"An apple a day keeps the doctor
away" - an old adage that has been tossed about by mothers and apple
salesmen alike; likewise, everyone knows the reputed healing powers of a
steaming bowl of chicken soups even if it doesn't have an adage of its own. An
increasing number of people are putting their faith in food for healing powers
instead of modern medicine. However, it is far from a new idea. Foods have been
used in a medical capacity dating back to our Neolithic ancestors, who
benefited from a number of herbs that were incorporated to their
hunter-gatherer diet. Later evidence of food used as evidence would come from
almost every civilization in the ancient world.
Yet, today the issue of food as medicine is
a hotly contested topic, namely because we have all this helpful medicine
laying around in hospitals and such. Regardless of your particular thoughts on
the debate, there is no arguing that humanity has come a long way from eating
random plants to see if they would help a fever to injecting purified mold to
treat a particularly nasty infection.
Food as Medicine:
Part 1 - Prehistory
Pre-History
Prehistoric medicine is a bit of a
guesswork area of history. Why? Because plants tend to decompose within a few
years, which makes finding proof of what our ancestors used as medicine
thousands of years ago a bit of a task. Regardless, what archeologists and historians
have sorted out has come from the less degradable objects found among bodies.
It is particularly the tools of the occasional medicine man that are the most
telling. Pouches, bowls and a series of other tools indicate herbs, plants and
clay were integral in prehistoric medicine. Unfortunately, there is some debate
as to whether these herbs were used as poultices or eaten, but most likely both
methods were employed. Regardless, they likely ate medicinal plants; it is just
whether they did it for the medicinal effect or just because it was edible
where opinions differ.
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