Food Isn’t Medicine

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As outlined in Food Isn’t Medicine by nutritionist Dr. Joshua Wolrich, the vilification of individual foods can lead to unhealthy eating behaviors. Drug-nutrient interactions Experts think that this diet supports good health through its potential to reduce harmful risk factors of cardiovascular disease, including inflammation, elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, and poor sleep.

The “food as medicine” approach to health management challenges the construct of conventional medicine, which relies primarily on technological medical advancements to manage health and disease with pharmaceutical drugs. The point here isn’t to totally discredit nutrition. Of course a nutritious diet can positively impact your health! The Dietary Guidelines for Americans state that a healthy dietary pattern is associated with a lower risk of certain chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, bone disease, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer. But they never claim that any dietary pattern alone, like Whole 30 or paleo, can prevent or cure disease. And they never mention superfoods, because these don’t exist—no one food has the power to make or break your health. “Food can be used to prevent onset of a disease up to a certain point,” Johnson says. But again, there are no guarantees because of all the factors at play. The development of chronic diseases continues to be complex and may be attributed to non-diet-related causes, including genetic risk, exposure to environmental toxins, or autoimmune conditions.Using “food as medicine” could conceivably reduce healthcare costs by potentially reducing disease severity through better labwork, fewer medications, and fewer hospitalizations.

Wu wants to see food as medicine become an intrinsic part of healthcare, in prevention and treatment of disease. It is not to suggest one can eat themselves out of terminal illness but food can have a powerful effect on health and some disease. Medical nutrition therapy is a part of evidence-based health practice that uses diet and food to support the treatment of diseases, and it is a clear demonstration of the role that diet and food play in managing chronic disease. At the moment, a Medicare-subsidised chronic disease management plan – for management of diseases such as type 2 diabetes – includes the option of a single appointment with a dietitian as one of a large variety of allied health professionals available for limited number of subsidised appointments. If you have ever considered intermittent fasting, avoided artificial sweeteners, dairy or carbs for 'health' reasons, or struggled through diet after diet wondering why nothing seems to work, this book will be a powerful wake-up call.All of this disproves the notion that eating a certain way, or a certain food, can eliminate the need for health care and medicine. The fact that disease can (and almost certainly will) occur no matter what you do might be a tough pill to swallow. But Johnson explains that it can also bring relief in that you can stop blaming yourself for your health problems or micromanaging your eating habits in the name of disease prevention. Nutrition Is Just One Tool