Who said food is our medicine




















In an important article, Laurence Totelin has shown that Hippocratic writers were fully aware of the difference between medicines pharmaka and food sition and regarded both as having the power to cause change in the body. However, they deliberately blurred the boundary because many materials were used in both ways; for example, garlic was part of the normal diet, but also recommended for patients as part of their treatment.

It was only later, in the Aristotelian tradition, that medicines were seen as the opposite of foods. However, the quote itself is another matter. Mainstream medicine uses the line without references although sometimes with an acknowledgement that this is not a genuine quote.

Many focus on just one food for one condition; for example, using it to introduce their prescription of curry soup for glaucoma, or celery for nerve function. So why is this quote so widespread? Modern Western cultures have a complex relationship with food.

The range of foods available, all year round, seems to overwhelm us, making us easy prey for anyone who proposes that we should simplify our diet in some way. In particular, as I noted in Chapter 3 , Alan Levinovitz has argued that diet culture uses the language of religion: purity versus sin. But where is this particular quote supposed to have originated? On answers. In , Rob Kutch wrote a blog post on the importance of good bacteria to diet.

We have finally come to fruition with that fact, 2, years after his death. I never read that in Greek history. Sorry kid. What, however, does the quote mean for Kutch? While food is preventative, drugs also have a place, although the hope is that they will not become necessary. Listing out the food choices and appropriate recipes. Inflammation is one of its jobs. There is in fact a Hippocratic source behind this particular quote, but it requires some work to reach it.

What did the phrase originally mean? In his Loeb translation, W. But this still does not explain where the common wording of the quote originates. Some substances relax the stomach as they have medicinal powers mixed in them.

Thus it is good not only to lend an ear to these ideas, but also the argument can be explained from those foods that possess no nutritive or purgative quality. For they say that these things not only serve frequently as foods, but also as medicines by heating, moistening, cooling and clearly drying us.

These are understood as medicinal attributes which physicians can use to alter the bodies of their patients as seems necessary. Some foods acted as medicines when applied correctly. In a short but important article from , which has reached at least some medical professionals, Diana Cardenas surveyed the use of this aphorism in medical journals from to Her work suggests that it is the recent rise in interest in nutrition in medicine which has led to the repetition of the aphorism.

How did this affect the popular tradition? Vermont: Healing Arts Press. One other person has tried to push this wording back before the start date of the research for her article; Matthew Dalby, in a blog post published on 31 October Using Google Books, his first hit was in a issue of the periodical Public Opinion , although this did not include the name of Hippocrates. Why be so enamoured of physic?

Make food your medicine, not medicine your food. However, it is not ascribed to Hippocrates, or to anyone else; perhaps it was already so well known that the name was not needed, or it existed before it took on his name, or the similarity is a coincidence.

He works from the understanding that all life on earth requires the rays of the sun in order to survive, and suggests that people in the modern era have failed to remember this truth. The mention of peoples with an ancient lineage and non-Western medical traditions is intended to lend authority to his claims.

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May 03, AM. Rene books view quotes. Apr 28, PM. Yk 31 books view quotes. Apr 22, AM. Lola books view quotes. Apr 21, AM. Gabrieli books view quotes. Apr 19, AM. Anthony 7 books view quotes. In modern translations of the oath, the central importance of diet is often somewhat hidden.

You may recognise the word "diet" in there. It means as much as a lifestyle regime, with a focus on diet. Exercise is also part of it. Sometimes it is just translated as: dietetic measures. With some imagination this can be read as: some foods can cure you, other foods can make you sicker; the effect can vary case by case.

Hippocrates did not see food and medicine as one and the same thing. But it's obvious from Hippocrates writings , that diet and lifestyle regime were at the center of his thoughts about the responsibilities of a doctor and the tools for treatment that a doctor can use.

Exercize was also part of it. Hippocrates was a strong proponent of going on walks.



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