I find it fascinating that at the time, a holistic diet-based solution was considered flakey and rooted in ignorant traditions.
And yet here we are almost 200 years later and many common illnesses are still closely related to diet, and many still feel as though treatment through diet is flakey or inferior to modern drugs or surgery.
It turns out one of the best things we can do for ourselves is eat well and strive to prevent disease before it occurs. If I recall correctly, this is a core tenant of many traditional medicines including traditional Chinese medicine.
I'm not saying we should all start practicing traditional medicine. I just find it fascinating that we have and still often discount traditional knowledge, even after it's been virtually proven for milennia. It's like we throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I hope modern science can find more concrete conclusions around health and diet such that more people might have faith in food as a preventative medicine. To many of us it seems obvious, but to much of the world I suspect it isn't... Just like it wasn't in the Japanese Navy.
And yet here we are almost 200 years later and many common illnesses are still closely related to diet, and many still feel as though treatment through diet is flakey or inferior to modern drugs or surgery.
It turns out one of the best things we can do for ourselves is eat well and strive to prevent disease before it occurs. If I recall correctly, this is a core tenant of many traditional medicines including traditional Chinese medicine.
I'm not saying we should all start practicing traditional medicine. I just find it fascinating that we have and still often discount traditional knowledge, even after it's been virtually proven for milennia. It's like we throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I hope modern science can find more concrete conclusions around health and diet such that more people might have faith in food as a preventative medicine. To many of us it seems obvious, but to much of the world I suspect it isn't... Just like it wasn't in the Japanese Navy.