Food as Medicine: ITMFF February

              The past month has been an excellent one for the girls of In the Mood for Food. We’ve been exploring the idea of food as medicine and unpacking all that entails. I’ve been learning a lot about cultural practices around the world. Did you know that indigenous tribes in lowland South America believe that the body is literally composed of what they eat? For them, the body is a “social product,” intrinsically connected to the natural world through processes, like eating. To be a healthy and moral member of society, one must consume the correct food products. Our Western ideologies are definitely different from this, but there are interesting things available to us too. In recent years, the prevalence of healing foods, like blueberries and acai berries, has infiltrated the media. I can’t read a magazine or newspaper or blog without seeing an article on the nutritious benefits of certain food products. Is any of this true? Can food help you feel better? 
             We’ve discovered that it is, to a certain extent, a plausible way to deal with health. Alternative health practices may not be rooted in hard science, but they are tied to millennia of ritual and traditional methods. Our options have been a little limited, but we were still able to try several different types of food rumored to have healing qualities. The one I personally found to be the most effective was chamomile tea. Chamomile comes from daisies, and has been used for mainstream health benefits like reducing stress and assisting with sleep, and other more traditional benefits like wound healing. I tried the tea while I had a severe cold and it definitely helped me to feel better! Overall, most “food as medicine” rumors are just rumors. They generally lack scientific evidence, so eschewing medicine in favor of blueberries probably isn’t the greatest idea in the world. But in our society that tends to over-rely and over-consume medicine, looking into alternative practices (even as simple as changing the foods you eat!) can be a cheaper and healthier option. We can’t wait to continue our journey next month!