How To Use Food As Medicine
Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
by Susan Living
http://www.susansfoodforthought.com
The idea of food as medicine excites me. The thought that every day we can choose to put in our mouths or take into our bodies substances that can add to our ability to live our lives as fully and vibrantly as we possibly can is exhilarating! We can go to our fridge or our pantry or our fruit bowl and choose life, choose a powerful nutrient, choose a magical healing element to become a part of us. We can go outside to our garden, to our herb pots, to our lemon tree and pick, pluck from the earth a gift that can help us feel well - right now and into the future. We don't need a spoonful of sugar to help get this medicine down. We don't need a prescription. We don't need to sit in a waiting room flicking aimlessly through ancient copies of Women's Day or National Geographic only to be shuffled through with a 5 minute consult that's supposed to cure all our ailments. We don't need a university degree or some kind of highly specialised knowledge other than that gained by simply being human and breathing.
Somewhere along the line we forgot that last bit though. We forgot that food has the mystical power to either heal or harm. We forgot that food influences us every single day of our lives both internally and externally. We forgot that food is life in the most profound way imaginable. Oops.
The result is that many of us no longer recognise what real food is or are aware of how we eat each morsel that touches our lips. We don't look at food and see medicine. We look at food and see an end to hunger, an end to distraction. We look at food and see fuel to keep us going or quick energy or fat or protein or carbohydrates. We look at food and see a yummy taste, emotional satisfaction, convenience or "time in a packet". We look at food and see calories and kilojoules as good or bad as right or wrong. We look at food through tired eyes and busy minds looking to get our most immediate needs met.
Food moves further and further down the scale of importance, far below time and money and other people, far below our state of mind in any given moment. Food has been relegated to petrol, sustenance, a gap filler, a pleasure, and for socialising only. Food is taken for granted and ignored just like we ignore signals from our bodies over many years - just like we ignore the needs of our bodies. We forgot, somewhere along the line about the transformative aspect of food and the incredible power of the medicine chest we keep in our fridges and pantries and fruit bowls. We started grabbing things to fill a hole, to munch, crunch and slurp above and beyond our physiological requirements.
And that's when things started getting really serious...That's when we started getting sick.
We can change all that though. We can heal ourselves. Learning specifically about the gift of certain foods and the nutrients they contain is not only fascinating but fun and empowering no matter what your level of health is right now. Beginning to use food as medicine is the first step on a mosey, jog or canter toward better health. There's a whole other world out there... there's a whole other world in that apple you're eating... Enjoy!
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Thank you for the opportunity to review this article. Your writing style drew me in and, as a nurse, I hope that people take your message to heart.I loved this line: "Beginning to use food as medicine is the first step on a mosey, jog or canter toward better health."Hope to read more from you!LindaHi Linda,Thank you for your kind words! I love how more and more people I meet from mainstream medicine approaches are becoming interested in this way to better health.I also love how the journey to better health really is about the individual - we can access it any way we choose, at our own pace, with the concepts that make the most sense to us in our lives now.Thank you!
I am interested in that approach, but you give us no specifics. It seems the article is just a lure to your site.Hi Jack,You are absolutely right. I gave no specifics in this article.My intention was more to lay the groundwork and philosophy behind using food as medicine and nutritional healing. I have found both in my work with myself and with my clients that unless this groundwork is laid correctly, food tends to be seen as very black or white, good or bad and this is not necessarily healthy or the way to better health.Food as medicine and nutritional healing are also HUGE topics with, it seems, every expert in the field having a different and conflicting opinion about what's best. I seek to give the best information I can so that people can form their own opinion about what is best for their unique body and unique needs.
In an upcoming article, I will go more into specifics and principles behind food as medicine that you may find useful.I wish you all the best on your health journey, Jack!
I found your article full of "food for thought". I'm sure many of us eat to satisfy hunger and not necessarily think about what we are putting into our bodies. In the past year, since I started selling Herbalife products (herbal nutrition) I have learned so much about how our bodies use what we put in it. I'm still learning, but find it very interesting.Thank you for giving me something more to think about!Hi Sue,Thank you so much for your comment! Learning about the way our bodies is continual joy to me and I so enjoy sharing it with fellow enthusiasts!
I know several people in Herbalife who have all mentioned to me how influential what they've learned has been on their own health and wellbeing.
LOVE it and love this journey!
Susan, I really was entranced by your approach to this subject that is dear to my heart. Thank you, and keep up the good work! One suggestion: to break down paragraphs into smaller segments, such as the first paragraph in this artice. Hope this helps. :-)
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