Food as Herbs and Medicine - Science evidence based

This article will answer the following questions

Why should we eat food as medicine?

How do we use food as medicine?

Medicinal properties in the natural food

Natural food has both prophylactic (protection from diseases) and potential therapeutic properties (curing diseases).
Since the dawn of the emergence of health related scientific research studies — for understanding the causes and cures of diseases ranging from malaria to cancer — mainstream Medical Sciences have finally come to realize that if humans want to avoid many kinds of diseases – including some congenital disorder, becoming prematurely old, which makes people vulnerable to diseases like cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and others – then the solution is in eating natural Food and Herbs as Medicine and correcting any unhealthy lifestyle choices (75% of diseases humans are presently suffering from are avoidable scientist conclude).

The key point in using Food as herbs and medicine, is that is should be wholly Natural, unrefined and, where possible, unprocessed (preparing and cooking foods is a process) with very little or no additional sugars or salts.
Natural foods provide most of what the human body needs to ward off many ailments and are safer than taking manufactured supplements and dietary aids because, by eating food in moderation as an individually suitable Balanced Diet, the intake of the nutrition and medicinal properties in the food does not cross the * Upper Intake Level as it does when taking supplements, over the counter drugs and herbal supplements which can pose serious threats to health.

Read more at Facts on Herbs and Supplements

The cells and genes of the human body have evolved with an infinite intelligence and wisdom to enable them to deal deal with the external and internal threats to the body through the 'Immune System'.
Without an immune system, we would have no way to fight harmful things that enter our body from the outside or harmful changes that occur inside our body. The main jobs of the body’s immune system include

• fighting disease-causing germs (pathogens) like bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi, and to remove them from the body,
• recognizing and neutralizing harmful substances from the environment, and
• fighting disease-causing changes in the body, such as cancer cells.

Food, our life style, our mood, how we think, and the environment in which we live, can influence our genes which controls total biological functions of the body, for example, regulating cell function – including DNA synthesis and RNA synthesis, protein synthesis, cell division, cell differentiation, morphogenesis and neuroendocrine regulation, and apoptosis. Food works like a ‘BRM’ (Biological Response Modifier).

Read our article on 'Talking Health or Illness':

Can we really ‘talk’ our way to improving Health, or to worsen Illness?

Taking care of our Immune System through ‘Intelligent Eating’

To help the cells and genes of our body to remain strong, to help them keep their defence mechanism honed to fight and nullify pathogens like viruses, bacteria, parasites, and to protect our body from other environmental assaults such as toxins – while keeping a tight control on the internal physiological functions, like homeostasis ... for example pH balance and taming Microbiota... the gut flora – then Intelligent Eating is integral and essential.

Intelligent Eating is a science-backed, mindful approach to nutrition that goes beyond simple calorie counting to focus on the quality, timing, and metabolic impact of food. It utilses the body’s natural wisdom to choose nutrient-rich foods that maximize energy, repair cells, and stabilize blood sugar.

Read more in our article here: Intelligent Eating

Evidence advises Athletes to Avoid commercially made energy drink.
Choose natural healthy food to maintain and boost up body energy.
Read more at Article - Artificially Sweetened Drinks

Just one energy drink may increase heart disease risk in young adults.

See the evidence here: Just one energy drink may boost heart disease risk in young adults Source: American Heart Association/News

Health - profit and loss

Every piece of food we put in our mouth is going to decide whether we are in profit or in loss in terms of health. Accumulation of losses of moments, days, months, and years of unhealthy eating of unhealthy food results in obesity, untimely accelerated aging, which then increases the susceptibility to diseases like cancer, diabetes, and others.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) are suggesting that even occasional indulgences may produce significant changes in gene expression that could negatively impact physiology and health. Diet-Induced Developmental Acceleration Independent of TOR and Insulin in C. elegans. Cell, 2013; 153 (1): 240 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.049

Our health is impacted not only by what we eat and how, and often where, we live but also from what our parents ate how they lived.

 

National Institute of Health - How does the immune system work?

Science Daily - People Wasting Billions Of Dollars On 'Quack' Health Food And Weight Loss Products, Expert Says (Source: BMJ - British Medical Journal, December 1, 2008).

FDA - Food and Drug Administration Health Fraud Scams

FDA - Food and Drug Administration Article: Protect Yourself from Health Fraud

CfI - Center for Inquiry Nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, and fallacies. Information on quackery, questionable therapies and ...