What do you mean by homology of medicine and food?

"Food and medicine are homologous" means that food is similar to medicine and can have both therapeutic and health care functions. In ancient times, traditional Chinese medicines, such as dried tangerine peel, coix seed and coptis root, were widely used in dietotherapy. With the development of modern science and technology, people's pursuit of food safety and drug efficacy is getting higher and higher, and many health products with dietotherapy function have appeared in the market, such as grape seed extract, enzyme, black rice and so on.

The concept of homology of food and medicine is also applied in modern medicine. Nutritionists believe that the effective ingredients in many drugs can be found in ordinary food, and suggest that people can prevent and treat some diseases by taking appropriate specific nutrients, such as vitamin D and calcium to prevent osteoporosis, folic acid to prevent fetal malformation and so on. In addition, some traditional Chinese medicine ingredients, such as deer tonic extracted from velvet antler, have more scientific basis and bring more choices to people's health.

At the same time, the homology of food and medicine also needs vigilance. In the market of health care products and drugs, there are some cases of illegal sales and false propaganda, and people should be alert to the fraudulent behavior of unscrupulous merchants. More importantly, people can't rely on nutritional health care products instead of drugs to treat diseases, and no health care products can replace the treatment opinions of treatment professionals. Therefore, the homology of food and medicine should be carried out under the guidance of science, and the false marketing of excessive commercialization should be rejected.