“Functional foods” is a buzzword for a concept that has a long history. This term is being used for foods that can have a positive effect on a person’s health—meaning one that goes beyond simply providing him or her with basic nutrition. In other words, functional foods would be ones that help to promote good health while helping to prevent disease.

At Roots 2018, we described the food as medicine philosophy as healing yourself, one bite at a time. Experts on our panel discussion included the one-and-only Jane Esselstyn, and three distinguished chefs: Andrea Beaman, Maneet Chauhan, and Jehangir Mehta—and here’s the entire food as medicine discussion from our culinary conference:

You are what you eat. You can pay the farmer—or pay the doctor. Eat your greens.

We invite you to open up one hand, nice and wide—and then, with your other hand, place one single beautiful beet into your palm, ideally a just harvested one. If you don’t have one, imagine that you do. Now, in a very real sense, you’re holding the world in your hand.