Main description:

Underlying many Chinese therapeutic traditions, from sexual techniques and breath meditations, to massage or curative gymnastics, is a shared culture of Yangsheng - 'Nourishing Life'. Not content with just combating degeneration of the body, for those early Chinese with time and leisure, the body could be embellished and augmented, and more importantly, the senses stimulated and enhanced. Sometimes the aim of a practice was purely remedial, at other times the adept aimed for longevity, and at the utmost to cheat death, or even to gain a place among the immortals in Heaven. This book approaches the history of nutrition in China as an extension of the culture of 'Nourishing Life', which is reflected in many aspects of Chinese society: in the rituals of power and kingship; in the aesthetics of elite cuisine and the culinary arts; in the tradition of cookbooks and dietary recipes; in the physician's materia medica (pharmacology) and materia dietetica (nutrition); and in the pervasive and enduring belief in therapeutic food combinations and prohibitions.
With the globalization of Cantonese culinary culture, an understanding of the medicinal properties of different foods and drugs remains a living part of Chinese communities worldwide; ready-made selections of restorative herbs are commonly available in Chinatown supermarkets. "Potent Flavours" is an authoritative, yet accessible account of these ideas, with much to say to the specialist in Chinese food and culture, and also to the wide general audience for books on diet and nutrition.