Listen to “Nutrition as Medicine”.
When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need. – The Ayurvedic proverb
There are many reasons why we should pay attention to what we eat. 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.
When we look at the cumulative data, a clear picture emerges. The salt, sugar, fat and processed foods contained in Western diets contribute to high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Excess weight and obesity can make people more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19. The risk of severe COVID-19 illness increases sharply with elevated BMI, according to recent studies.
While certain medical conditions can impact weight, 40% of health factors are due to individual choices, habits and behaviours.
It’s time to take another look at the restorative power of nutrition to heal the body and nurture life in all its dimensions—body, mind, and overall quality of life.
It is possible to prevent, limit or even reverse disease by changing what we eat. Start thinking of food as medicine and fuel for your body and mind and general wellbeing.
Food manufacturers put a lot of time, money and research into creating beautiful packaging and extending shelf-life. However, they pay far less attention to ensuring that the foods we eat are beneficial to our health.
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Making the conscious decision to remove processed foods from your diet and basing your meals on natural foods will allow you to lead a healthier and happier lifestyle. It is also helpful to see cooking as a joy rather than a burden, or at least as part of everyday life.
Here are some everyday changes you can make to improve your health and wellbeing significantly.
Avoid junk food
Avoid highly processed foods with more than 5 ingredients or ingredients that you cannot pronounce. Most fast food is high in sugar, salt, saturated fat and trans fats, processed ingredients, and calories and is low in antioxidants, fibre, and other nutrients.
- Crackers, chips, and other packaged snack foods
- Sugars, including corn syrup, fructose, artificial sweeteners etc.
- Sodas and other sweetened drinks
- Sweets, candy bars, and any other bars, even the ones that present themselves as healthy like protein bars and meal replacement bars
Avoid sugar as much as possible!
Sugar creates an addictive cycle of hunger, fatigue and moodiness. It causes an initial spike in blood sugar levels, making us feel temporarily energized and happy. However, since it’s devoid of natural nutrition, the blood sugar quickly plummets, leaving us feeling tired, hungry and moody. As a result, we reach for more sugar, and the cycle continues.
Choose consciously. What you eat will be a choice you make multiple times per day for the rest of your life.
- Eat mostly fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains.
- Focus on getting your protein from plants instead of animals.
- Be flexible and incorporate meat and animal products 2-3 times a week.
- Limit caffeine intake
- Drink plenty of water
Simply changing what we choose to eat may be a cheaper alternative to pharmacological interventions, which often come with adverse side effects.
