Food and Why You Should Think Of It As Medicine

People who neglect their diet usually see the harmful effects of their decision later in life. A complete and healthy diet is something that many Americans are ignoring. Diet is one aspect of the American culture that has been extensively scrutinized and studied. A lot has been written about health and various kinds of diets have been formulated to serve our needs.

Americans, however, have been remarkably slow in catching up with the wealth of information out there. To phrase all the research on diet simply one could say: every natural source of food on Earth serves its purpose in providing you a healthy life, and neglecting it is unhealthy as it allows harmful elements of the Earth’s eco systems to penetrate your body’s defense system.

In a phrase, say no to processed food as often as possible.

According to an NPR article over 50% of food in the United States is processed food and only 5% is plant based food. Processed foods are chosen for their convenience and taste but they do not provide you what you need at all. Do avoid these foods if at all possible included added sugars otherwise take them in moderation.

Further Study: Watch the documentary Super Size Me, it came out way back in 2004 but is still relevant in demonstrating the adverse effects of a fast food/processed food diet.

Food as Functional Medicine

Using food as medicine was a fringe idea once but it has gained plenty of traction recently. Food as a medicine is immediately obvious when you’re sick, and taking the right nutrients paves the way to speedier health and healing. Use food as functional medicine to treat ailments.

According to the guidelines provided by the University of Minnesota, the food we eat provides instructions to our body, e.g. how to manage deficiency of a nutrient we have consistently failed to provide our body. However, the body has its limits and if we continue to eat wrong, our health will decline and it will put us at risk of developing conditions and contracting diseases.

The United States is facing various health problems that are affecting people’s ability and performance in their daily lives. Researchers believe that common diseases and problems such as stroke, some cancers and of course obesity and heart diseases are caused by biological dysfunctions. Food being an important factor in causing these.

Peter Attia, in his TED Talk points out how obesity maybe a symptom (a defensive mechanism of our body) against more dangerous healthy issues. It is crucial that you have greater understanding on how nutrients interact with the human body and simultaneously affect its functions.

Recommendations

We’ll give you the basic recommendation, include a variety of foods in your diet, including fruits, vegetables, seafood and even nuts and seeds. Studies show that the variety in your food is what gives a healthy, long life, including managing diseases. Fruits and vegetables also contain phyto-nutrients, which protect them from diseases and serve to benefit you.

Eat whole grain foods, these reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease while improving the health of your gastro intestinal tract. Processed whole grain food does not carry the same benefits, as most beneficial nutrients are lost during production.

Include beneficial fats in your diet. Fats are generally viewed as bad, but what you need to know is that fat itself is not the problem. It is that wide spread use of corn oil and the intake of grain fed beef (as opposed to grass fed beef) is the problem and has contributed to pro inflammatory health issues.

We recommend you do your own research on foods and using foods as medicine. You can read the University of Minnesota articles here. Take your doctor’s advice in food, or ask him to guide you to a nutritionist. Food sciences are generally regarded as part of Nutrition.