Food That Heals

On my flight home from Savannah on Sunday (more on that trip later this week), I read an article in the October issue of Vogue about Dr. Daphne Miller, a Harvard-educated family physician who has a private practice in San Francisco. She's also the author of The Jungle Effect, a nutrition adventure/travel memoir about the benefits of traditional diets from around the globe.

Miller is among a growing group of health professionals that believe in the healing power of food. As part of a normal check-up, Miller asks her patients about what vitamins & minerals they're taking and what they eat on a regular basis. And frequently she prescribes foods instead of pills.

Why? Because, she says, too often OTC or prescription drugs cause multiple unintended and unpleasant side effects: "[M]edications often produce a buckshot-like effect, hitting organs far beyond their intended target," ("Doctor Uses Some Foods as Medicines," The Washington Post, 26 May 2009). For example, when a patient comes in with a cold, instead of offering a decongestant or a fever-reducer, she prescribes mushroom ginger soup (recipe below): ginger is a natural decongestant, and mushrooms boost the immune system.

Another point she makes: " 'Today, people are so crazy-busy, they say they don't have time to cook,' she adds. 'But when they get sick, they have time to go to the doctor'," ("Dr. Daphne Miller's jungle diet," San Francisco Chronicle, 29 June 2008).

I recently saw a sign outside an auto repair shop that read, "If it ain't broke, maintain it." The same holds true for the human body: instead of waiting until something goes wrong and then heading to the doctor, it's easier to make healthy lifestyle & diet choices along the way that will help prevent long-term problems.

Miller's book (which is on my "to read" list) focuses on five "cold spots," places where a certain chronic disease is rare or nonexistent: "colon cancer in Cameroon, heart disease in Crete, depression in Iceland, diabetes in Mexico, and breast & prostate cancer in Okinawa."

What she found in each place was basically the same: "They all ate a traditional diet of locally grown fresh foods, eaten in combination and in sequences that enhanced their nutritional and disease-fighting qualities," (SF Chronicle). Back in the states, she's trying to use that ancient culinary wisdom to treat a variety of ills.

She's also studied food synergies: how certain ingredients, when eaten together, heighten each other's nutritional benefits. For example, when tomatoes and carrots are cooked in olive oil, "the healthy antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene are more easily absorbed by the body" ("Force of Nature," Vogue, October 2010). Eating fermented foods like vinegar and yogurt with a carb-heavy meal helps slow the absorption of the sugars, which prevents the typical blood sugar spike & crash (Vogue). And treating tortillas with lime may help boost their nutrient content (SF Chronicle).

Check out the full Vogue article (click on the thumbnails below):

If/when I get sick this winter, I'm definitely going to try her soup (and perhaps follow it up with a hot toddy).

Mushroom Soup with Ginger (from the Washington Post)

• 1 ¼ cup shiitake, white button, maitake, cremini, or oyster mushrooms cut in ¼ inch slices
• ½ inch cube of fresh ginger (or more, if you really love ginger)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 tablespoon white or red miso paste
• 1 tsp Mirin, sake or rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp finely chopped scallion

Put mushrooms, ginger and water in a pot with a lid and bring to a boil; then immediately turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and take out ginger. Put ¼ cup of broth in a bowl, and stir in miso paste and Mirin. Stir this mixture into the pot. Serve topped with scallions.

Serving size: 1 dose