A recent report from The Center for Food as Medicine and The Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center emphasizes food as an effective tool for the prevention and treatment of disease.

Food as medicine describes the integration of food to prevent and treat disease. “The use of food as medicine is rooted in science and has been adopted and practiced by numerous cultures despite the fact that the history of food as medicine was largely ignored by academics until the 21st century,” according to the report.

The Food As Medicine is a four-year effort of the Center for Food As Medicine and the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center. It includes more than 650 studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and other peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charles Platkin, the Executive Director at Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and Founder of the Center for Food As Medicine, tells Food Tank that the focus of the report is to “synthesize existing scholarship on food as medicine into a single, interdisciplinary resource.”

The report finds that humans practiced food as medicine as early as 300 B.C.E. Chinese, Greek, Indian, and Native American cultures are among those who grew food for medicinal and healing purposes. In the 18th and 19th centuries, however, Western cultures began to shift away from nutrition-based medicine towards allopathic practices, as scientific investigation and innovation took precedence.

Through social media, the practice of food as medicine is gaining momentum and finding its place in academia. According to the report, a growing body of evidence shows that healthy diets can fight inflammation and reduce susceptibility to diet-related diseases.

“Whether or not a poor diet can cause damage to the body should no longer be debated,” the report states. Studies demonstrate the link between diet and illnesses such as ischemic heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. A recent study published in PLOS Medicine finds that in the U.S., unhealthy diets cost US$50 billion a year in health care costs and account for 45 percent of all cardiometabolic deaths.

“The goal of this report is to bridge the gap between traditional medicine and the use of food as medicine in the prevention and treatment of disease,” Platkin tells Food Tank.

The report makes 10 recommendations for stakeholders to advance the food as medicine movement. These recommendations include creating a central repository for all current food as medicine programs in the U.S. and increasing community access to culturally appropriate, unprocessed, fresh, whole foods and food as medicine programs.

Read the full article about food and medicine by Elizabeth Rhoads at Food Tank.