Despite safety warnings, fans of ancient “medicinal diets” try to eat their way to health
For 30-year-old Shi Simin, autumn is always a season of anxiety. Every year, her Yunnan townsfolk cook dried slices of the monkshood plant, or fupian (附片), into their meals to boost their immunity.
Shi’s parents are keen participants, but there’s a problem: “If you don’t cook them the right way, medicines like fupian poison people,” Shi says.
In 2016, Yunnan’s Center of Disease Control reported 25 cases of self-inflicted poisoning as a result of home-cooked “medicinal diets” (药膳, yaoshan) containing fupian and shouwu (首乌), a fleece flower root. Despite warnings from local food and drug officials, “people are getting poisoned every year, but they still eat it,” says Shi. “It’s a tradition.”
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