Food As Medicine

Throughout human history, a diverse array of common foods and plants have served as medicinal remedies. While some have been supplanted by modern medicine, others have experienced a resurgence.

In today's world, we separate food from medicine, but for thousands of years that wasn’t the case.

The idea of food as medicine utilizes diet and nutrition to support health and prevent or treat illnesses. This approach focuses on whole, nutrient-dense foods that provide essential vitamins, minerals, and other compounds that benefit your health.

It’s been said that it all starts in your GUT, which may be true. But what does that mean?

Chefs don’t tend to design menus with our overall health in mind, we create menus comprised of dishes that give us pleasure, after all, we believe that food should taste good, right?

We combine ingredients in a way that creates the most enjoyable and flavorful product possible, think flavor bomb. A good meal should hit all of your senses at once and leave you wanting more.

These hyper-palatable meals are often rich and decadent, but are they good for you?

I will venture to say that most restaurant food isn’t the best thing that you could put in your body, but you probably know that already.

So what’s good for you that you can find in almost any grocery store?

• Garlic - Garlic’s antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties can help bolster the immune system, help lower blood pressure, and possibly reduce cholesterol levels. It also tastes good!

• Ginger - One of ginger’s many uses is to aid in digestion and help control nausea, and motion sickness. When made into a tea with garlic, lemon, and honey, ginger can help with symptoms of the common cold.

• Honey - As I mentioned above honey is great when you’re sick as it can help soothe sore throats as well as act as a cough suppressant. Honey was even used to treat wounds in the ancient world.

• Turmeric - I love to use turmeric as an ingredient but it can also be taken as a supplement for inflammation as it has strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Peppermint, echinacea, aloe vera, lavender, ginseng, and chamomile also all have medicinal properties of their own, they can be a great tool to help heal our physical bodies but what about our minds?

In the last five years, I’ve heard more about brain health than I ever had in the past. It seems like years ago we didn’t even consider the idea of “brain health” but as our lives get more and more stressful many of us need a little help in that area.

First and foremost eating good quality foods in the form of a balanced diet can drastically benefit your mental health and overall mood.

Here are a few examples -

• Foods rich in protein such as lean meats, nuts, seeds, and legumes. Fish, eggs, and cheese are other good examples of protein-rich foods.

• Omega-3 Fats found in oily fish such as salmon and mackerel are good for your brain and may help to lower your risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases are horrible and I’m willing to try just about anything to combat them.

• Dark Chocolate contains flavonoids which are antioxidants that may improve blood flow to the brain and cognitive function. If dark chocolate has zero medical benefits it still tastes good, that’s good medicine.

• Berries - Blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blueberries are rich in antioxidants and may improve memory and mental agility.

• Yogurt Contains Lactobacillus, a bacterium that may help the body manage stress and prevent depression and anxiety.

In the world of big pharma and endless prescription drugs, I think we should do whatever we can to not become reliant on that system, and yes I believe that a major part of that is what we choose to put in our mouths.

Aside from that I am not at all against modern medicine, after all, there are many, including myself, who probably wouldn’t be alive today without modern medical intervention, vaccines included.

I completely understand that not everyone has access to or understands what healthy food choices are, I just think that there needs to be more public education as to what those may be.