Type 2 diabetes mellitus involves a variety of pathological mechanisms. Chinese medicine treatment often employs the Chinese medicinal materials such as Coptidis Rhizoma and Astragali Radix with both medicinal and edible values to achieve multi-target synergistic blood glucose-lowering effects. Using these materials as the main ingredients to develop functional foods such as meal replacements, snacks, and drinks for lowering blood glucose becomes an innovative strategy for managing type 2 diabetes mellitus. This paper systematically reviews five blood glucose-lowering mechanisms of functional foods and drug ingredients, including protection of islet β-cells, enhancement of insulin sensitivity, inhibition of α-amylase, regulation of lipid metabolism, and modulation of intestinal flora. Furthermore, this paper summarizes the mature functional blood glucose-lowering products and processing technologies and makes an outlook on their future development directions.