statnews.com versus INM: 'Food As Medicine is Not True'

here, contesting claims regarding nutrition and pharmacology, e.g. 'food versus drug', by way of the Institute for Natural Medicine and a PhD in a nutritional biochemistry:

001. at prnewswire.com, Reena Mukamal writes for INM in "Naturopathic Doctors Complete 155 Hours of Nutrition Education in Medical School" [2018-03-15; 2018 archived]:

"WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Naturopathic doctors (NDs) recognize nutrition as a cornerstone of health and receive an average of 155 classroom hours of nutrition education during medical school [...]";

what's not mentioned here is that the NDs wrongly believe that because one can suffer from malnutrition which has signs and symptoms, therefore such are fixed by nutrients and diet.  Not true.  Another thing: naturopaths go to naturopathy school, not medical school.  That's a subtle bait and switch.

"naturopathic doctors' understanding of food as medicine allows them [etc....]";

 

see below.

 

"'thanks to their rigorous education and training, NDs provide individualized nutrition assessment and guidance utilizing evidence based recommendations,' said Michelle Simon, PhD, ND and Chair of the INM Board of Directors [...] a close partner to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians [...]";

well, how RIGOROUS is education that poses as science what is patently science-ejected and science-exterior?  Duh, homeopathy and kind.  And of course it is the AANP that still to this day states falsely that homeopathy is a "medicinal science." Evidence me arse.

 

002. at statnews.com, Dylan MacKay writes in "Hey, Hippocrates: Food Isn’t Medicine. It’s Just Food" [2017-08-07; 2018 archived]:

"[the author is] Dylan MacKay, PhD, is a nutritional biochemist at the Richardson Center for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals in the Department of Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and an expert adviser with EvidenceNetwork.ca [...] Hippocrates supposedly said, 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.' I disagree. Food is not medicine [...]";

categorically!  Naturopaths also quote [and abuse, IMHO] the big H for other things.  But here, it's food we're focusing on.

"food has a powerful impact on health [...] but that still doesn’t make food medicine.

Hippocrates’s maxim [...that] phrase is used by unscrupulous people to sell nutritional nonsense [...and] also frequently used by reputable people trying to promote the importance of healthy diets, but they should shelve it so they aren’t confused with the quacks [...] thinking about food as medicine [...] does a disservice to both food and medicine [...] food is so much more than medicine. Food is intrinsically related to human social interactions and community. Food is culture, love, and joy. Turning food into medicine robs it of these positive attributes [...] what we eat today can have small, subtle influences on health, but they become powerful when repeated over the lifespan. Yet diet is just one of many factors that interact to influence health. The environment, physical activity, and genes all play important roles, too. One more argument that food is not medicine: People who are completely healthy still need to eat. Medicines are substances we use to maintain health and prevent or treat disease. I use medicine every day to stay alive. I could eat the healthiest foods every day, but without medicine I would still die. I am alive and able to write this article only because of an essential medicine [...] we are living longer than ever before due in great part to public health efforts and modern medicines [...] the food-is-medicine notion can be harmful in another way. People sometimes forgo lifesaving medical treatments in favor of so-called alternative therapies like juice diets and the like to try to cure cancer, AIDS, and other serious diseases. Every time I see a story about someone choosing a food-based or dietary-supplement-based treatment over modern medicine, I blame 'Let food be thy medicine.' Pseudoscience and quackery love the food-is-medicine philosophy because it helps them sell their nutritional supplements, diet books, and therapy sessions. That’s reason enough for us to stop misquoting Hippocrates. Food is food, medicine is medicine, and both of them are really amazing";

interesting.