Food is Medicine_FL
Food Is Medicine: Simple science-backed eating for better health and healing
Dear Reader,
Even if you’re not familiar with this famous quote (which is often attributed to Hippocrates), you can likely recall a parent urging you to finish your vegetables or a grandparent insisting that homemade food is best. Or maybe you remember the main character in the cartoon Popeye extolling the virtues of spinach.
For centuries, people have had a hunch that what we eat impacts our health. Today, we have the science to prove it. While Popeye loaded up on spinach because he believed it made him strong, we now know that this leafy green is a good source of fiber, which impacts your metabolism, diabetes risk, immune system, and even your risk for cancer. It’s also rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that help protect your heart, vision, and bones.
As nutrition research has accumulated, so has a growing consensus that diet ought to play a larger role in society’s overall approach to health. This “food is medicine” philosophy dovetails with a rising interest in lifestyle medicine and whole-person health care. The goal is not simply to treat disease, but to target the root causes of chronic conditions and, ideally, prevent them before they arise.
We also debunk common nutrition myths and provide specific tips for people living with conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, digestive diseases, and more. Perhaps most
importantly, we explain how eating well is not only good medicine—it can also be delicious.
Sincerely,
Beth Frates, MD, Medical Editor & Meghan Ariagno, RDN, Nutrition Editor