How Healthy Foods and a Balanced Diet Act as Medicine for Your Body

Can you use food as medicine? “Let medicine be the food and food be the medicine”. I think we’re all familiar with this quote which is attributed to Hippocrates but is it actually true? We all know the huge impact that food and drug interaction can obviously have on our health but is it really true that you can actually use food as your medicine? That’s what we’re going to be discussing in today’s article. Little disclaimer I’m not a doctor and this is just my personal opinion. So first, we’re going to talk about:

Positive Impact of Eating Healthy Foods

In general, in order to counter diseases and be healthy we mainly focus on food. In this way we can say that many diseases are linked to a poor diet like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and many more. And in general, if you eat a high amount of highly processed refined foods then all these types of foods are associated with higher risks of diseases and lower a lifespan. And on the contrary, if you eat more healthy foods, fruits and vegetable then you have a lower disease risk and a higher chance of living longer. So definitely having a healthy diet is really the basis for living a healthy happy full non-disease-ridden life.

What are Some Healthiest Vegetables?

All the fruit and vegetables, whole’s grains like brown rice, whole wheat, pasta, and bulgur wheat are healthy food items. Also, to be eating healthy, sources of protein and the general consensus on that is to eat mainly plant-based sources of protein like legumes, soyabean, chickpeas and lentils should be included in your diet. Green beans are also very good for you.

You can also add in some animal-based proteins but make sure that it’s not too much and it’s also important to be getting in healthy fats like nuts, avocados, olive oil and the things like that. So, if you’re eating mainly these foods and if you’re limiting the amount of processing foods like highly refined foods, high in sugar and fat like deeply fried foods, then you are protecting yourself against disease and that’s like the general take on it.

Do you feel like you’re always going on different types of diet plans but nothing seems to work? Do you feel like you can’t control yourself around food and that your food obsession is taking up all of your energy and time? Do you wish you could build healthy eating habits? That actually last without restricting yourself from any of your favorite foods and saying goodbye to dieting forever.

How can Certain Foods Increase our Disease Rate?

Diets that are really high in processed and ultra-processed form, foods that are high in refined sugar and saturated fats, and in general junk food types of diets are all really a risk. The factor for disease things like;

Having a high sodium intake which happens if you eat too much junk or processed foods
Not consuming enough whole grains
Not consuming enough fruit and vegetables

They’re all leading dietary risk factors for disease burden and death obviously. This doesn’t mean that you can never have these foods and they can definitely be a part of a healthy and balanced diet but they do need to be kind of like the exception rather than the norm, something that you have every single meal for like the entire meal.

Food Items as a Disease Preventive Factors

Food should be used as prevention, not treatment. You can prevent food born illness by takin healthy diet. So all of this really illustrates that food is truly fundamental in living a healthy life. Living life to the fullest without diseases and having like the longest life span.

Like traditional Chinese used food as a resource in order to help prevent and treat diseases. And I think that all that is good but it’s very important that food is used as a kind of a compliment for traditional medicine and not as something to replace it. This is very important to insist on. Sure, food can definitely help prevent disease and can definitely help with treatment

If you’re eating the right things and it can definitely help promote health. In general health and wellness however, you still need to be taking medicine in case of disease. If you need medicine, food does not replace pharmaceutical drugs. And big pharma industry is not out there to get you by poisoning your food and then selling you the solution via drugs.

There’s a money issue but it’s really important to trust scientific professionals who do these studies and who like the scientific consensus around studies that allow certain medicines to be put on the market. It’s really important that you don’t just try to self-medicate just because your best friend’s uncle’s cousin was able to like cure their disease.

Thanks to like a paleo diet. Diet doesn’t mean that it is going to work for you like anecdotal evidence. I’m sure there’s plenty but that doesn’t mean that it’s true like scientific evidence and that it’s something that you can really rely upon. I don’t want people trying to self-medicate and like not taking the drugs that their doctor prescribed. Again food is a great tool but should be used as something to compliment whatever treatment you need to be getting and with that being said obviously, there are certain medicinal properties in certain foods.

Some Food Items having Medicinal Properties

So here are some foods that do have medicinal properties that have been studied and reviewed to test actual effects that they have. Please keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that if you eat such foods, it would automatically be going to make you better. It just means that these foods are the type of foods that need to be incorporated into your diet more regularly and we’re going to start off with something that’s not really food but herbs and spices. I can’t say enough good about herbs and spices are so beneficial they are antioxidant, anti-cancer, antimicrobial, and has a bunch of anti-inflammatory properties. They are just great and if you get used to sprinkling different herbs and spices on your meals like every day or every meal, even then that’s such an easy way to be getting all of these benefits

1. Eat Raw Garlic

Garlic is a very good to have as an ally against diseases and to help you with disease prevention because first of all just for like common colds and flu, it can be really helpful. Medicinal properties of garlic really help boost the immune system and also, it helps reduce the severity of symptoms when you do catch like a cold or the flu or have these types of symptoms. Garlic is good for high blood pressure and it is also very helpful in reducing LDL cholesterol. You can also take garlic water. The benefits of drinking garlic water include antioxidant activity, antimicrobial, anti-cancer as well and just anti-inflammatory. In general, it is really a great thing to add to all of your meals.

2. Benefits of Berries

Berries are also antioxidants and nutrient powerhouses. In general, they can really help reduce diseases like premature aging and anything associated with premature aging and cancer as well. People use berries for weight loss. Medicinal properties of blue berries and benefits of black berries are also important for different health conditions in humans.

3. Cruciferous Vegetables

These types of vegetables are also a group of food that can decrease cancer and decrease heart disease and also increase longevity. For example, broccoli, kale, cabbage etc. All of these foods contain omega-3 fatty acids which can really help with cognitive function as well as reducing premature aging. You can also find omega-3-fatty acids in things like fatty fish, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds etc.

4. Probiotic Rich Foods

Another group of foods that can really help is anything that has probiotics. Foods high in probiotics can really help keep your gut healthy and which in turn can help your entire immune system and help prevent diseases as well. So, sources of probiotics include the foods like yogurt, kefir, kombucha miso-sourdough and kimchi.

Conclusion:

So, eat mainly whole foods, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, legumes and whole grains are healthy sources of protein and then eating a bunch of herbs and spices which are very beneficial antioxidant, anti-inflammatory. Reduce the consumption of processed foods to a maximum level, reduce foods that have been fried or things like artificial fats and even saturated fats things that are really high in refined sugar. All of these steps if you follow and eat in this then you are really putting all the chances on your side with these the anti-inflammatory diets which are really beneficial in a lot of cases because inflammation is like the root of many diseases.

Benefits of Healthy Foods on Your Body

How Healthy Foods and a Balanced Diet Act as Medicine for Your Body

Positive Impact of Eating Healthy Foods

What are Some Healthiest Vegetables?

How can Certain Foods Increase our Disease Rate?

Food Items as a Disease Preventive Factors