An investigation of dietary practices in the treatment centers of ancient age (Asclepeion) in terms of gastronomy and their reflections on today's nutrition and treatment processes

Ancient people, who managed to survive by consuming the foods available in nature, became acquainted with the concept of disease after they adopted a settled life and began to be engaged in agriculture. Until the end of the prehistoric ages, people attributed the causes of diseases that they could not solve with their own knowledge to supernatural powers, and they developed various beliefs, concepts, and practices to be protected from them. Along with this system of thought, religious scholars became the people who treated diseases. When religion began to become a belief system in the first civilized societies, medicine gradually began to develop in the Asclepeions with temples-healing houses, where people relaxed physically and spiritually, religious medicine was practiced, and there were temples, altars, and healing buildings. Diet, pharmacology, and surgery appear as basic concepts in the ancient philosophy of medicine. The basic view is that a good diet, which is considered to be better than all kinds of treatment, is a guarantee of health because foods either cause diseases by impairing the body balance or restore people's health by improving the impaired balance. Over time, nutrition ceased to be an idea of only eating enough and increased its importance in medicine, and food was considered as both nutrients and medication according to its preparation or consumption pattern, in a compatible way with Hippocrates' aphorism "Your food is your medicine. Medicine is your food." Although it was not named in ancient times, the interest in functional nutrition, which is a concept as old as the history of humanity, has been increasing rapidly in recent years. It is considered that the most important issue of the year 2020 and the next few years will be healthy nutrition and the exploration of the health components of foods that provide and even improve health. Human beings, who are trying to find a solution to the problem of inadequate and unbalanced nutrition in underdeveloped societies, are dealing with chronic diseases caused by excessive and unbalanced nutrition in developed and developing societies in the 2000s. It is observed that dietary practices play a significant role in chronic diseases. Scientists now draw attention to the health components and antioxidants in foods that positively affect the health, and they consider regulating the diet accordingly and thus preventing chronic diseases, instead of just providing adequate and balanced nutrition. This study was prepared based on Hippocrates of Kos, who was the founder of modern medicine in ancient times, and Galen of Pergamon (Bergama), who systematized his knowledge and whose teachings spread to the world from the Roman Empire, whose names are still mentioned nowadays with healthy nutrition teachings. Then, the transformation of the Asclepeions, where they grew up, from temples to healing houses was examined, and it was attempted to reach the origins of the relationship between medicine and healthy nutrition in history. Accordingly, the relationships between nutrition and medical treatment methods during the period from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages were investigated. It was attempted to explain the reflections of the connection between both the ancient period and today's modern and postmodern medical approaches with the concepts of healthy nutrition in terms of gastronomy in order to reveal to what extent today's nutrition and treatment practices have benefited from ancient times. Keywords: Ancient age, Asclepeion, Hippocrates, Galen, Functional Nutrition