence of this knowledge for your daily reference. Since I don't know how to create tables on a webpage, I'm pasting it all here in a block. You can download it, organize it into a table, and post it in your kitchen. If any expert is willing to teach me how to make web tables, it will save you trouble when browsing similar articles in the future. Hehe, back to the topic: 1. Incompatibilities between Medicinal Herbs and Foods
The incompatibilities between medicinal herbs and foods are a summary of ancient experience, which later generations mostly follow. Although some of these taboos still await scientific proof, before a reliable conclusion is reached, it is advisable to follow traditional customs and use them with caution. Generally, when using diaphoretic herbs (inducing sweat), one should avoid raw and cold foods; when regulating the spleen and stomach, one should avoid greasy foods; when reducing swelling and regulating qi, one should avoid beans; when stopping cough and calming asthma, one should avoid fishy foods; and when stopping diarrhea, one should avoid melons and fruits. These taboos mainly include: Pork is incompatible with dark plum, platycodon, coptis, huangqi, lily bulb, and atractylodes; Mutton is incompatible with pinellia and sweet flag, and should not be taken with copper or cinnabar; Dog meat is incompatible with phytolacca, and should not be taken with apricot kernels; Crucian carp is incompatible with magnolia bark, and should not be taken with ophiopogon; Pig blood should not be taken with rehmannia or fo-ti; Pig heart should not be taken with evodia; Carp should not be taken with cinnabar; Sparrow meat should not be taken with atractylodes or plums; Onions should not be taken with changshan, rehmannia, fo-ti, or honey; Garlic should not be taken with rehmannia or fo-ti; Radish should not be taken with rehmannia or fo-ti; Vinegar should not be taken with poria; Smilax and clematis should not be taken with tea. These can be used as a reference for clinical application. 2. Incompatibilities between Foods
Ancient people also had taboos regarding the combination of foods with each other. Although the reasoning is not fully understood, it can serve as a reference in the application of medicinal cuisine. These taboos are: Pork should not be eaten with buckwheat, pigeon meat, crucian carp, or soybeans; Mutton should not be eaten with vinegar; Dog meat should not be eaten with garlic; Crucian carp should not be eaten with mustard greens or pork liver; Pig blood should not be eaten with soybeans; Pork liver should not be eaten with buckwheat, bean sauce, carp intestines, or fish meat; Carp should not be eaten with dog meat; Turtle meat should not be eaten with amaranth, alcohol, or fruit; Eel should not be eaten with dog meat or dog blood; Sparrow meat should not be eaten with pork liver; Duck eggs should not be eaten with mulberries or plums; Chicken should not be eaten with mustard, glutinous rice, or plums; Soft-shelled turtle should not be eaten with pork, rabbit meat, duck meat, amaranth, or eggs. The application of these taboos is mainly to avoid causing qi stagnation, wind generation, sores, or illness. 3. Incompatibilities between Medicinal Herbs
One of the main ingredients in medicinal cuisine is Chinese medicine. Among the more than 5,000 commonly used Chinese medicines, over 500 can be used as ingredients for medicinal cuisine, with about 70 of them most commonly used in dishes (see "Learning Has No End (20) - Chinese Medicines That Can Be Used in Cuisine"), such as Cordyceps sinensis, ginseng, angelica, gastrodia, eucommia, and wolfberry. These medicines must follow the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine when combined with food, processed, and applied, so that their effects can complement and coordinate with each other; otherwise, errors may occur or the effectiveness may be affected. Therefore, Traditional Chinese Medicine has strict taboos for the application of medicinal cuisine.
The incompatibilities between medicinal herbs in medicinal cuisine follow the theories of Chinese herbal medicine, generally referring to the "Eighteen Incompatible Pairs" and "Nineteen Fears of Medicinal Herbs". The specific content of the "Eighteen Incompatible Pairs" is: Licorice is incompatible with kansui, euphorbia, seaweed, and daphne root; Aconite root is incompatible with fritillary bulb, trichosanthes, pinellia, ampelopsis root, and bletilla; Veratrum is incompatible with ginseng, glehnia, red sage root, scrophularia, sophora root, asarum, and peony. The specific content of the "Nineteen Fears" is: Sulfur fears mirabilite; Mercury fears arsenic; Euphorbia fears lead oxide; Croton fears pharbitis; Clove fears turmeric; Aconite root and kusnezoff monkshood fear rhinoceros horn; Saltpeter fears sparganium; Cassia bark fears halloysite; Ginseng fears flying squirrel feces.
The above incompatibilities can be used as a reference for medication, but they are not absolute. In the application of ancient and modern formulas, there are also instances where incompatible herbs are used together. For example, codonopsis and flying squirrel feces can be used together to supplement the spleen and stomach and stop pain, but these must be applied under the guidance of an experienced clinical physician. 4. Dietary Restrictions for Patients
Dietary restrictions, or "jikou," are a part of the theory and practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It mainly includes two categories: one is that certain diseases require avoiding certain types of food. For example: Liver disease should avoid spicy foods; Heart disease should avoid salty foods; Edema should avoid salt; Bone diseases should avoid sour and sweet foods; Gallbladder disease should avoid greasy foods; Cold-related diseases should avoid melons and fruits; Sores and carbuncles should avoid fish and shrimp; Dizziness and insomnia should avoid pepper, chili, and tea. The other category refers to avoiding certain foods for certain types of diseases. For example, patients with symptoms of yin deficiency and internal heat, phlegm-fire accumulation, and fluid depletion should avoid warming and heating foods like ginger, pepper, and mutton. Patients with lingering external pathogens, throat or eye diseases, sores, carbuncles, or after suffering from measles and smallpox should avoid pungent, stimulating, and wind-agitating foods like mustard, garlic, crab, and eggs. Patients with internal dampness-heat should avoid foods that generate dampness and heat, such as malt sugar, pork, cheese, and rice wine. Patients with cold spleen deficiency, serious illness, or postpartum should avoid foods that accumulate cold and cause damage, such as watermelon, plums, river snails, crab, and clams. Patients with various types of bleeding, hemorrhoids, or pregnant women should avoid foods that move the blood, such as arrowhead and pepper. During pregnancy, the use of blood-breaking, menstruation-promoting, highly toxic, emetic, pungent-heat, and slippery products is strictly prohibited. Some of these dietary restriction theories have been proven to be reasonable, while others may not be practical, but they can serve as a reference in the application of medicinal cuisine.