Food Is Medicine: Do Your Choices Heal Or Hurt You?
Functional medicine is great at explaining the root cause of our health problems. Digestion is key,and many of us know that the importance of being able to break down and absorb nutrients in the gut in a timely fashion is necessary for health. Common use of pre and probiotics in the last few years demonstrates this awareness. The science of cellular metabolism is well documented and researched, and we know what a human cell needs to be healthy. Marketing and politics that are profit-oriented have interfered with the hard science of our health industry as well as the health of our individual selves, and the influence has taken its toll. The majority of us no longer grow our own food or raise our own animals to feed our families. According to the Centers for Disease Control, life expectancy has dipped for the second year in 20 years in the US, the average is 78.1 years. Women are living 5 years longer than men. https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/health/us-life-expectancy-study/index.html and we know now, that genetically modified foods, mass produced meat in unnatural conditions and use of antibiotics as well as pesticides have caused many of the inflammatory conditions, including cancer, in humans.
When we delve into our behavior patterns, including what and when we eat, what we choose to eat, and what we do while we eat, even what we think when we eat, we can have an inward view of how food can heal us or hurt us. The sterility of our lives and phobia about germs and dirt is also creating more health problems. The Amish, who use natural processes in farming, have rare case of Asthma in their children; Hutterites, who are using industrial farming practices, have a higher than average rate of asthma in their children (Never Home Alone, a book on microbes, 2018, by Rob Dunn). Westerners have health problems primarily because of the abundance of food with poor nutritional value, according to The institute for Functional Medicine. Healthy, whole foods, locally produced, fresh and in season will reverse many of these diseases. Eating higher quality foods has a positive effect on optimal health. Taking time in nature also helps our nervous systems balance everyday stress. Don’t you miss GREEN if you don’t see it every day???
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food,” Hippocrates
It takes more than cleaning out your cupboards, it takes knowledge, loving the experience and bounty of a Farmers’ markets, purchasing food on the outer aisles of the grocery, and making daily choices that express love for ourselves and the planet. Support is something I can offer, in the form of individual and/or group classes. There are lots of programs out there. Find one that emphasizes “food as medicine” and you will find a community that cares.
