Food as Medicine

We've all been told that eating our fruits and veggies is good for us and overly processed food is not good for us...but have you ever really stopped to think about what good food can do for you, or what processed food is really doing to your body?

Death rates are 12 times higher for corona virus patients with chronic illnesses than for others who become infected, a U.S. government report says. This does not mean that if you don't have a chronic disease you won't get the virus, but your chances of suffering severe complications from the virus are significantly reduced if you start out healthy. The CDC report highlights the dangers posed by heart disease, diabetes and lung diseases through May, 30. These are the top three health problems found in COVID-19 patients, the report suggests.

Chronic health conditions include diabetes, cancer, heart disease, COPD, high blood pressure...and so many more. So how does nutrition relate to this?

The epidemic of chronic disease has been attributed to the universal shift toward a diet dominated by highly processed foods - processed meat, dairy, eggs, oils, soda, sugar and refined grains. With the increase in consumption of processed foods (thank you fast food chains and microwaveable dinners), there has been a decrease in the consumption of whole plant foods.

Mounting evidence shows that consuming whole plant foods can prevent and even reverse chronic disease completely! So why aren't doctors prescribing a better diet instead of medications and surgeries? Everyone deserves to know that they can choose to not succumb to heart attacks and strokes. And that cancer is not a product of bad luck or genes. And that heart disease doesn't just come with older age. So why are doctors pushing pharmaceuticals instead of fruits and veggies?

Excellent nutrition is the best medicine. The Standard American Diet dramatically reduces quality of life and average lifespan. But we can change that. Just by eating real, whole foods. Plant foods are packed with health-promoting, disease-fighting nutrients. Per calorie, they are more nutrient dense than animal foods and processed foods. Highly processed foods are very calorie dense, but lack the nutrients and fiber our bodies desperately need. Including a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet ensures you will be consuming a higher amount of disease-fighting nutrients per calorie than a diet heavy in processed foods and animal foods.

Chronic disease lowers our immune functionality, increasing the chances of catching the flu or some other virus. Even if your disease is being 'managed' by drugs and 'under control', your body is already working harder than a healthy body to keep your disease at bay. So when the common flu comes along, or corona virus, the immune system can't fight 100% toward the virus and leaves you open to a greater chance of complications.

We invest millions of dollars into medical research, when in reality most of these diseases have already been proven preventable by eating a diet rich in nutrients.

Four simple lifestyle factors can impact the prevention of chronic disease: not smoking, not being obese, getting 30 min of exercise a day, and eating healthier (defined as consuming more fruits, veggies, and whole grains and less processed food and meat). Checking these 4 factors off can decrease your risk of developing diabetes by 90%, more than 80% of your risk of having a heart attack, and cut your risk of having a stroke by half.

So, if poor nutrition is leading to chronic disease and chronic disease is making us more susceptible to a deadly virus, isn't it a no brainer to fix the root cause of poor nutrition? The government's plan is to just have us wear a mask for the foreseeable future and close down businesses, rather than inform the nation that eating less processed junk and more whole foods could improve our metabolic health and reduce the risk of complications of corona virus.

Instead of letting a doctor prescribe us a medication with tons of side effects that have us just surviving, wouldn't it be nice to be medication free and thrive into old age?

Try eating more whole foods today! Choose a piece of fruit for a snack, or add a side salad with your dinner...better yet, do both!

If you need help with better nutrition, or just want to learn more about what foods are best for us and why, feel free to contact me or set up an appointment for a consultation!