FOOD is the MOST powerful medicine available today!
FOOD is the MOST powerful medicine available today!
In my medical opinion, and many other doctors today, what you put at the end of your fork is a more powerful medicine than anything you will find at the bottom of a pill bottle!
Today, I’d like to share with you some amazing facts that will blow your mind… They blow mine, every time I review them!
But before sharing these simple truths, I hope you learned some interesting facts about “junk foods” (and how they work to become so addictive)! If you missed it, you can use this link, here.
Most of us think about our bodies a bit like cars:
They’re either working, in which case we take them for granted, or they’re broken - in which case we take them to the repair shop and spend whatever it costs to get them working again.
But what if we could prevent breakdown by feeding our bodies right?
More than 10,000 scientific studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals make it clear: Food is the foundation of health!
You can slash your risk of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses just by eating certain foods.
If you’d like to learn how, give me a few minutes (about 2 mins to be exact) and you’ll be enlightened to the wonderful world we live in!
Food as Medicine
“Food as medicine” may be an emerging concept in the Western world but has existed for centuries as the cornerstone of health for many cultures around the globe.
The fact that diet can impact an individual’s health is well acknowledged by healthcare providers worldwide. People who have access to adequate nutrition are more likely to have strong immune systems, safer pregnancy and childbirth, lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and they live longer.
The food we eat literally serves as information, instructions, or code that controls almost every function of the body - including our hormones, appetite, brain chemistry, immune system, gene expression, and even the microbiome.
Our diets are the main driver of the chronic disease epidemic we are experiencing today. Food is the MOST powerful medicine available to heal chronic disease, which will account for over 50 million deaths and cost the global economy $47 trillion by 2030.
This is because the foods you eat are the keystrokes that send messages to your genes with every bite, telling them what to do - creating health or disease.
What you put at the end of your fork is a more powerful medicine than anything you will find at the bottom of a pill bottle.
What kind of food acts as medicine?
Generally speaking, the characteristics of a poor diet include consuming too much sugar-sweetened beverages, table salt, processed meats, packaged or chemically processed foods, or not eating enough whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, whole grains, polyunsaturated fats, and seafood-based omega-3 fatty acids.
Many people are catching on to the notion that certain eating styles have the potential to influence disease prevention, not to mention influence quality of life, health, and longevity.
It’s really quite simple….. whole food is the answer! I don’t mean any food you can find at the Whole Foods Market, but whole foods that you grow or buy, and that you either eat whole or cook yourself. All you need to do is eat a variety of whole foods, without chemicals or added sugars, and ta-da, you’ve gained the incredible odds of a healthy, long life!
A focus on eating real, whole foods that are rich in polyphenols (like berries and nuts), healthy fats (like avocados), and high quality protein (like wild caught seafood) rather than processed foods found in packages that lack nutrients (like the “junk food” we learned about last week).
The fine print….
What we eat, or don’t eat, has a profound impact on our health, but the effect happens over a much longer time.
Calling food “medicine”, can sometimes set food up for failure, because people will want those big, fast results. There are times when food can offer miraculous results such as when allergic reactions to a food group (such as dairy or histamine intolerance) can be eliminated from the diet, giving a person quick and immediate results.
But the reward is, that if you see every meal as a potential preventative, health supporting medicine, it can change your relationship with food, and establish a healthy relationship with food over a person’s lifespan.
While I unabashedly say, “food is medicine,” I caution against singling out any one food for its medicinal power or believing you can replace some medicines with food.
There are absolutely times when the best medicine is medicine. If you need urgent or emergency care, or something like a blood thinning agent, you may need to take a drug to help. There are things diet cannot do. Make sure to take a step back, and see the big picture. There’s always a healthy approach that you and your functional doctor can evaluate together.
The Bottom Line
So what’s the trade-off?
The food choices we make will either feed our health or our sickness, and there is a growing body of evidence that suggests the key to improving the chronic diseases of the world can be found in the produce section of your local grocery store. Around the world, people are dealing with ailments such as high blood pressure, heart disease, acne, and ADHD, but these issues are no match for the incredible “medicine” that is available to us. That medicine, of course, is whole-food, which allows us to sustain our optimal health and just so happens to be delicious.
While food can help prevent or even treat disease, it’s important to keep your expectations in check and work with a holistic functional doctor on what’s right for your individual health situation.
Shopping can be very empowering. EVERY time you shop, your voice gets heard. You have the power to decide supply and demand. When you shop local, and ethically sourced and made goods, you are increasing demand for these goods. You have immense power to shift the system with EVERY purchase!
I hope this short newsletter has helped you see how food effects your very existence; and why it is so important for you to protect and strengthen your body with healthy “whole” foods. Don’t let the pressures of advertisers and past family poor nutrition habits keep you from the amazing health your body has intended for you. If you need help breaking a “junk food” addiction and are ready to make a change; please reach out to us!
Also, we’ve got my new cookbook, “Eat Like your LIFE Depends on it”, available in each office for those of you that would like to buy one at a discounted price. Hopefully I ordered enough! If not, and you’d like to get cooking right away, you can find them for sale on Amazon, using this LINK.
And, don’t forget the (5) Essentials we talk about at Ferguson Life Health Centers…
Mindset
Nerve Supply
NUTRITION
Exercise
MINIMIZING TOXINS
There are NO LIMITS of what you can create, you are POWERFUL and there is nothing that you can not have or achieve! Believe in your power, believe in yourself and let go of what no longer serves you! ♡ design your life, create your reality…
This is life changing!
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