117 © Springer International Publishing AG 2016 E.A. Olson, J.R. Stepp (eds.), Plants and Health, Ethnobiology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48088-6_5 Using Plants as Medicines and Health Foods in Southern Jalisco Elizabeth A. Olson Abstract This chapter deals with the incorporation of medicinal plant knowledge in the practices of non-biomedical healers in west central Mexico. Ethnographic data are presented to suggest that what occurs with the translation of health knowl- edge across ethnomedical systems is more complex than existing explanations of “cultural diffusion,” “cultural borrowing,” or “colonization” but instead reflects important cultural constructivist dynamics: (1) embedded ethnomedical histories; (2) predominant health culture; and (3) individual worldview. Non-biomedical prac- titioners in contemporary Mexico adapt various ethnomedical texts and therapies to their local environment and clientele. Ethnographic research in one Mexican town is used to demonstrate the spectrum of practitioners whose experiences highlight the interplay of these three dynamics. The spectrum of practitioners can help us begin to construct more nuanced understandings of the translations of ethnomedical knowledge across global networks. The incorporation of plants into the range of non-biomedical practices is nutritional, supplemental, and sometimes medicinal. Introduction Combining the cultural diversity in our world with a continued fascination with the “exotic other” and with the problematic health profiles of many Western nations (i.e., epidemics of chronic and lifestyle diseases), we find a growing industry keen to find the next “miracle-diet,” plant extract, or the “super foods” that will help us eat as if we still lived in the “Paleolithic” (Pedersen and Baruffati 1985). It could appear to the casual observer that we are just now discovering ancient cultural wis- dom that will cure all that ails us. Medicinal plants are at the forefront of these popular curiosities, though certainly these are not new interests for anthropologists who have long been interested in studying medicinal plants, traditional environmen- tal knowledge, and Indigenous knowledge. In fact, some scholars have suggested that the search for “new” ethnobotanical-medicinal discoveries is all but over and E.A. Olson (*) Department of History, Sociology, and Anthropology, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT, USA e-mail: elizabetholson@suu.edu elizabethaolson@gmail.com