Treat Your Food Like Medicine
Using food as medicine isn’t just trendy, it’s the longest practiced medicine we have! Many ancient traditions, including Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, have valued the role of whole foods in treating, preventing, and even reversing disease.
“There is no other activity you do every day that has more power to change our biology than what you eat.”
Honestly, understanding the importance of food is the first step in improving our health.
The catch is, we have to choose the best foods for us. The ones that give us health - fuel our cells, reduce inflammation, balance hormones, and so much more - and ditch the ones that don’t. Your doctor should absolutely be having these conversations with us, but most don’t. From what I hear from doctors, med school doesn’t focus enough on the role of nutrition in disease.
Better health doesn’t happen in a doctors office.
Better health doesn’t happen in the doctor’s office — it’s rooted in the small decisions we make every day that make up our environment, such as the foods we eat, the amount we sleep, the thoughts we think, the ways we cope, etc.
We can start treating or preventing disease with our very next bite. Do you know what your next meal should contain? If not, keep reading.
Beginners Guide to Treating Your Food Like Medicine:
Just because this seems basic, doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Seriously, master these and you won’t believe the transformation physically, mentally, and emotionally!
Increase hydration
Crowd out the gross drinks with stuff your body knows what to do with. Clean, filtered water that hasn’t been stored in plastic is ideal! Focus daily on getting half your body weight in water. Just convert pounds of weight to ounces of water. If you weigh 180lbs, drink 90 ounces of filtered water.Beware what changes medicine to poison
For highest nutrient value and least detrimental impact, prioritize an organic label for dairy and the “dirty dozen” of produce. Prioritize produce that’s seasonal and raised locally, to reduce the added preservatives. If you eat meat like I do, prioritize humanely raised animals that have space to grow healthfully and without the use of daily, preventative antibiotics. Animals that are exposed to sunshine and a varied diet have much more nutrient dense meat and eggs. (I buy my meat from Butcher Box. Shop here and we both get rewards! ).Eat the rainbow
This is a fun game to play if you have kids and want to get the whole family on board with healthier eating. Everyone can choose a food from each color of the rainbow to add to the shopping list. While variety is key, favor green a bit more. You can create a game to see how many snacks and meals can contain something green. Whether you live alone or with others, keep food “rules” fun and light.Know your carbs
This is a sticky issue and where you can’t deny bio-individuality. Many, many women especially in our 40’s, struggle with finding the right balance of carbohydrates. Our needs change along the way, depending on where we are in our life cycles, our specific gut bugs, physical activity level, health history, stress, sleep, metabolism, blood type, our doshas and more.Know your fats
Should I take Omega 3’s or 9’s or DHA or EPA? Should I avoid butter? Won’t too much fat clog my arteries?Like carbs, the controversy around fat is simply because there’s not one way of eating that works for everyone. That being said, most functional medicine doctors (those trained in the role of food as medicine) suggest that most of us would benefit from upgrading our quality of fats to improve things ranging from cardiovascular health and bone health to nervous system and mental health improvements.
You can literally start to heal your mind and body with the next bite of food – it’s really that simple! You can actually treat and reverse disease through what sits on the tip of your fork. I’m not suggesting you suddenly stop taking prescribed medication, but I am suggesting that it’s possible to reduce or eliminate those meds by upleveling your diet.
Nutrition 201: True nutrition is not one-size-fits-all
If you want to get more specific and address your specific needs, your bio-individuality, then I highly recommend:
working with a health professional trained in nutrition (like me!) to help you hone in on your unique needs and create meal plans that address your specific issues. Curious what it would be like? Schedule a free Chemistry Call to see if we’d be a good fit.
create a meal plan each week prior to shopping, so that you have the ingredients on hand and ready to pull together. Want a meal plan designed for you and your family’s needs? Sign up here. If you’d like to work together to develop a meal plan for you, start here.