Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates famously wrote, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” One notable — and more recent — example of food-as-medicine came in the 1700s with the observation that sailors who ate citrus fruit were able to avoid scurvy, although no one knew why until the 1930s, when scientists discovered vitamin C. (Scurvy is caused by a vitamin C deficiency.) This ushered in an era of discovery about how deficiencies of specific nutrients caused specific diseases.
But science evolves, and today we know that foods are not just a collection of isolated nutrients. For example, many individual minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals (nonnutrient plant compounds that may reduce the risk of disease) have demonstrated anti-cancer effects in laboratory studies, yet it appears it's the synergy of these various parts working together in the overall diet that offers the strongest cancer protection, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR).
