Coined by Jan Christian Smuts in 1925.
Describes a physiological position focused on understanding whole systems rather than individual events.
Emphasizes that wholes are greater than the sum of their parts.
Holism is complementary to reductionism.
Phenomena can be understood by analyzing individual components.
The development of medicine and psychology in Western cultures progressed towards a reductionist perspective.
The reductionist approach has limitations, despite leading to some revolutionary discoveries in medicine and nutrition.
Views a complex system as the sum of its parts.
Food scientists decompose food into nutrients and study their effects.
Focuses on the metabolic and physiological effects of food constituents.
This approach has led to understanding associations between single compounds and single physiological effects.
Researchers are returning to a more holistic view, considering dietary patterns rather than isolated food compounds.
Leads to associating food with a single nutrient (e.g., dairy products as calcium).
Oversimplification results in foods being classified as good or bad based on one constituent (e.g., red wine as good due to resveratrol).
Promotes aggressive marketing of functional foods and supplements with unknown long-term health potentials.
Food as Medicine: Holism vs. Reductionism