Long before laboratories existed, five cultures on five continents arrived independently at the same quiet understanding: that food, prepared with intention and refined across generations, could heal. From India's garam masala to Japan's shichimi togarashi, these spice blends were not recipes so much as accumulated wisdom — centuries of careful observation compressed into a handful of ingredients. Modern science, armed with spectrometers and clinical trials, is now confirming what grandmothers encoded in ratios and rituals, raising a question as old as knowledge itself: how much did we already