Food, Medicine, And The Quest For Good Health Nutrition, Medicine, And Culture

F o o d, M e d i c i n e , and the Q u e s t f o r G o o d H e a lt h F ood, Medic ine, a n d t h e Quest f o r Go od Health Nutrition, Medicine, and Culture Nancy N. Chen Columbia University Press N e w Yo r k Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York  Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2009 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chen, Nancy N. Food, medicine, and the quest for good health: nutrition, medicine, and culture / Nancy N. Chen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-231-13484-2 (hard cover : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-231-50891-9 (e-book) 1. Diet therapy—Social aspects.  2. Functional foods—Social aspects. 3. Food habits.  4. Medical anthropology. I. Title. rm217.c44 2008 615.8'54—dc22 2008026477 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Sami and Laeti, who make life immeasurably sweet; and to Dru, spice of my life contents Preface  ix Acknowledgments  xiii i n t ro d u c t i o n Rethinking Food and Medicine  1 pa rt o n e Food as Medicine one Healing Foods and Longevity  17 t wo Dietary Prescriptions and Comfort Foods  53 pa rt t w o Medicine as Food three Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods  79 contents four Genetically Modified Foods and Drugs  92 conclusion Eating and Medicating  109 Notes  115 Bibliography  119 Index  127 viii preface Food and medicine matter immensely to me. I grew up in southern Louisiana, where the local food cultures of Cajun, Creole, African, Spanish, Native American, and southern cooking provided a deeply textured world of foodways, or culinary habits and practices. When they were children my parents did not live in times of plenty; as a result, I have inherited thrifty habits and deeply appreciate sustenance of all sorts. Schools prepared all food from scratch then. My fondest memory of elementary school was arriving to the morning scent of freshly baked bread. At home my parents continued to make the foods of their childhood, so rice was a staple, along with regional Chinese dishes. As immigrants who came to the United States during the golden era of the 1960s, my parents were always curious about American food culture, so we frequently visited cafeterias and po-boy shacks. They rarely denied me or my siblings items that were deemed “bad,” such as junk food, fast food, highly sugared cereals, doughnuts, or deepfried fatty foods. My mother never cooked with written recipes or cookbooks, relying instead on taste. I also learned about p r e fac e food preparation by visiting other friends’ homes and by reading the instructions on the box. How, then, did I come to appreciate food on a continuum with medicine and associate certain foods with nutritional value? It started at home. Instead of relying solely on biomedicine, my mother incorporated her knowledge of Chinese nutritional therapy, which gives food properties according to such factors as the temperature of the food, its dampness, and its bitterness or sweetness. In addition to ready-made ointments and tinctures from her homeland to patch up scrapes, cuts, and infections, my mother brewed ginger in wine or added brown sugar to stewed pears whenever we caught a cold or cough. Stomach troubles meant that our diets would change: we would be put on a strict regimen of rice co