Nearly 2500 years ago Hippocrates proclaimed "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". The Ancient Greek physician believed that the body must be treated as a whole and not a series of parts. Whilst few of today's doctors have received any training in nutritional or holistic therapies, the volume of scientific evidence supporting the importance of diet and nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease is growing rapidly. The specialist field of Nutritional Medicine will be a major force in 21st century healthcare.

The basic principles of Nutritional Medicine are to identify the underlying cause of illness, ensure the body receives the building blocks it needs to rebalance and repair itself and to remove from the diet substances that aggravate the condition and hinder the natural healing process. This involves screening for food intolerances that impact on the immune system, assessing the efficiency of the digestive process to allow for proper absorption and utilisation of nutrients and correcting imbalances in biochemistry through diet and supplementation.

Nutritional Medicine is a cornerstone of holistic medicine. Food provides the source of energy and the basic raw material for the body to regenerate, enabling the natural healing process to take place. However, the quality of the fuel that we put into our bodies each day cannot be relied upon to provide everything we need for disease prevention and repair mechanisms to function effectively.

Modern agriculture practises mean that the nutrient content of our foods is sadly depleted. Soil quality is poor, fruits and vegetables are harvested before they are ripe and stored for prolonged periods. Our food is far from fresh by the time it is eaten. All this is compounded by busy lifestyles that mean we regularly eat fast-food and convenience meals supplying too many empty calories and too few nutrients.

Factors such as physical or mental stress, the use of pharmaceuticals, pollution of our air, food and water and exposure to radiation all increase our production of free-radicals, causing damage at a cellular level and overwhelming the body's innate ability to carry out constant repairs. For most people it is no longer true to say that food alone can supply all that our bodies need to meet the challenges of today's environment.

Nutritional Medicine offers a real alternative to conventional drug treatments. Many chronic medical conditions can be treated successfully using natural supplements and dietary changes. Pharmaceuticals can have significant side-effects and are used primarily to suppress symptoms and stabilise acute conditions. Given the correct raw materials, the body itself is able to correct many disease states.

As well as being targeted to treat specific diseases, Nutritional Medicine is used prophylactically to prevent illness developing. This focus, on prevention rather than cure, will enable us as a society to take control of our health and meet the growing expectations of our aging populace for an active longevity.