Definitions

The eminent medical historian Henry E. Sigerist once noted that “[t]here is no sharp borderline between food and drug,” and that both dietetic and pharmacological therapies were “born of instinct” (Sigerist 1951: 114–15).Today we tend to focus our studies of food on its nutritive values in promoting growth and health and in preventing disease, but for many centuries past, food had an additional, specifically medical role – as a remedy for illness.

The United States Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, signed into law June 27, 1938, provides no clearer differentiation between “food” and “drug” than Sigerist could. According to the current wording of that legislation, which updated the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, “the term ‘food’ means (1) articles used for food or drink for man or other animals, (2) chewing gum, and (3) articles used for components for any other such article,” whereas “the term ‘drug’ means (A) articles recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeias [and several other compendia]; and (B) articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals; and (C) articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals; and (D) articles intended for use as a component of any articles specified in clause (A), (B), or (C).” Under clause (B) above, many items that have traditionally been considered foods might also be regarded as drugs under federal law, although they seldom are. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can intervene in cases involving food only when it judges an item to be misleadingly labeled as a “food”; it specifically excludes vitamins from the category “drugs.”