According to Chinese medicine, yam is sweet and non-toxic, and it has the effect of nourishing the spleen and kidneys, nourishing the lungs, stopping diarrhea and astringing sweat, making it a good “food medicine”. In the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, it is listed as a top tonic for deficiency and has the reputation of “small ginseng”. During the economic difficulties in the 1960s and 1970s, some families were short of food, so they went to the mountains to pick yams, and then ground them and boiled them into porridge to feed to their babies as food. Yam is also known as Dioscorea, which is the ancient name of yam, and was called “Zhu and” in the Shanhaijing. Later it was called “Dioscorea” and “Yam”. According to the “Compendium of Materia Medica”, the name of Dioscorea was changed to Dioscorea due to the name of Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty to avoid the taboo, and to Dioscorea due to the name of Zhao Shu of the Song Dynasty to avoid the taboo. The legendary story of yam Legend has it that during the Warring States period, two countries fought against each other and one side was trapped in a valley, and after a few years, the trapped side had strong troops and horses and magically killed their way out. Afterwards, it was learned that there was a large amount of yam growing in the valley, and its tuberous root nourished people and the vine stem could feed horses, which made people realize that yam was edible. A story is also recorded in the Xiangzhong Ji: In the early years of Yonghe of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a medicine collector came to Hengshan Mountain, lost his way and ran out of food, so he sat under a cliff to rest. Suddenly, he saw an old man with a young face reading a book against a stone wall. The herbalist told him that he was hungry, and the old man gave him yams to eat and showed him the way out of the mountain. The herb collector walked for six days before he returned home, but still did not know he was hungry, so he realized the miraculous effect of Dioscorea opposita. Yam is one of the famous Four Huaiyang Medicines. The Four Huaiyang Medicines refer to the four major Chinese medicines such as yam, hyssop, dioscorea and chrysanthemum produced in the ancient Huaiqing Province (today’s Qingyang, Henan Province and the area around Jiaozuo), but the iron stick yam is the best of the yams, and only Wen County’s unique geographical location and climate can produce the iron stick yam. Source: The dried rhizome of Dioscorea opposita, family Dioscoreaceae. Origin: Mainly produced in the northern part of Henan Province, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi and the central and southwestern regions are also cultivated. Taste: sweet, flat. It belongs to the spleen, lung and kidney meridians. Effects: Nourishes the spleen and stomach, generates fluid and benefits the lung, tonifies the kidney and astringent essence. The Compendium of Materia Medica outlines the five major functions of yam: “Benefiting kidney energy, strengthening the spleen and stomach, stopping dysentery, resolving phlegm and salivation, and moistening the skin”. Therefore, yam is used for: Spleen deficiency. It is sweet and flat, nourishing the spleen and nourishing spleen yin. Lung deficiency. It can nourish lung qi and nourish lung yin. Kidney deficiency. Tonifying kidney qi and nourishing kidney yin at the same time. Thirsty Qi and Yin deficiency. It nourishes both the Qi of the spleen, lung and kidney and nourishes the Yin of the spleen, lung and kidney, and is often used together with Astragalus membranaceus, Rhizoma Pinelliae and Zhi Mu. Stir-fried yam with wheat bran can enhance the effect of tonifying the spleen and stopping diarrhea. Yam can be safely taken in large quantities for a long time because of its calm and non-toxic medicinal properties. Recently, some medical journals in the United States have also researched the sticky component of yam which is made up of mucin, a complex of sugar and protein, and this special sticky component can play a preventive and therapeutic role in prostatitis or prostate enlargement that middle-aged and older men are prone to. The food therapy introduction: yam pork ribs soup yam steamed for two minutes spare; ribs with water boiled, put ginger, green onion, yellow wine appropriate amount, an hour later put yam, cook until the ribs crispy can be. The soup tastes fragrant and elegant, strengthens the spleen and appetite, especially suitable for gastrointestinal discomfort, five-shift diarrhea, long-term appetite loss of patients to assist treatment.