Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: nutrition

  • Fasting: For body and spirit

    Isabel AzevedoPorto, Portugal Having struggled with the obesity epidemic for decades,1,2 the scientific and health care communities are now giving attention to the effects of fasting for preventing and treating this important health problem. Appearing at first sight to be a simple issue of energetic balance, obesity has been shown instead to be a complex…

  • Rachel Fleming and the non-reality of “racial types”

    Barry BoginUnited Kingdom During the early twentieth century several longitudinal studies of child growth were initiated in the United States and Europe. Such longitudinal studies take repeated measurements of the same children, usually once a year, and from the data both size and rate of growth (velocity) can be calculated. The first such study in…

  • Hearkening back to Hippocrates: rediscovering “food as medicine” in the age of quinoa and kale

    Shehryar R. SheikhCleveland, Ohio, United States In my opinion, nobody would have even sought for medicine, if the same diets (διαιτήµατα) had suited both the sick and those in health.”1 – Hippocrates, from the treatise “Ancient Medicine” written around 400 BCE His edict on food is as well known as the tenets of the oath…

  • Does an apple a day keep the doctor away?

    Vincent P. de LuiseNew Haven, Connecticut, USA The health benefits of fruits and vegetables are a long-standing and verified aspect of nutrition science. One of those fruits, the apple, has a particularly interesting, albeit circuitous, history as a healthy foodstuff. The well-known aphorism “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is based on a…