Food
It's the Food
Since about the 1950s, food processing technology, misguided government subsidies, the development of hyperpalatable foods, and a consumer craving for ‘convenience’ in an workaholic world has driven the growth of the processed food industry. Billions of dollars have been made, and millions have fallen ill or died from nutrition-related diseases. A cycle of profit and pain has resulted: stressed people eat themselves into illness and only get temporary relief from a gym membership or a doctor’s prescription pad. In many cases, one key root cause (the food), goes unaddressed.
“Let food be thy medicine.”
Hippocrates
Practice: Eat Unprocessed
Reduce or avoid highly processed food that comes out of a box or can and that has a long shelf life. These ‘food-like’ substances usually have a long ingredient list with chemical additives that are difficult to pronounce. No matter how they’re deceptively marketed (from fast food to ‘health store’ snacks), these highly processed foods are virtually dead nutritionally and excessively high in salt, sugar and fat. Instead, eat fresh and close to nature.
Many people on the standard Western diet are severely fiber deficient. Eating fiber-rich whole foods like fruits, vegetables and nuts allows you to absorb food in the packaging intended by nature, with a slower time-release of a symphony of macro and micro nutrients as well as added bulk to fully activate your gut biome. You just won’t get the same effect from isolated nutrients put in ‘fortified’ highly processed food or found in vitamins or supplements.
Eat one homecooked meal a day. When you slow down and take the time to buy fresh and cook for yourself or your family, it’s a labor of love. Learn some quick and easy recipes—many dishes only take 10-15 minutes to make. Remember also the true cost of eating out or ordering delivery. Restaurants sell convenience and hyperpalatable food to overstimulate and ensure repeat patronage, not to help you maintain your health and wellbeing.
Why Food?
Eating a fresh, high-fiber, close-to-nature diet will decrease your risk versus today’s top chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. It will also give you more energy throughout the day and keep you slim and trim.
Eating close-to-nature and cooking at home reduces your grocery and restaurant bill significantly. You don’t need to shop at expensive health food stores or buy this year’s faddish ‘superfood’ to eat healthy. Most grocery chains sell all you need, you just have to avoid 90% of the what’s on the shelves that’s boxed/canned highly processed food.
After you have a routine for shopping and making quick snacks and meals, the time you spend on eating healthy is minimal. Preparing a simple homecooked meal should only take about 15-20 minutes.
Aside from access to fresh food and a kitchen, none.
“Everything in food works together to create health or disease.”
T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.
Resources
The truth of food as the backbone of both a healthy lifestyle and therapeutic treatment for chronic disease has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Current proponents of eating closer-to-nature, high-fiber, nutritionally rich and tasty fresh foods include Harvard-trained Dean Ornish, M.D., and organizations like the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use.”
Indian Proverb