Synopsis Hippocrates, the father of medicine, recognized that the medical therapy must be consistent with the nature and the design of the human body. He believed that the effective health care could not be separated from nutrition. He stressed prevention of disease by strongly recommending a balanced diet with a moderate and sensible lifestyle. Hippocrates wrote, natural forces within us are the true healers of disease... Everything in excess is opposed to nature... To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy. His philosophy was very much akin to the holistic health perspective of today. The various foods provide not only nutrition to our body, but can prove to be medicinal too.