Food as Medicine

written by: Autumn Bear M.S., L.Ac, Dipl Ac

Food can actually be considered medicine.  Considering that we eat three times a day or more the food we choose can be packed with nutrients that help our body to function at it’s maximum capacity and also helps it to ward off illness.  

I often like to give projects to my patients.  As such I would like for you to think about how alive is your food when you eat it?  By alive I mean, how much nutrition is in what you eat?  Is it packed with vitamins and minerals?  Does it have really bright color?  Is it fresh?  Or is it packaged, have a shelf life of a year or more and is it prepared just by adding water or throwing it in the microwave?  

If we eat “dead” food, how alive are we??

I think it is important to first look at food for what it does for us.  Food in its simplest form is for fuel and in a more complex manner is used for pleasure and even to be used as a drug to help some numb the feelings of pain.  There are a lot of psychological aspects of food and as Americans I feel as though we really battle with our food. Many of us are stuck in a conundrum.  We want to eat healthy but we don’t know how to prepare a healthy meal or perhaps we have worked ourselves into a life where food is only on the go and we are at the mercy of what the buffet around the corner from the office holds.  

Bottom line of it all, food is life.  Sustaining a healthy existence is about the conscious choices we make.  Yes it’s about eating “healthy” but more over it is about choosing to eat with consciousness and giving the thought to what we eat as what gives us life.  It is about making choices that makes us feel nourished and well.  We certainly all have our demons.  Sugar, coffee, alcohol, meat products or no meat products etc, etc...Each of us is looking to find that happy place where we don’t feel so helpless to the food around us and then after eating a meal we didn’t want to or think we “shouldn’t have”. Food is a perspective.  It is about choosing things we like in combination to making the conscious choice to surround ourselves by the food that also nourishes our body and keeps us well. 

Food as I see it should be a continuous adventure.  Something to look forward to and something to be creative with.  Food is about choosing your wellness each and every time you make the decision to put something in your mouth.  Cheers to food!!

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