By Wil Wong, M.D.

Dr. Wong is a psychiatrist practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a member of the APA Lifestyle Psychiatry Caucus and APA Asian American Psychiatrists Caucus. He is currently serving on the executive board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Variety may be the spice of life, but a variety of spices might be just what the doctor orders for a long and healthy life. Spices bring dishes to life, defining flavor profiles that impart distinctiveness to cuisines. But spices used in many cultures, such as turmeric, ginger, oregano, and cinnamon, also have a medicinal role. Research shows that food, including certain spices and a whole-food, plant-predominant diet, can improve physical, mental, and cognitive health through multiple pathways that involve, for example, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, the gut microbiome, angiogenesis, oxidative stress, and inflammation.

Interest in food as medicine inspired the creation of teaching kitchens and spawned the field of culinary medicine — an evidence-based field combining the art of food and cooking with the science of medicine. Lifestyle psychiatry, a new field utilizing lifestyle interventions to prevent and treat mental and cognitive health conditions, has embraced culinary medicine, placing it under the banner of the food and nutrition pillar — one of six pillars foundational to health, which also include exercise, sleep, emotional resilience, connectedness, and the avoidance of risky substances. The current food ecosystem nudges people to make unhealthy choices. Options available at markets, restaurants, and other venues offer food products engineered for palatability and profit rather than health. Moreover, along with the stripping away of nutrients, contamination with traces of substances such as pesticides, endocrine disruptors, and microplastics are the unfortunate byproducts of the industrialization of food.

Through demonstrations and active participation, culinary medicine teaches patients how to avoid the pitfalls of conventional food choices, while developing skills such as shopping for the right foods, reading ingredient labels and preparing and cooking meals. So, spice up the new year by joining a culinary medicine class or trying out new ingredients and healthy recipes in your kitchen!

Linda Shiue, M.D., is the Director of Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. She is also an internal medicine specialist, a professionally trained chef, and cookbook author of “Spicebox Kitchen: Eat Well and Be Heathy with Globally Inspired, Vegetable-Forward Recipes.” In this video, Dr. Shiue introduces the role of food in promoting positive mental and physical health, without sacrificing flavor.

Books and Cookbooks to Inspire Healthy Meals:

Books:

• Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself
• How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease
• How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older
• The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health

Cookbooks:

• Powered by Plants: Nutrient-Loaded 30-Minute Meals to Help You Thrive
• The How Not to Die Cookbook: 100+ Recipes to Help Prevent and Reverse Disease
• The How Not to Diet Cookbook: 100+ Recipes for Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss
• Forks Over Knives ― The Cookbook: Over 300 Simple and Delicious Plant-Based Recipes to Help You Lose Weight, Be Healthier, and Feel Better Every Day
• Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health
• Forks Over Knives Family: Every Parent's Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy Kids on a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet
• The Fiber Fueled Cookbook: Inspiring Plant-Based Recipes to Turbocharge Your Health
• Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior: Live Fierce, Stay Bold, Eat Delicious
• The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook: Over 125 Delicious, Life-Changing, Plant-Based Recipes
• Spicebox Kitchen: Eat Well and Be Healthy with Globally Inspired, Vegetable-Forward Recipes
• The 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution: The Definitive Food and Lifestyle Guide to Preventing Cognitive Decline
• The Blue Zones American Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100
• The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100
• The Reverse Your Diabetes Cookbook: Lose Weight and Eat to Beat Type 2 Diabetes