Food as Your First Medicine

Hippocrates, father of medicine, told his students and patients “Let food be your Medicine” and both ancient and current Chinese medicine believes that most sickness is the result of improper diet.

How To Get Well With Your Foods

Eat quality food.

1)     Eat fresh whole foods not processed food mainly from farmer’s markets and local growers.

2)    Avoid foods that claim they make you healthy.

3)    Do not eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

4)    Cook and eat in, not out.

5)    Plant a garden..

6)    Eat anything that will go bad.

7)    Avoid : food substitutes, foods with artificial colors, artificial sweeteners

                  foods with fructose

      greater than 5 ingredients

      ingredients you cannot pronounce and have never seen

      fake foods, processed foods

Eat “Not too much”

1)    Decrease portion sizes

2)    Eat a “little” meat—think of meat as a side dish.

3)    Eat regular meals—cut down on or avoid snacks.

4)    Eat at the table (not in front of the TV.) with your family—avoid eating alone.

5)    Pay more (for higher quality food) and then eat less.

6)    Consult your gut/pay attention-eat slowly.  Your gut may delay 20 minutes in telling your brain you are full.

7)    Try stopping eating when you think you are 80% full—you are probably full then.

8)    Serve smaller portions on smaller plates/smaller bowls, glasses and containers.

9)    Leave serving dishes off the table to discourage seconds.

10)           Avoid the mindset—“Clean your plate”.

11)           Leave healthy foods in sight and less healthy foods out of sight.

Eat Mostly Plants

1)    Eat at least two vegetable and two fruits each day—different colors of vegetable and fruits to get different anti-oxidants

2)    Some un-refined seeds, nuts and whole grains can be very nutritious –in moderation however.

3)    Carbohydrates are a dangerous trade-off for plants.

4)    Meat (not counting fish) only a few times weekly please and treat it as a side dish—not the main course.

Eat Well By Color:

Red foods help against Cancer:

 Tomatoes , watermelons, grapefruits, red peppers

        Orange foods keeps eyes, bones, and immune system healthy:

apricots, cantaloupes, carrots, mangoes, oranges, tangerines, papaya  

        Yellow and Leafy Green foods help prevent blindness:

corn, lettuce, squash, collards help prevent blindness

        Green Vegetables help prevent cancer:

        Broccoli, kale ,green cabbage

        Blue and Purple foods help to keep your heart healthy:

        Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, eggplant, radishes            

Other Ideas to Take Steps to Control Your Health

1)                Don’t snack.

2)                Do all your eating in company of others—let the meal be a slow, enjoyable experience.

3)                A couple of servings of fish each week cut the risk of dying from heart disease by a third.

4)                4 out of the top 10 causes of death today are linked to diet choices—stroke, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

5)                Exercise is now recommended seven days a week for one hour as being the best if possible.

6)                Avoid “flashes” of high glucose intake which stresses our body to manage.

7)                Consider not eating anything that is not able to go bad.

8)                When you eat meat and seafood, remember that you are eating what that animal ate also.

9)                Be the kind of person that is thoughtful about how you eat.

10)           Growing youth through young adulthood need adequate Calcium and Vitamin D in the diet--  1500 mg of Calcium and 400 to 600 units of vitamin D.

11)           The fruits and vegetables most likely to contain trace levels of pesticides are apples, cherries, strawberries peaches, nectarines, potatoes, lettuce, bell peppers, celery, carrots and spinach (concentrate your organic buying here)—skip organic buying and save money on pineapples, mangoes, eggplant kiwi fruit, bananas, avocados, onions, broccoli and cabbage (foods with unlikely contamination of significant amounts).

12)           Teach our youth—both boys and girls—to shop, read labels, think about nutrition choices, cook, and develop life-long good attitudes toward food choices and balanced life. It might save their lives.

13)           Poor nutrition choices can take 12 to 17 years off a person’s lifespan—that person is either you, your child or your friend.

For interesting reading and more information on our diet choices, consider reading:

In Defense of Food –and Omnivore’s Dilema—books by Michael Pollan

http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455