Food As Medicine

Nutrition or is Food Medicine?

The right food is as important to the body as the right gas is for a car. We have gotten to believe that only a doctor’s prescription for a pharmaceutical is really what is going to make us well when in fact the opposite is often true. Many of us have reactions to pharmaceuticals because although based on plants they have upped the power of the chemical to a point that is often too strong for many of us. Also, the built-in safeguards that a plant-based chemical has is removed in a lab produced chemical that mimics the plant.

So back to food, if we listen to our bodies, we can often figure out what helps us, what hurts us and learn to adjust what we eat accordingly. In this day of fast food and keep it easy we often skip real food and go for the processed stuff. Processed food has focused a lot on being cheap and easy with taste that we crave. All that sounds good except most of it is “fake food” and many times it doesn’t even contain the food it is mimicking.  What does it have? Usually it is high in salt or sugars, they also go for cheap ingredients and use things like soy-based food and soy lecithin. Ingredients are usually not organic, and most are made in labs. What does that matter if it tastes good? Well it is those ingredients that is driving up our weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure and begins to lead us into diabetes, cancer and heart disease. These illnesses are skyrocketing in our country because we are eating too much of these processed foods. Our populations are also the heaviest they have ever been.

So how can food be medicine then? Well if we want to protect our bodies we really need to focus on organic food and if possible, eat locally. There is a growing body of evidence (science) about the micro biomes that are found in soil and if we live where we eat or eat where we live it is better for our guts. When our guts are happy our bodies generally are doing what they should be doing.

So why is organic important? Much of the wheat in our country is laced with Roundup (glyphosate) as is soy and other products we grow. Glyphosate has been proven to be cancerogenic. If you buy regular chicken much of it is heavy with arsenic. Beef that is not raised on clean grass is overly “fat” and not as balanced (their guts can not do what they were designed to do). And have you tasted an organic farm raised turkey versus the factory ones? There is no comparison in taste and nutrients! Vegetables that are pushed to be big and “perfect” are often “empty” of key vitamins and minerals. So, you are eating a lot of cellulose.

Organics are tied to good solid soil and they are higher in vitamin and minerals-extremely important for us. Organics usually last longer even if they are not picture perfect. Organics do not contain the heavy metals and poisons so often used in factory farms.

So, what foods do we want to be eating?  Our grandparents used to use every part of a chicken or other meat product. This means they enjoyed a roast or whole chicken and then worked through the meat in multiple meals working down to the bones. Then bones became bone broth which eaten plain or as a full-bodied soup (with many ingredients) is very strong in key minerals and vitamins with very strong healing properties. Bone broth when given to people fighting colds, flu or other illnesses is very effective.  Onions, garlic and peppers helps our bodies build their immunity and fight cancers.  Mushrooms -any kind- also fights cancers and builds the body’s ability to prevent many illnesses. The more fiber (fruit and vegetables) you consume the more it acts like a binder to pull out those elements that are not good for your system (including medicines).

To hear more about this tune into a podcast by People’s Pharmacy called Food as Medicine! The medical field is beginning to tune into this important aspect of eating real food.

References:

People Pharmacy on radio or see their website for the podcast on Food As Medicine.

Book & website: Food As Medicine by Sue Radd,  foodasmedicine.cooking

Book: Food As Medicine: TheTheory and Practice of Food by Todd Caldecott, Copy right 2011.