FOOD AS MEDICINE, OR…MEDICINE AS FOOD?
Is food really medicine or is it just another cliché strategy used by organic medicine vendors to get your hard-earned money? You’re just about to discover verifiable answers to what is perhaps one of the age-long arguments about health. Buckle your belts fellow; it’s going to be one thrilling ride with knowledge!
It was in the year 440 BC when the battle of thought regarding food as medicine became a course for public debate. Hippocrates, probably wielding his famous staff, stood before some scholars in the Forum at Athens and declared “Let food be thy medicine, medicine thy food.” Ever since it has been a war of facts and opinions. When the world was almost forgetting about the Greek’s stance, Islamic physicians Ibn Sina and Ibn Al-Baytar amazed the world of their time when they reignited the concept of food as medicine. Does the concept still hold water in our time? Does food function as medicine, or does it simply quiet the rumbles in our stomachs that tell us we’re hungry? Read on to discover perhaps unpopular truths!
Is Food Really medicine?
As an enthusiast of holistic well-being, I want us to look at “medicine” not just as a practice for recovery measures against diseases but as a preventive approach to health. We cannot adequately consider medicine in this aspect without understanding how we fall sick and what the body does when we are about to fall sick.
Every one of us has a part of our body systems that acts like an army, guarding the territorial borders and sovereignty of our body systems. It picks signals whenever a foreign body that may be detrimental enters our body then it hollers your body’s siren to raise an army against such diseases. This is our body’s first reaction to the microorganisms or physiological changes that make us sick. When our body’s ‘army’ is not strong enough to fight these foreign bodies, we break down into ill health. This ‘army’ is called our immune system and the foreign bodies are chemicals, bacteria, or viruses. The ability of our immune system to either prevent or fight against diseases naturally depends on adequate nutrition. It could be that in the pursuit of overall wellness, a solution may just be staring at us in the eyes.
Now that you have discovered the usefulness of food in the prevention of illness, it is only logical that food can also be used in the cure of the same illnesses either as a nutrient therapy or in addition to other forms of medical practices.
A question still lingers on the horizon begging for the light of your attention, are all foods usable in the practice of medicine?
From ages past, right from the mid paleolithic period down to our time, food has been a material for therapeutic purposes.¹ Despite that all foods have health benefits due to their inherent nutritional properties, some other foods offer higher health benefits – functional foods. In 1994, the National Academy of Science’ Food and Nutrition Board coined a categorization for any modified food or food ingredients that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients it contains.²
“WHEN OUR BODY’S ‘ARMY’ IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO FIGHT THESE FOREIGN BODIES, WE BREAK DOWN INTO ILL HEALTH. THIS ‘ARMY’ IS CALLED OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM AND THE FOREIGN BODIES ARE CHEMICALS, BACTERIA, OR VIRUSES.”
In the years that precede the 1990s, FOSHU began to be a topic of interest when the Japanese began to popularize the use of functional foods and no, it is not some Japanese temple slang. It is an acronym for an approach to medicine where food was utilized in an attempt to prevent or treat an ailment by taking them in quantities akin to what was required for normal feeding purposes. FOSHU, an acronym for Food for Specific Health Uses, isn’t a new concept even though the name is relatively new. In certain cases, medicine in the form of food nutrition is produced in non-food matrixes such as supplements where the nutritive content of food is extracted and administered in doses that are not obtainable when you ingest the food directly. They are called “Nutraceuticals” and the term was first used by Ziesel³ in his 1999 publication, ‘Regulation of “nutraceuticals.”
Interestingly, many people are beginning to approach health holistically and are doing so with a turn to more natural means of treatment which is believed to be inexpensive and cause few side effects in comparison to its counterpart, the pharmaceutical drugs. Interestingly, Williamson⁴ confirmed that there are several instances where the ingestion of medicinal food produced better results than equivalent doses of a single extracted nutrient was administered. Research upon research continues to prove that the consumption of some foods or their extracted components which have physiological effects may be linked to a reduction in diseases.⁵
Should we look out for side effects?
Generally, the intake of healthy substances may prove unhealthy in unwholesome quantities; a measure used in the cure and prevention of diseases becoming illness-inducing. Willett,⁶ reported that excessive dietary intake of some foods alongside risky lifestyle choices increases the chances of getting a stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. In essence, just as it should be in other areas of our lives, moderation is key in the administration of food as medicine.
Is the use of food as medicine a holistic health approach?
When I shared my thoughts on the importance of nutritious feeding for anti-aging and general wellbeing⁷ in my book “Lead A Horse To Water”, it was a surprise call for certain persons who are not aware that they can truly live happily in prolonged health without direct use of pharmaceutical products or modern medicine.
Holistic medicine approaches your health from the angle of general wellbeing; mind, emotional, spirit, and body. Without a doubt, food doesn’t just feed or heal us; it blends with our body’s physiological system for a long time giving us longer chances of staying healthy. In holistic health practices like Traditional Chinese Medicine, food is not administered without care unlike the conventional cure without care approach of modern medicine. In the process, mind and emotions are engaged in the healing process to give the individual a state of wholeness in other aspects of their being.
If you are to enjoy the healing process of holistic medicine today, the chances are high that you would be fed doses of spices, herbs, roots, and plant parts expertly prepared to get phytochemicals with healing properties. These feeding routines may involve zoochemical too as chicken soup is known to ease cold. They may sometimes be administered in combination with some modern medical treatments so hold your horses and enjoy the beauty of holistic healing when you find a holistic health expert administering wellness or recovery that way.
Final thoughts
This is not a crusade against modern medicine for modern medicine has contributed immensely to our health one way or the other. Rather this is an approach to health that incorporates your body’s health or recovery with the wellness of your mind and emotions. In a world where sophistication seems to be causing a lot of health problems and more people seriously seeking natural alternatives to certain modern medical treatments, it is only pertinent that one considers the holistic health benefits that food as medicine offers.
It excites me to tell you that in my book “Lead A Horse To Water” you will get to explore how an approach towards food contributed to the famed longevity and vitality of the Hunza people. Health, as I believe it to be, is a state of holistic optimal wellness where your mind, emotion, spirit, and body are in a good state. A way of life where medicine isn’t a response to ill health, rather a practice that continuously secures wellness. If a life of optimal wellness is what you envisage for your soul, spirit, mind, and body, this is what we, at HolisticLiveYounger, are all about. What we wish for you is a life of vitality in happiness and of longevity in mental peace.
Bibliography
- Fabricant D. S., Farnsworth N. R. The value of plants used in traditional medicine for drug discovery. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2001;109(1):69–75.
- Committee on Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine (1994) Enhancing the food supply. Thomas, P. R. Earl, R. eds. Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences: Research Challenges and the Next Generation of Investigators :98–142 National Academy Press Washington, DC.
- Zeisel, S. (1999). Regulation of “Neutraceutical.” Science (Washington, DC) 285:1853 – 1855
- Williamson EM. Synergy and other interactions in phytomedicines. Phytomedicine. 2001;8(5):401–409
- Hasler, C.M. (1998) Functional foods: their role in disease prevention and health promotion. Food Technol.52:63 – 70.
- Willett W. C., Balancing Lifestyle and Genomics Research for Disease Prevention. Science. 2002; 296: 695 – 98.
- Sakr, N. (2021) Lead A Horse To Water. P. 33.