Food Is Medicine

In life, we are given too many choices; as a result, we make some bad ones. In particular, many of us make many wrong food choices when it comes to our diet: we eat what we are not supposed to eat, and do not eat what we are supposed to eat. In other words, we forget that food is medicine.

Food is medicine, because it gives the energy for growth and development. At birth, we all got our nutrients in the food consumed by our mothers during pregnancy. So, some of us were healthy babies, and some were not so lucky. After that, we are pretty much on our own, especially when we grow up. Our food choices produce the energy we need to grow and maintain our bodies throughout our lives. In that respect, food is medicine.

Food is medicine because we obtain self-made energy from food. As we age, our self-made energy from the food we have consumed over the years begins to decline, and this is evidenced by our inability or difficulty to cope with the stressors of life. These stressors may have come in many different forms, such as overexposure to sunlight, polluted air, contaminated water, and a host of other lifestyle factors of modern life. After decades of abuse to our bodies, our choices - whether we have made them knowingly, or they have been imposed unwittingly on ourselves - begin to take their toll, resulting in the development of chronic conditions and degenerative diseases. To add insult to injury, our metabolic slowdown that comes with the natural process of aging makes it even more difficult to maintain our health and energy. Instead of focusing on the concept of food is medicine, many of us begin to resort to a quick fix of our health problems, which is the use of dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.

Remember, all drugs are toxic chemicals that address the symptoms without removing the causes of our health conditions. Food is medicine; use good food choices instead of dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, once said: "Let food be your medicine, and your medicine your food." Take a step further: Let food be the "only" medicine. If you have developed a degenerative disease, start thinking of food is medicine, in fact, the best medicine, if not the "only" medicine. Your body is designed to digest and utilize food to get its nutrients and energy. But only wholesome food can do that - not even supplements, because supplements are just what they are called.

If food is medicine - the "only" medicine for you, you will empower yourself with knowledge about food, and you will pursue a proper diet with high-quality, non-toxic, nutritious superfoods. That means, you will refrain from eating those commercially prepared and chemically loaded processed foods obtainable at the supermarket. When food becomes the "only" medicine, you will also learn to trust your body; that is, you will learn what your body is telling you, and how it responds to real, wholesome food. Food is medicine!

When you do become sick, you should also learn how to use herbs as medicine. Herbs from different parts of plants have different therapeutic values that promote self-healing without the use of dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. As a matter of fact, many common herbs, such as cinnamon, garlic, and ginger, have been used as "food" medicine for thousands of years. According to a Chinese saying, "You can never draw a line between foods and herbs. Herbs can cure many common ailments, such as constipation, cholesterol, high blood pressure, with little or no side effects. For example, use ginger 's anti-inflammatory properties to fight arthritis pain and nausea; use hawthorn berries for your cardiovascular health; use aloe juice to cure an upset stomach. So, why take dangerous pharmaceutical drugs?

If food is your "only" medicine, you will make good food choices, such as the use of healing foods for health improvement and self-healing..

Copyright (c) 2011 Stephen Lau