Under extreme circumstances, food, as part of a medical treatment, can be delivered through tubes into the stomach or pre-digested directly into the blood stream. Another branch of medicine, preventive medicine, or the warding off of disease, has been getting more attention in recent years. Within medicine, treating or warding off disease, nutrition is most valuable as a preventive measure. We eat every day, usually several times a day. The cumulative effect of our daily food choices is much more meaningful from a preventive health standpoint than what we eat on special occasions or dietary changes we might make during illness or even the foods we might eat in the hospital.
People eat food.
The food choices people make result in dietary patterns over time that have a particular nutrient and non-nutrient profile. The amount of non-nutrient substances, such as alcohol, additives and contaminants, in a persons chosen dietary pattern is considered important as well. At the individual level it is often more complicated, because factors unique to the individual need to be taken into account such as their personal food preferences, individual disease risk factors, their lifestyle and their current state of health. Choosing food patterns that help one to avoid feeling sick is an approach to the concept of using food as medicine. This idea is particularly relevant for individuals with a condition or disease known to be related in their individual case to a particular nutrient or food as in food allergies, indigestion, constipation and atherosclerosis.