How 'Food As Medicine' Doctrine Hurts More Than It Helps!

Meaning food! We have never been more consumed by what we eat— looking for ingredients that will ease what ails us, body and mind. But what if we told you that the “food as medicine” doctrine hurts more than it helps? Well, that’s what we’re telling you. Hear us out.

- Michelle Stacey

Here are two basic truths about humans today. First, in medicine we trust, whether it’s antidepressants, antibiotics at the first tickle of a sore throat, or blind faith in supplements. And second, many of us distrust food, thinking it can make us sick, fat, morally weak. So why not combine those two inclinations into one tidy philosophy: Treat food as medicine.

The latest support for that idea appeared in a study from the University of Leeds and the University of York, both in the UK, titled “Lettuce Be Happy.” Researchers connected higher scores of well-being to both quantity and frequency of eating fruits and vegetables. They estimated that adding one portion per day could buy mental health as much as going for a walk an extra seven or eight days a month. That study is part of a burgeoning subspecialty called nutritional psychiatry, which explores the connection between diet and mind. And the psychological benefits of food join a host of positive physical effects: the potential lifesaving properties of fibre, antioxidants and vitamins in fighting chronic diseases.

But for many it’s not a case of life and death, but a case of demonising and canonising foods. We once sat at the altar of all things low-fat, but we now praise high-fat keto and paleo. No matter the object of our affection, the drive to see food as a medical intervention has intensified. I know that shift intimately because 25 years ago, I wrote a book (Consumed: Why Americans Hate, Love, And Fear Food) about Americans’ toxic relationship with food, one that has grown more complicated. Now I marvel at using the word “relationship.” Doesn’t that hint at a level of disordered thinking? Shouldn’t food just be a source of sustenance and pleasure?

HAPPY MEALS