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QUESTION OF THE MONTH Medicinal and preventive use of food is old as humankind. Medical historian Henry E. Sigerist noted "there is no sharp borderline between food and drug," and that both dietetic and pharmacological therapies were "born of instinct" (1). Protodietitians recognized the hazards of inadequate food supply and attempted to treat the ailing with curative diets. Preventive dietetics was proposed by Galen in the 2nd century when he taught most illnesses are caused by "errors of regimen [including diet], and hence avoidable," similar to today's obesity epidemic (2). In the 4th century, the theory of pepsis, Greek for digestion, was postulated by Aristotle, long before Pepsi Cola (Purchase, NY) usurped the term and stated about Pepsi in 1903: "Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion" (3).
Dietetics permeated the culture of the Middle Ages; the physician in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was described as follows: "In his own diet he observed some measure, There were no superfluities for pleasure, Only digestives, nutritives and such" (4). As the consumers of today...