Articles and Recipes

Food is medicine

The Old Testament

Daniel said, “Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink”.  At the end of ten days, Daniel and his companions looked healthier and better  nourished than any of the others. (Daniel 1:12-15)


Deuteronomy 8:8

Israel

Thomas Edison

“The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
—Thomas A. Edison 1902

Traditional Medicine

Venezuela and Costa Rica

Whole Foods

Food as Medicine – from the beginning of time, our ancestors probably observed the kinds of plants that animals ate deliberately and used them to treat heath issues. (1)

For thousands of years, in India, China, Greece, Egypt and Israel a written list was kept in these for certain conditions and the list just got longer and spread. (2)

Over time, laboratory and clinical studies on herbal/spice preparations have shown them to have a range of potentially beneficial effects for preventing disease, and promoting health. (3)

Green Medicine in Cuba


Tumeric, black pepper, cardamon, clove and cinnamon

Whole foods

Knowledge gathered for centuries from specific plants and herbs for healing is a practice still supported by contemporary research. (4)

Antioxidant phytonutrients found in many foods and medicinal plants, play an important role in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases caused by oxidative stress. (5)

Studies show that there are as many as 100 different phytochemicals in just one serving of vegetables and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower rates of disease. (6)

The composite of natural food components on human biological systems is greater than or different from the same individual components. We do not have complete knowledge of food composition. (7)

2010 Dietary Guidelines and My Plate

After more than twenty years of intense research, phytochemicals remain a powerful influencer in the area of the natural remedies against degenerative diseases. (8).

A large body of research data suggests that traditional dietary habits and lifestyle unique to the Mediterranean region (Mediterranean diet, MD) lower the incidence of chronic diseases and improve longevity. (9)

Recent studies with various types of cancers revealed that epigenetic modifications are associated with the food sources of dietary phytochemicals. They have been reported to modulate the several biological processes including histone modification, DNA methylation and non-coding microRNA expression. (10)

Donna Martin, Academy President stated in the April, 2018 issue of JAND:
“Diet may become one of the most important environmental factors modulating gene expression throughout the life span.”

“Food choices will emerge as powerful tools for restoring health and for preventing disease.”

Dietitians are uniquely positioned to make major contributions in this coming era of nutritional genomics. (11)

Blue Zones

Harvard Departments of Nutrition

Harvard’s Department of Nutrition was founded in 1942 as a result of a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Initially, it was located in the Department of Biochemistry in Harvard Medical School, but it was administered in the School of Public Health. In 1946, the department moved into larger space, acquired by the School of Public Health.

The department was responsible for teaching nutrition in both the School of Public Health and the Medical School.  It was the first department of nutrition established in any medical school or school of public health in the world.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition/75-years-department-of-nutrition-timeline/
http://nutrition.med.harvard.edu

Harvard Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives
The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative

Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives

  • Began in 2004 with three-day retreat with faculty from the Harvard School for Public Health and an audience of executive chefs and food service administrators. With the collaboration of Culinary Institute of America, the first conference took place in 2007.

The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative

  • Evolved out of Health Kitchens Healthy Lives and was launched in 2016. The collaborative is an invitational network of thought leading organizations using teaching kitchen facilities as catalysts of enhanced personal and public health across medical, corporate, school, and community settings.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/nutrition/healthy-eating-a-guide-to-the-new-nutrition

Harvard School of Public Health/Law School
Community Servings/The Food is Medicine Coalition

Massachusetts Community Servings, was begun in 1990 to serve the food insecure.

In 2013, Community Servings and the Harvard School of Public Health with the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation presented a Food as Medicine State Plan: https://www.chlpi.org//wp-content/uploads/2013/12/6.5.2014-Food-is-Medicine-Report-FINAL.pdf

The Food is Medicine Coalition is described as: the provision of nutritious food tailored to the medical needs of individuals who live with one or more health conditions likely to be affected by diet, such as diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers.

Community Servings has already persuaded some insurers to cover its meals as a medical expense.

Preliminary results reported on NPR last week from the Food is Medicine Coalition and Community Servings found that people who received medically tailored meals were less likely to use health care services like ambulances and emergency rooms. And participants in the program were also less likely to be admitted to the hospital.

The CEO of Community Servings said. “For the past 28 years, we’ve been making the intuitive argument that food is medicine and this study validates that.”

https://www.servings.org/food-health-policy/
https://givingcommon.org/profile/1103296/community-servings-inc/
https://www.servings.org/food-health-policy/
https://www.servings.org/about-us/history/
https://www.servings.org
https://www.servings.org/meal-delivery/
https://www.servings.org/about-us/
https://www.servings.org/about-us/staff/
https://www.servings.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Full-Application-English.pdf
https://givingcommon.org/profile/1103296/community-servings-inc/
https://www.servings.org/about-us/in-the-news/a-new-study-is-out-to-prove-that-food-can-be-medicine-boston-magazine/

Dietitians should be teaching culinary medicine

“Nutrition is really a core component of modern medical practice,” said Kelly M. Adams, the lead author and a registered dietitian who is a research associate in the department of nutrition at UNC Chapel Hill. The New York Times, Sept. 16, 2010

Kerri Dotson, Chef, RD – Culinary Medicine Educator for the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine. https://culinarymedicine.org

The Chef/RD http://www.food-management.com/menu-trends/chef-rd-collaboration-evolution-delicious-nutritious-food

Culinary Dietitian Certification https://www.foodculinaryprofs.org

 

References

  1. Caldecott, T. Food as Medicine: The Theory and Practice of Food, 2011.
  2. Terry, P.H. Made for Paradise:  God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Rest. 2007
  3. Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research, University of Chicago
    https://tangcenter.uchicago.edu/page/research.
  4. Webb, D. Phytochemical’s Role in Good Health, Today’s Dietitian, 2013; 15: 70.
  5. Zhang, Y.J. Antioxidant Phytochemicals for the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease, Molecules, 2015; 12: 21138-211564.
  6. Poe, K.  Plant-Based Diets and Phytonutrients: Potential Health Benefits and Disease Prevention, Arch Med, 2017; 6: 7.
  7. Jacobs, D. Food synergy: an operational concept for understanding nutrition, Am J Clin Nutr, 2009; 89: 1543S–1548S.
  8. Azzini, E. Antioxidant Phytochemicals at the Pharma-Nutrition Interface, Oxidatative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2017; 2017: Article ID 6986143.
  9. Donato, R. Mediterranean Diet and Prevention of Chronic Diseases, Nutrition Today, 2017; 52: 208-222.
  10. Shankar, S. Epigenetic Modifications by Dietary Phytochemicals: Implications for Personalized Nutrition, Pharmacol Ther. 2013; 138: 1-17.
  11. Martin, D. Nutritional Genomics: Emerging Science with Implications for Us All, JAND, 2018; 118: 545.
Tags: , , ,