27^th European Nutrition and Dietetics Conference

Biography

Biography: Marcello Menapace

Abstract

All of the main historical types of alternative forms of medicines which fall into the category of traditional complementary and alternative medicines (TCAM) have in common the idea that food has peculiar properties. Both traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Unani Tibb, traditional Japanese medicine (TJM), Ayurveda, and all other traditional medicines teach that foods can be divided in two ways according to their qualities. These qualities are hot/cold and dry/moist and based on these all TCAM suggest to use these foods to harmonize any disequilibrium (disease) that a person may have (dietetic treatment) due to its individual temperament (constitution), at any specific point in time. All TCAMs have developed from a common ancestor medicine and have splitted into several branches each focusing on their own peculiar treatment patterns. While Unani has taken the concept of the four humours from ancient Greek medicine, TCM and Ayurveda utilized 5 and 3 elements, respectively, as a foundation and have established their own treatment system around this. Similarly, modern blood type diet (BTD) approach considers humans divided by blood types and assigns to each a peculiar set of foods adapt to their biochemistry through a process of experimentation. Both dietary practices are not mutually exclusive, but can be suitably and positively combined into a new system of medicine where diet and practice is at the centre. This new system will take advantange of the millennial tradition of ancient medicine and the novel advances of biochemistry to provide a truly individualized medicine.