Food v Pharma

Forget Pharmaceuticals. We Get Diet-nostic With Food-based Solutions to Common Physical and Mental Health Dilemmas. 

- David Goding

The idea that the right food choices can cure, or at least relieve, a host of medical conditions, isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. After all, it’s widely acknowledged that the wrong food (and beverage) choices can cause or contribute to certain diseases and ill health.

Why then wouldn’t it be possible for specific health-giving foods to do more than simply impart general good health, and actively target specific illnesses, from a simple case of fatigue, to life-threatening diseases?

“Until the turn of the millennium there was little interest in how nutrition could influence cellular communications,” says Dr Jeffrey Bland, father of ‘functional medicine’ and author of The Disease Delusion.

“It is now well known that imbalances in the cellular communications network are associated with virtually every chronic disease. And we also now recognise the impact of diet, lifestyle and environmental factors. The bottom line is a new and elemental understanding of the role of phytonutrients and their capabilities in changing gene expression, and thus restoring or maintaining balance in core processes.”

Food as medicine doesn’t imply that traditional medications are redundant, far from it. But it does provide an incredibly useful addition to your first aid kit (and pantry). It may even help combat some of the nastier side effects inherent in many prescription drugs, e.g. ginger to help combat the side effects of nausea.

And it’s not just the body that reaps the benefits – or bears the brunt – of diet choices. The mind and gut are intrinsically linked – hence our weird, and sometimes irrational cravings.