What we eat, how we eat, where we eat, and when we eat are deeply embedded cultural practices. Eating is also related to how we medicate. The multimillion-dollar diet industry offers advice on how to eat for a better body and longer life, and avoiding harmful foods (or choosing healthy ones) is considered separate from consuming medicine--another multimillion-dollar industry. In contrast, most traditional medical systems view food as inseparable from medicine and regard medicinal foods as the front line of healing. Drawing on medical texts and food therapy practices from around the world and throughout history, Nancy N. Chen locates old and new crossovers between food and medicine in different social and cultural contexts. The consumption of spices, sugar, and salt was once linked to specific healing properties, and trade in these commodities transformed not just the political economy of Europe, Asia, and the New World but local tastes and food practices as well. Today's technologies are rapidly changing traditional attitudes toward food, enabling the cultivation of new admixtures, such as nutraceuticals and genetically modified food, that link food to medicine in novel ways. Chen considers these developments against the evolving food regimes of the diet industry in order to build a framework for understanding diet as individual practice, social prescription, and political formation.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Columbia University Press
ISBN-10
0231134843
ISBN-13
9780231134842
eBay Product ID (ePID)
66574411
Product Key Features
Author
Nancy Chen
Publication Name
Food, Medicine, and the Quest for Goodhealth : Nutrition, Medicine, and Culture
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Publication Year
2008
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
144 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
0.8in
Item Height
0.1in
Item Width
0.6in
Item Weight
11.3 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Rm217.C44 2008
Grade from
College Graduate Student
Table of Content
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction/Rethinking Food and Medicine Part One/Food as Medicine 1 Healing Foods and Longevity 2 Dietary Prescriptions Part Two/Medicine as Food 3 Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods 4 Genetically Modified Foods and Drugs Conclusion/Eating and Medicating Notes Bibliography Index
Copyright Date
2008
Topic
Regional & Ethnic / Chinese, General, History, Diet & Nutrition / General, Essays & Narratives
Lccn
2008-026477
Dewey Decimal
615.8/54
Intended Audience
Scholarly & Professional
Dewey Edition
22
Illustrated
Yes
Genre
Cooking, Health & Fitness
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