The Original Edibles

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 Americans. First, in medicine we trust, whether it’s antidepressants (use of which soared 64 percent between 1999 and 2014), antibiotics at the first tickle of a sore throat (drug-resistant superbugs, activate!), or blind faith in dietary supplements (54 percent of women cop to taking them regularly). 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 earlier this year, in a study from the University of Leeds and the University of York, both in the U.K., titled “Lettuce Be Happy.” (Nice pun, scientists!) Researchers connected higher scores of well-being to both quantity and frequency of eating fruits and vegetables. They estimated that adding just one portion per day could buoy your 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 fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins in fighting chronic diseases. That fight is very necessary, particularly for those living in food deserts where produce is scarce. Researchers at Tufts University recently suggested that “prescribing” and subsidizing fruits and vegetables in impoverished areas could prevent millions of cases of chronic diseases and save more than $100 billion in health-care costs.