Curious Cook: Food as medicine, finally

The pandemic has made people aware of proper nutrition; in particular, the nutrients which promote a good immune system against a coronavirus infection. Photo: 123rf.com

It is curious it needed a coronavirus pandemic to make everyone finally take food seriously. People were previously happy to ignore the burning of our rainforests, the pollution of our food with chemicals, the billions of tonnes of carbon chucked into our atmosphere, the over-use of antimicrobials in our meats, along with all the other unsustainable practices and dangerous shortcuts taken by our food production systems. It seems that our nutrition issues needed to become close-up and personal before long-term endemic issues with our food are taken soberly.

Before the pandemic, most people would be familiar with Hippocrates’ idea about what food is: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” But not as many people were willing to change their diets then, unlike now where some 80% of people surveyed in UK supermarkets have adopted a “food and drink as medicine” mentality in their food shopping.