An old Chinese proverb has it that “He that takes medicine and neglects his diet wastes the skills of his physician.” Hippocrates also said, “Let food be thy medicine,” in the 5th century B.C. These two bits of wisdom from different parts of the globe tell us what was well-understood hundreds of years ago: What we eat is an important factor in maintaining health as well as recovering from disease. And even today with our advances in medicine and technology, food is still the best medicine and the easiest and most impactful way to stay healthy and disease-free. Food as Medicine Nutrition is one of the foundational elements of Eastern medicine. The ancient Chinese understood very well that the best medicine isn’t the herbal remedy given when you have a cold or the salve when you scrape your knee, but the food we ingest every day. It helps to build …