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Lime for Chest Congestion, Bitter Orange for Diabetes: Foods as Medicines in the Dominican Community in New York City. Several plants serve a dual purpose as foods and medicines in the Dominican immigrant community in New York City. Data show that foods used for self-medication by this community are plants that are well known and readily available in an urban environment, such as lime, bitter orange, garlic, cinnamon, onion and shallot, coconut, watercress, ginger, soursop, and radish. These plants are significant for Dominicans in New York City for treatment of non-communicable diseases, colloquially called "lifestyle diseases" (such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and asthma/chest congestion), self-limiting diseases (including common cold, flu, cough, acute bronchitis), and female reproductive health (such as vaginal infections and infertility). Our findings emphasize the contemporary role of traditional medicine as an alternative and parallel healthcare system that dynamically adapts to current urban epidemiological trends. The double use of foods as medicines has important implications for urban outreach projects, such as Green Carts and community gardens, that play a role in disease prevention of vulnerable populations, especially those living in areas identified as food deserts.