Food as Medicine

Thy food shall be thy remedy. Hippocrates

In alternative healing there is an often used term: the Standard American Diet, or SAD for short. It refers to the typical American course of meals throughout the day.

• meat and chicken
• eggs
• cheese
• butter
• wheat flour: pasta, bread, croutons
• white flour: bread, breading, pasta, pastries
• sugar and soda pop
• alcohol
• coffee and caffeinated drinks

Even though it looks like you are eating a wide variety of foods that give you vitamins and minerals (I'm sure the bread says "fiber enriched"), there is an excessive amount of chemicals and preservatives contained in the above list. The preservatives, antibiotics, pesticides, white sugar and salt contained in those foods either cancel out any vitamins that may have lived through the cooking process or the shelf life has destroyed them. These are not foods!

Food is what grows in the ground, on a tree, on a bush and is brought to your kitchen in whole food form; no doctoring, no cooking, no preserving, no coloring, no salting, no nothin'! Then it is up to you to make the food palatable while keeping it's vitamins, minerals, enzymes and healthfulness in tact.

• fruit
• vegetables
• beans
• long grain brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat
• raw nuts
• water
• extra-virgin olive oil
• Braggs Liquid Aminos
• balsamic vinegar
• apple cider vinegar
• flax seed oil
• nori, wakame
• Grade B maple syrup
• raw local honey
• raw almond butter, cashew butter
• raw garlic minced in water
• white pepper, cayenne
• sea salt, kelp
• Barley Green, Perfect Food
• Dr. Brantley enzymes
• live acidophiles
• basil, oregano, parsley, mint, dill
• raisins, figs, prunes, cranberries

Take this list. As you eat through the day, make a checkmark next to each category you consume. In which column are the majority of your foods? For instance: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad contains chicken, romaine lettuce, romano cheese, white flour croutons and milk based salad dressing. The only whole food you get a check for is romaine lettuce - not a sufficient influx of vitamins and minerals. Go for the vegan black bean soup next time!

"The foods that form the basis of the normal Western
diet cause the liver to work overtime as it tries to metabolize the dense
concentration of nutrients that are constantly flooding the digestive system and
bloodstream. Poor digestion is one of the main causes of toxicity because
it adds an unnecessary and in many cases overwhelming burden to the liver's
normal workload. The liver simply can't keep up with the quantity of
contaminants in the blood that must be processed. When food is properly
digested, the liver can attend to its job of detoxification."
The Seven-Day Detox Miracle
Bennett and Barrie