The idea that food can be bad for you has been growing in popularity in the developed world over the past few decades. As consumers we are presented with a confusing picture that seems to suggest that some foods are bad and to be avoided as much as possible, while others are good and should be eaten frequently to ensure optimum health.
The relationship between the foods we eat and medicines we take is often neglected. As the developed world continues to increase its consumption of prescription and OTC medications, the continued ignorance of this relationship may prove fatal, or at least very inconvenient. A high fiber diet focusing on fresh vegetables, nuts and fresh fruit can result in resurgence of depression for someone who is taking antidepressants. Switching to low-fat skim food options could worsen asthma symptoms for someone who previously enjoyed high fat meals before taking their daily asthma medication. Someone could end up with dangerously high blood pressure from eating tofu or drinking a non-alcoholic beer, if also taking MAOIs.
More often, the effects of the food/drug interaction are more subtle. Taking some antibiotics with orange juice instead of water may interfere with the medicine's absorption and effectiveness, but there are no drastic, noticeable signs of any problem. Drinking coffee or having some chocolate may increase the intensity of some drug side effects, but often the drug itself (alone) will be blamed. Taking a popular herbal supplement such as St John's Wort can decrease the absorption and efficacy of some medications, but this often simply leads to being prescribed a higher dose. The effects of many known food and drug interactions are often overlooked because there is no immediate and life-threatening danger to consumers/patients. Instead patients endure what are often avoidable discomforts and inconveniences that slowly erode their quality of life, and sometimes even their long term well-being.
The other reason why food/drug interactions are often overlooked is because consumers and patients are not aware of its existence. The Interactions Lookup has been created to provide consumers with a place to begin understanding how the medicines we take can be affected by the foods we eat. In this tool, enter a food and/or medication into the appropriate search fields and click the button to search our growing database of interactions information.
Understanding and acknowledging the potential effects our food choices may have on our health, especially when taking certain medications is a step towards taking back control of our own well-being. Quality of life is something only the patient/individual can accurately gauge. Our health care providers are more focused on "fixing" the medical issue they have been presented with, using whatever information is available to them. It is up to the patient/ individual to inform their doctors about their condition. It is in our power to help our health care team to provide better care to us, by supplying adequate relevant information that pertains to our condition(s) and equally importantly, and changes to our condition.