Food as medicine

Food and water are the source of the macronutrients and micronutrients required for proper growth, development, and homeostasis. Appropriate amounts of each nutrient are required to maintain good health. Food is also a key component of cultural activities throughout the world. Popular entertainment uses the “balanced diet” as a favourite topic for magazines, books, TV shows, and movies, providing extensive information about the nutritional values of different foods. Processed food suppliers include the nutritional aspects of their products on the label, often as a legal requirement. Further, the community is well aware that there is more to food than its nutritional value, with widely available information that some ingredients produce physiological and metabolic challenges to the human body (Koletzko et al. 1998). This broad view of food may miss the description of a suitable, balanced, and healthy diet that can be maintained for long periods to stay metabolically or physically healthy. Further, concepts such as nutraceuticals and functional foods may not be included. Nutraceuticals are defined as foods or parts of foods that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease (Kalra 2003; Keservani et al. 2010), whereas functional foods are defined as foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutritional requirements through physiologically active food components (Lopez-Varela et al. 2002; Keservani et al. 2010).