HIPPOCRATES, the father of modern medicine, famously once said, “Let food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.” Every recorded healing system on the planet, through every conceivable historical age, has recognized the vitally important role that food has to play in both maintaining good health and, indeed, turning around disease patterns. Many ancient cultures relied purely upon food remedies as their source of medicine, and many, such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, studied the intricate relationships between food and physiological functions for millennia. Often, they used terms that relate to supposed “energetic” patterns and activities in foods, and how these would interplay with similar energetic patterns and events in the body, to either cause balance or harm.

In the last two centuries, the study surrounding the relationship between food, our body, and our health has been moving at quite a pace. Quite early on, we discovered things such as proteins and carbohydrates, realizing their importance in energy production and tissue maintenance. Piece by piece, we became aware of the individual vitamins and the physiological roles that they played. We became all too aware of the negative consequences of being deficient in these vital compounds, but there was seldom research that focused on the potential of these compounds to actively heal the body. As nutritional science progressed, we focused on things such as the calorie, saturated and unsaturated fats, and body mass index (BMI). Nutritional science now has reached a bit of a sticking point. The dieticians may well tell you that we know all there is to know, and that eating x amount of calories will keep you at a healthy weight, and that at a certain weight and height you need y amount of a specific vitamin or nutrient.

Hippocrates Medicating a Patient

The truth is that food’s impact upon our health is enormous. It goes far beyond simply counting calories and eating our greens. Nutrition alone serves more than a maintenance role. Nutrients, vitamins, and minerals are all cofactors. This means that they directly influence the activity of very specific and vital physiological events, metabolic pathways, and biochemical reactions within our bodies. To this end, a few smart individuals began to realize that the manipulation of nutrient intake can have a huge impact upon both the severity and the progression of disease. This is because it can directly manipulate the internal biochemical terrain. It comes down to the key philosophy that underpins all natural medicine and natural healthcare. That is, the body has its own inherent ability to heal itself when given the right environment. We, as practitioners of natural healthcare, merely facilitate that correct environment.

Let’s use the example of a cut on your finger. After a few minutes, the bleeding stops. Within a few hours, a scab has formed, and the body is well under way at repairing the damaged tissue. Now, if we were to continually pick at the scab, it would cause the wound to bleed and prevent healing from taking place. Well, eating a diet that consists of processed junk food, full of toxic additives, and devoid of nutrients, is the equivalent of picking at that scab. But, if we are consuming a diet of fresh, wholesome, unadulterated ingredients, we are, in fact, creating an environment that is conducive to healing.

To illustrate the above, let’s look at dietary fats. Whatever you may believe, fats are a vital part of the human diet. However, we need the right ones. The fats that we consume can have a massive impact upon both the initiation of disease and the body’s own ability to manage it. When we metabolize (chemically process, following digestion and absorption) certain fats, our body produces a series of biochemical messengers called prostaglandins. These complex molecules, among other things, are actually involved in either the instigation and enhancement of pain and inflammation, or the prevention and reduction of pain and inflammation, depending on which type is produced. The type of prostaglandins that are produced can be greatly influenced by the type of dietary fats we consume. If we eat predominantly fats that fall into the omega 3, polyunsaturated fat category, then we will direct our bodies to make a far higher percentage of the type of prostaglandins that help to reduce inflammation and minimize pain. However, if we tend to eat more saturated animal fats, then we direct our bodies to manufacture more of the prostaglandins that instigate and enhance pain and inflammation. It is obvious to see that increasing inflammation can worsen and even trigger certain conditions and complications, whereas if we are able to reduce inflammation, it is just as obvious that we can greatly benefit many conditions.

This is a miniscule glance at the influence that dietary changes can have on our internal environment in a way that can help to manage disease. For this reason, I personally feel that there is no separation between food and medicine at all. If applied in the right way under the right guidance, the results can be equally as powerful.

All of the above refers to the study of nutrition, and what we know about the way in which nutrients actually interact with our bodies and the healing potential that nutrition can hold. However, the staggering results that we observe when people drastically change their diet, focusing on minimally processed plant foods, far exceed the physical changes that we would expect to see from merely increasing our nutritional profile. There are other elements present in these foods that act as incredibly powerful medicines. These hidden magic bullets are revealed in the next chapter...