Food as Medicine: Benefits and Shortfalls

By Lizzie Streit, MS, RDN, LD 

“Let food be thy medicine” is the beginning of a famous quote attributed to the ancient philosopher Hippocrates that highlights the importance of nutrition in preventing and managing disease. While this saying certainly has some truth to it, the extent to which food actually treats disease is more nuanced. 

Certain nutrients and compounds in foods exhibit biological effects on the body that affect health, but the concept of food as medicine is sometimes over-simplified. This post highlights what current research concludes about dietary choices and disease as well as when using food to treat health problems may fall short. 

Type of Nutrition Research 

It’s true that nutrition research has found links between certain dietary patterns and increased or decreased occurrences of disease, such as the association between Mediterranean diets and lower rates of heart disease.  

However, it’s important to distinguish between the types of nutrition research that exist and how to interpret study results before discussing food acting as “medicine.” 

Observational studies make up a large portion of nutrition research and typically analyze associations between participants’ dietary intakes and health outcomes or disease rates. For example, this kind of research may examine a group of people’s diet recalls alongside the rate at which new cases of a disease develop in that group over a period of time. 

Randomized controlled trials, during which people are divided into groups that do or do not receive a specific food, diet, or supplement and have their outcomes compared, are considered the highest standard of nutrition research. However, they are not as feasible and therefore not as common as observational studies. 

Most research on how food prevents and helps manage disease is observational. While there is still value in this type of research, it does not support absolute conclusions about how a certain diet or food impacts health. In other words, you can’t claim that blueberries prevent high blood pressure because a few observational studies found a link between high berry consumption and lower rates of hypertension. 

If a randomized controlled trial found that a group of people with high blood pressure who ate blueberries everyday had significantly better readings than a similar group who did not eat blueberries, the results would provide stronger evidence for the idea that blueberries may exhibit positive effects on blood pressure. However, those results would still not be considered conclusive. More research, especially studies that account for genetic, lifestyle, and other differences that affect health, would need to be conducted. 

How Food May Prevent and Manage Disease 

Even with the shortfalls of nutrition research, it’s still possible to identify patterns from available observational studies and randomized controlled trials on a specific topic. For instance, multiple studies have found links between diets high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats and reduced risk of chronic diseases. 

Here’s a list of several associations between diet and disease that have been identified: 

  • A Mediterranean style diet high in minimally processed plant foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains, unsaturated fats particularly from olive oil, and lean seafood is associated with reductions in heart disease and stroke. 

  • The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which encourages fruits, vegetables, poultry, fish, low-fat dairy, beans, nuts, and seeds and discourages sweets, high sodium intake, and fatty meats, is associated with lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol levels. 

  • A dietary pattern that combines the main features of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, also known as the MIND diet, is linked to a reduced risk of cognitive decline. 

  • A plant-based diet with plenty of legumes, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds and minimal animal products is considered a healthy diabetic diet meal plan and linked to a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes and its complications. 

These studies offer ideas about why certain foods or diets may prevent diseases, citing biological effects of compounds or nutrients they contain. For example, fiber may lower cholesterol or antioxidants in fruits and vegetables may fight inflammation or other processes that cause disease.  

In addition to observational studies offering some support to the idea that food may act as preventative “medicine,” medical nutrition therapy (MNT) is another example of dietary intervention for disease.  

MNT is practiced by registered dietitians and refers to the process of recommending dietary changes to manage type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, gastrointestinal disorders, and malnutrition, among other conditions. MNT may be effective for treating a condition on its own in some cases but may also be used in conjunction with medications. 

When “Food is Medicine” Falls Shorts 

It’s clear that diet may play a powerful role in disease development and management. When used strategically, dietary interventions and medical nutrition therapy can be extremely effective and even help some people eventually discontinue medications. However, there are certain roles that food cannot and should not play.  

Medications that have been prescribed to you should not be discontinued and replaced by dietary changes and/or supplement regimens without approval from your doctor. If you are interested in trying nutrition interventions, always speak with your doctor and a registered dietitian first before making any changes. 

In addition, food alone cannot heal broken bones, treat bacterial infections, or cure advanced cancers. Interventions including medication and surgeries may be necessary, but eating a healthful diet may be beneficial alongside these treatments. 

Finally, nutrition is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to developing and managing chronic disease. Genetics, environment, lifestyle, and stress also influence health. Be mindful of what you eat, but remember that diet alone is not a cure-all. 

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Stef Keegan