Medicine and food homology, that is, drugs and food have the same or similar sources and attributes, through the daily diet to regulate the body function, to achieve the purpose of preventing and treating diseases.
The concept of "homologous food and medicine" emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, but the theoretical origins of homologous food and medicine can be traced back to ancient times when people generally believed that plants and animals that could satisfy and have certain healing effects were gifts of nature. In the process of searching for food, it was accidentally discovered that certain foods can enhance physical strength and reduce disease after eating. With the increase in population, the development of productivity, and the development of food, nutrition, medicine, and other related fields, the theory and application of the same origin of medicine and food are constantly forming, accumulating, and enriching. Shen Nong tasted hundreds of herbs to know the nature of the flavor, "Zhou Li" recorded: "eating the doctor, palm and the king of the six food, six drinks, six meals, hundred shame, hundred sauce, eight treasures." Later generations of doctors on the diet of the works can be described as abundant, such as "Qianjin food treatment", "diet herb", "food review herb", "drink food is about", "food herb" and so on.
