Food As Medicine
You are what you eat; or more accurately, you are what you digest!
Traditional medicines understood the importance of nourishment in the form of food. In fact, many herbal medicines are considered food. In the modern age, we have sadly grown estranged from our food system, though many farmers and backyard gardeners are now reclaiming the skill of growing food.
Many items available for purchase in grocery stores are 'unfood' as I like to call them - chemicals, preservatives and extracts of food. Our bodies, being a creation of nature, do best with natural, whole foods, just as the earth created them. The more we have to process something and the more additives we include, the farther away from nature we get. And therefore the more difficult it is for us to digest. As convenient as food with a long shelf life is, I do not desire to put this in my body because I don't trust something that doesn't break down naturally. How is my body going to digest that?
Some of the problems with packaged, processed foods, aside from convenience, are their addictive potential and inflammatory nature. The chemicals and high sugar content of processed foods make them quite literally addictive. Ever wonder why you reach for more candy and crackers after eating more than your fill? Sugar is highly addictive, and most processed foods contain sugar in some form. Some names for sugar on food labels include glucose, fructose maltose, dextrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, agave syrup, tapioca syrup, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, honey, and the list goes on. Sugar gives us a quick energy boost but it's not sustained energy, which is why we reach for more pretty quickly.
I like to think about how many steps my food took to get from the earth to my plate. If I don't know the answer, I like to find that information. It's a lot harder to figure out for items with lots of ingredients in their label! I feel best when I'm eating foods directly from the earth - the only 'processing' that's been done is washing with water and however I prepare the food myself. Real food is more alive and more available for our cells to use.
Many items available for purchase in grocery stores are 'unfood' as I like to call them - chemicals, preservatives and extracts of food. Our bodies, being a creation of nature, do best with natural, whole foods, just as the earth created them. The more we have to process something and the more additives we include, the farther away from nature we get. And therefore the more difficult it is for us to digest. As convenient as food with a long shelf life is, I do not desire to put this in my body because I don't trust something that doesn't break down naturally. How is my body going to digest that?
Some of the problems with packaged, processed foods, aside from convenience, are their addictive potential and inflammatory nature. The chemicals and high sugar content of processed foods make them quite literally addictive. Ever wonder why you reach for more candy and crackers after eating more than your fill? Sugar is highly addictive, and most processed foods contain sugar in some form. Some names for sugar on food labels include glucose, fructose maltose, dextrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, agave syrup, tapioca syrup, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, honey, and the list goes on. Sugar gives us a quick energy boost but it's not sustained energy, which is why we reach for more pretty quickly.
I like to think about how many steps my food took to get from the earth to my plate. If I don't know the answer, I like to find that information. It's a lot harder to figure out for items with lots of ingredients in their label! I feel best when I'm eating foods directly from the earth - the only 'processing' that's been done is washing with water and however I prepare the food myself. Real food is more alive and more available for our cells to use.
