Mystery Of Healing Foods And Nutrients

Nudged between today’s headlines is one of the great stories of our time: nutrition can literally save lives.

I am privileged to be practicing integrative medicine during a time of revolution — the Nutraceutical Revolution. Nutraceuticals are nutrients that have the capacity to act like medicines. They are ‘natural’ pharmaceuticals.

The real miracle — nature’s power to heal — has always been available to us. But, now science has given us the tools to understand the mystery of healing foods and nutrients.

We can study and isolate the chemical composition of plants, fruits and vegetables, fish, flowers, berries, and herbs. We can explain just why they powerfully impact our cells and our lives.

These days, we know what a nutrient is doing to our blood, our cell membranes, even our DNA, and how it protects us from cancer, or heart disease, or thinning bones. And, we can often measure the effects in our body within hours of ingestion. We can watch the miracle in action through the powerful lens of modern science.

POWERED NUTRITION 

Yes, we can change our lives. Today, front-page news about medical triumphs not only covers heart transplants, or even the marvellous and sophisticated science that maps the human gene. It’s about the power of nutrition. To cull this kind of power:

• Tomatoes may cut the risk of deadly prostate cancer by nearly half

• A modest dose of a single vitamin-B, folic acid, can prevent tragic and common birth defects

• Within weeks of eating fish, or supplementing your diet with fish oils, your body’s oestrogen levels shift dramatically in favour of the most protective, anti-cancer form of oestrogen

• Daily portions of broccoli can cause similar strong shifts in oestrogen balance, and prevent cancer

• Taking fish oil capsules for a mere 12 weeks significantly slows the growth of colon tumours.