What Does Gastronomy Have to Do with Medicine?
The late, great Anthony Bourdain said, “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.” It goes without saying that food is also related to health -- which makes today, Sustainable Gastronomy Day, the perfect time to talk about the link between gastronomy and medicine. Read on for a roundup of three things to know about the connection between these two fields.
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The late, great Anthony Bourdain said, “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.” It goes without saying that food is also related to health -- which makes today, Sustainable Gastronomy Day, the perfect time to talk about the link between gastronomy and medicine. Read on for a roundup of three things to know about the connection between these two fields.
1. Nutrition and physical health are inextricably linked.
Gastronomy is defined as “the practice or art of choosing, cooking and eating good food.” But the term “good” is subjective, and begs the question: What, exactly, makes food “good”? According to the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, good food “is the new paradigm within our food system -- encouraging the production, distribution, accessibility and consumption of high-quality food to build a healthy, just and sustainable food system.” Health, alongside affordability, fairness, and sustainability, is front and central within the definition of good food.
And the importance of healthy food cannot be overstated. Why? Because bad nutrition is linked with a myriad of health problems. Good nutrition, meanwhile, has the opposite effect. Explains the University of Minnesota’s Taking Charge of your Health & Wellbeing website, “The food we eat gives our bodies the "information" and materials they need to function properly. If we don't get the right information, our metabolic processes suffer and our health declines….If we get too much food, or food that gives our bodies the wrong instructions, we can become overweight, undernourished, and at risk for the development of diseases and conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease.
Viewed through this lens, good food can be seen as a form of medicine -- not just in China, where medicinal cuisine has a rich history, but throughout the world.
2. Food is also a science.
We are constantly growing in our knowledge about food thanks to food science, defined by the Institute of Food Technologies (IFT) as “the study of physical, biological and chemical makeup of food, and the concepts of underlying food processing.” Food scientists, therefore, play a critical role in supporting nutrition and health. Continues IFT, “As the stewards of the field, food scientists study the physical, microbiological, and chemical makeup of food. By applying their findings, they are responsible for developing the safe, nutritious foods and innovative packaging that line supermarket shelves everywhere.”
Thanks to molecular gastronomy and techniques including everything from liquid nitrogen to flavored foams, chefs are also scientists in the kitchen.
3. Food and mental health are also linked.
We often think of nutrition in terms of its physical benefits. But a growing body of evidence also points to the mental health benefits of healthy eating.
Says Eva Selhub, MD for Harvard Health, “Studies have shown that when people take probiotics (supplements containing the good bacteria), their anxiety levels, perception of stress, and mental outlook improve, compared with people who did not take probiotics. Other studies have compared ‘traditional’ diets, like the Mediterranean diet and the traditional Japanese diet, to a typical ‘Western’ diet and have shown that the risk of depression is 25 percent to 35 percent lower in those who eat a traditional diet.
This also explains growth in the field of nutritional psychiatry, which focuses on the role of food and supplements for treating mental health disorders. “As the evidence mounts up, it is time for medical education to take nutrition seriously so that GPs and psychiatrists of the future know as much about its role in good health as they do about anatomy and physiology. The state of our mental health could depend on it,” proposes The Conversation.
Given what we know about gastronomy and medicine, it’s hardly a surprise that many experts are calling for medical schools to address nutrition in their curricula. Contends Dr. Rupy Aujla to The Telegraph, “As health professionals, we have a role in nurturing a culture that recognizes the power of our plates, and sees that they are the answer to the tidal wave of lifestyle-related disease in this country. We need to teach doctors how to cook and the value of evidence-based nutrition. We need to equip them with the skills to have a conversation with patients about lifestyle medicine. And we need to work alongside school and industry initiatives to elevate food as medicine into a mainstream concept in the pursuit of a proactive, healthier population.”
Aujla’s conclusion? “If we don’t appropriately educate our health professionals on the breadth and utility of other evidence-based health interventions, the only option they will have heard of is a pharmaceutical one.”
Joanna Hughes
Author
Joanna worked in higher education administration for many years at a leading research institution before becoming a full-time freelance writer. She lives in the beautiful White Mountains region of New Hampshire with her family.