'Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food', often ascribed to Hippocrates (400 BC), and used to emphasize the importance of nutrition to prevent or cure disease.

"There's no question people can take things a long way toward reversing diabetes, reversing hypertension, even preventing cancer by food choices," Nadeau says.

"We really want to link food and medicine, and not just give away food," says Dr. Rita Nguyen, the hospital's medical director of Healthy Food Initiatives. "We want people to understand what they're eating, how to prepare it, the role food plays in their lives."

A food dose is the amount of any food or beverage consumed that is associated with or leads to a specific health outcome. For example, how many apples must you eat to reduce the risk of a given disease?

As nouns the difference between portion and dose is that portion is an allocated amount while dose is a measured portion of medicine taken at any one time.

As verbs the difference between portion and dose is that portion is to divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes while dose is to administer a dose.

Dosage is a related term of portion. As nouns the difference between dosage and portion is that dosage is the administration of a medication etc, in a measured amount; dosing while portion is portion.

Dose (noun) the measured quantity of a therapeutic agent to be taken at one time, a portion of a substance added during a process.

Dose (verb) to give a dose to, especially: to give medicine to; to divide into doses: dose a medicine; to treat with an application or agent.

In the big picture, says Dr. Richard Afable, CEO and president of St. Joseph Hoag Health, medical institutions across the state are starting to make a philosophical switch to becoming a health organization, not just a health care organization.

Nadeau is part of a small revolution brewing across California. The food-as-medicine movement has been around for decades, but it's making inroads as physicians and medical institutions make food a formal part of treatment, rather than relying solely on medications. By prescribing nutritional changes or launching programs such as "Shop with Your Doc," they're trying to prevent, limit or even reverse disease by changing what patients eat.

Research shows that dietary habits influence disease risk. While certain foods may trigger chronic health conditions, others offer strong medicinal and protective qualities. Thus, many people argue that food is medicine. Yet, diet alone cannot and should not replace medicine in all circumstances.

That sentiment echoes the tenets of the Therapeutic Food Pantry program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which completed its pilot phase and is about to expand on an ongoing basis to five clinic sites throughout the city. The program will offer patients several bags of food prescribed for their condition, along with intensive training in how to cook it.

“Diet truly is medicine, not just prevention, not just health promotion — literally treatment and reversal of disease,” says Katz. In the same vein, healthy plant-based diets that are higher in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, including the Mediterranean diet are linked to numerous protective benefits.