Food as Medicine

“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” & “Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can heal the patient with food.” Hippocrates (Greek Physician, regarded as the father of medicine, 460-370 BC)

These famous quotes by Hippocrates have stood the test of time.

Using food as medicine is not a new concept. The quote above comes from Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine. Spoken 2500 years ago, his words remain relevant. Western Medicine has done a lot to help us, but we cannot forget how important diet is to our health and wellbeing. We can, in fact, poison our bodies and wreak havoc on our health through poor nutrition and diet. Over processed foods, excessive amounts of sugar and salt, and food additives are all dangerous and lead to chronic disease and digestive distress.

Tammy Beasley in The Healing Power of Nutrition, beyond “Let Food Be Thy Medicine,” writes, “Yet at the same time, the prevalence of eating disorders continues to rise within a society that simultaneously continues to place hope in false claims of happiness and freedom through the latest greatest fad diet.

The power of food to heal and restore remains, but the message has become distorted and messy. The current focus remains on the “should nots,” limiting nutrition to a list of rules that must be followed and consequences that must be paid. This focus narrows the role of nutrition into a singular yet distorted purpose, tightly controlled and enmeshed with the perception of self-worth and value. It is time to take another look at the restorative power of nutrition to heal the body and nurture life in all its dimensions—body, mind, movement, and relationships. 

Supporting the Body: The first and most obvious role of nutrition is to support the physical body itself. Although social media’s food messages typically demonize a type of food in its entirety, the truth is that all foods (fuels)— carbohydrates of all types, protein of all types, and fats of all types—play unique supporting roles in healing and sustaining our physical bodies. The different food (fuel) groups work synergistically together in beautiful balance. Understanding what each fuel group provides and how the fuel groups work together reinforces trust in the body’s ability to balance the food it receives. This balance does not depend on perfection in either exact measurements or micro-managing macronutrients and/or calories to be effective—a concept that is hard to believe now but becomes easier as you consistently practice balanced eating from all fuel groups.  

Take a glimpse into each fuel group’s unique role and the synergistic balance between them: 

• Carbohydrates: All carbohydrates (grains, starchy vegetables, fruits, and water-based vegetables) provide energy, and how quickly you can use that energy will vary depending on how much fiber, protein, and fat are also available at the same time. All carbohydrates are broken down into glucose during digestion.
  
  Glucose is the simplest form of energy and supplies the fuel for most of your body’s energy needs (up to 98%!). Glucose is the only preferred fuel for your brain cells.  It is stored as glycogen in our muscles and liver and used by our cells to do metabolism’s work.  Different grains and starches will feel differently in your body, which is beneficial, not detrimental.

• Sometimes your body needs quick energy. Sometimes you want quick energy. Quick energy has a purpose, and quick energy can be enjoyable. Likewise, slow energy has a purpose, and slow energy can be enjoyable. Fruits and vegetables, part of the carbohydrate fuel group, provide most of the vitamins and minerals that our body needs to do its work.  Just like the spark plugs in a car, which produce the electric spark that ignites the gasoline fuel, vitamins and minerals are the spark plugs that ignite the body’s metabolism. And all the carbohydrates, grains, fruits, and vegetables provide hundreds of phytochemicals, which are strong protectors of our immune system. “Phytochemicals” fight (“phyt”) infection and diseases, so the more variety and balance you eat in your meals and snacks, the more vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals you provide your body.
   
• Proteins: Next up in the fuel group list is protein. All proteins (animal proteins including meats, poultry/eggs, and dairy, fish, nuts/seeds, and vegetarian grain-based) provide the building blocks to repair, build and strengthen muscles, which include the muscles we can see and feel and the forces that make the internal organs that we cannot see or feel but need to survive. Proteins also help create hormones, enzymes, hair, skin, and nerve cells. All the different proteins offer vitamins and minerals, but each type of protein provides something unique.

Regardless of the type, proteins are never meant to be used for energy, so if you do not eat enough carbohydrate energy, your body will work to restore balance by converting protein into glucose if it must. It does not want to do this since protein’s job is not providing energy but building and repairing the structure. However, the body is designed to work together. It will pull from one place to supply another if it must do so to maintain balance and keep the body’s metabolism running without compromise. The body can convert protein (from either the food choices you eat or your body muscle) into glucose if it does not have enough glucose available in other foods to fuel the brain, body, and cells, but it pays the price to do this. Your body will give up some of its protein structure that will not immediately affect survival, such as the muscles in your arms and legs and your digestive enzymes and reproductive hormones, to be able to create glucose through a balancing process called “gluconeogenesis,” or “glucose-new-beginning.” Over time, the loss of muscle mass means the loss of strength in your body and immune system, the loss of warmth from the energy produced in muscles themselves, the loss of hair and skin cells, the loss of a healthy functioning reproductive system, and the loss of a smoothly running digestive system that prevents bloating and constipation. Protein fuel balances with energy fuel to keep your body living well.

• Fats: Finally, the fat fuel group remains. Without enough fuel from this fuel group, your brain, skin, hair health, bones, reproductive health, immune system, ability to clot blood when wounded or prevent bruising, and energy level will all be compromised. 
• The fat fuel group balances the carbohydrate fuel group by prolonging energy and carrying the fat-soluble vitamins found in vegetables and fruits around the body to do their jobs. The fat fuel group balances the protein fuel group by taking the fat-soluble vitamins found in dairy products and fortified vegetarian foods to where your body needs them. And most importantly, fats combine with proteins to create the actual foundational structure of the brain, hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, cells, and the immune system. Each fuel group provides its unique contribution to the overall physical health and well-being balance. And if one of these fuel groups is neglected, the others work hard to compensate, which takes a toll on the body’s physical system over time but temporarily supports life at the moment. Nutrition is our physical body’s medicine as the balance of fuel groups works its healing magic.

Adapted from The Healing Power of Nutrition, beyond “Let Food Be Thy Medicine by Tammy Beasley and retrieved from https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/healing-power-nutrition-beyond-%E2%80%9Clet-food-be-thy-medicine%E2%80%9D