天然植物的摄取，不可能成为标准医疗疗法的重要替代品。所谓食疗，目前只能是作为一种效果尚未明确的“疾病预防”措施，或是严格监控下的一种辅助性治疗手段。已经有相关的实验证明，自行选择“食疗”而放弃正规的治疗，将很可能造成致命的后果。
今年8月10日，发表在美国国家癌症研究所杂志（JNCI）的一项研究发现，只接受了替代医学治疗的癌症患者，比手术、化疗、放疗、内分泌治疗等常规癌症疗法的患者的整体死亡率增加了1.5倍。
有病就吃药，别拿食疗自欺欺人
研究人员使用了美国国家癌症数据库的相关数据（2004-2013年），对比分析了281名选择替代疗法而未接受常规癌症治疗的早期乳腺癌、前列腺癌、肺癌和结直肠癌患者及562名同类型癌症患者，中位随访时间为66个月。
研究结果显示，相比标准的医疗疗法，替代疗法使乳腺癌死亡风险增加4.68倍，肺癌死亡风险增加1.17倍，结直肠癌死亡风险增加3.57倍。
坚信“食疗”，反被“食疗”所害，这可能是一些患者没有预料到的后果。
我们不应该对食物有过于不切实际的期望，因为对于所谓的“食疗”，在没有经过临床试验（随机，双盲，安慰剂对照，统计验证等）研究的情况下，并没有关于最大安全剂量、适当的治疗持续时间、过量的后果和药物相互作用等方面的指引，其有效性仍然存在不少疑问。
既然这样，那么，抛开“食物能够治病”的功利性想法和思想包袱吧，全面性的饮食、均衡营养才是王道，让我们好好享受食物带给我们的愉悦。
参考文献：
1. 孟诜，《食疗本草》
2. USDA Food Composition Databases
3. 中国药典（2015年版）
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