The history of nutrition science dates back 1000’s of years. Wherever there was a an advanced society the physicians practiced nutrition. Hippocrates famously said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” The early practitioners of Egyptian, Ayuredic, and Chinese medicines clearly used food to promote health and treat disease. The 5,0000-year-old use of tea illustrates this history with its first medical application to treat digestive and nervous disorders and as a salve for rheumatic pain.
Yet today we have to spend millions of dollars to convince ourselves that herbs truly are beneficial. It is interesting that until the advent of modern pharmacology, most physicians were well trained in nutritional and botanical medicine.