“Food as Medicine”?. ( Part 1)

‘Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food’

The dividing line between food and medicine is often blurred.Many familiar food have other roles as preventative or healing agents.

In past times and other cultures this was accepted,but until recently the growth of technological medicine in developed countries has pushed the healing role of food into the background.Now it is enjoying renaissance.

The relationship between food and medicine is rarely obvious to the untrained eye,yet a large number of todays medicines are derived from sources more usually accepted as food.

The medical properties of plants have been recognised and put to use since the beginning of civilisation.Even today,herbal remedies are thought to make up as much as three-quarters of all the medicines taken around the world.Living plant cells have amino and fatty acids-the raw materials for building many compounds that contain medical properties.

Many modern drugs are made from plants more familiar as foods.Folk remedies are handed down from generation to generation and often involve food.

SOME WELL-KNOWN REMEDIES.

Ginger for nausea.

Cloves for toothache.

Peppermint for indigestion.

Honey for sore throat.

Prunes for constipation.

Carrots for night vision.

Citrus fruit and/or garlic for cold.

Parsley for bad breath.

World Health Organization studies,for example,show a clear connection between diet and heart disease in certain countries around the world.

Climate and geography play a large part in determining the diet and food remedies of a particular country and culture.

Other traditional remedies under scientific inspection include an infusion or ‘tea’ made of ten plant material that are commonly used in Chinese medicine to treat skin problems.Controlled clinical trials have shown that this ‘brew’ produces a short-term beneficial response in sufferers of ‘atopic eczema’.

Although interest in medicinal use of food is growing all the time and many applications may appear to be innovative,most cultures have long histories of food-based remedies.Some of these remedies have never dropped out of use,and many have now been scientifically proven to have beneficial health effects.These herbal applications now appear either in their natural state or in recognisable manufactured concentration of their active compounds,which are available as tablets,powders or creams just to name a few. (Ginger,Honey,Garlic).