Now more than ever, health practitioners are concentrating on the cross-reaction between food and medicine. There are specific types of food that can interfere with current medications. The Harvard Health Letter came out with a list of how the two affect each other. Now people are paying closer attention to their diets based on certain foods that can cause a drug interaction, which can either make medications stronger or weaker, or have an entirely different effect.
As a private chef, I have a certain guest onboard where specific dietary needs have to be taken into consideration based on their medication. We have to be mindful of guests’ diets, especially if you are throwing dinner parties at home. Some are on low sodium or heart healthy diets, and I have to pay pay attention to food labels. This is especially true around the holidays. Ham, Turkey, even chicken breasts might have a plumper/filler in it, and usually that is a sodium-gluten mixture to keep it fresh and make it look fuller. So if you are gluten intolerant, or have heart disease, stay away from plumped up products. Read the labels carefully.
There are many medicines out there that might cause havoc on person’s system. The problem is a restaurant might not know this. So it is you, the consumer, that must alert the waiter so this information can be given to the chef.
Edema, or chronic urticaria (hives)such as swelling in the tissues or joints, the last thing you want to do is give them spicy food or barbecue. They are probably on a
Food Pharmacy!
by Chef Mary Beth Johnson, CEPC, CCC