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Depending on your mood, time of day and Internet speed, the words scattered, smothered, and covered may make you head to a music website to listen to Hootie and the Blowfish or click on your favorite food delivery service to get a bite for breakfast from Waffle House. The study of food has always been a decent way to evaluate the political, social and cultural processes. As we enter the third year of the pandemic, we have seen food highlight unique issues, impacting supply chains, home preparation and consumption. Recent media themes showing bare supermarket shelves, sourdough starter at home and a host of apps that allow for your meal to be delivered within minutes have all revolved around the distinctive nature that food plays in our lives.
This past year, I have been lucky to be a part of an elective course for medical students, Food and Nutrition as Medicine, which not only helps medical students better counsel patients on healthy diet choices, but also allows them to develop hands-on skills for healthier food preparation. Hopefully, the course helps students better understand the osteopathic tenet that rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self-regulation and the interrelationship of structure and function. Dietary methods can reduce blood pressure and inflammation and can produce overall better physiologic function for patients. Nutrition for patients is well beyond the Krebs cycle.
Plant-based diets often speak to the political and economic nature of food, relating how much water, land or energy is required to produce a certain diet versus another. Economically, it appears that there has been a breakthrough related to plant-based options for consumers in the supermarket as well as restaurants. The selections are not just limited to specialty food stores or boutique restaurants as it becomes “impossible” to miss seeing such items.
Believe it or not, food plays a role in almost every article in this issue. From childhood obesity to osteoarthritis, diet can be seen as an important factor in the prevention or development of disease. Have fun with this issue and make (or order) something good to eat today—even if it is scattered and covered! Enjoy the read.
Picture from @wafflehouseofficial – no copyrights