The Greek Physician Hippocrates is known as the ‘Father of Medicine’ and is famous for his saying:

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Many of us have now lost this connection and simply look at food as something to satisfy a craving, to feed our emotions, stop hunger or suppress a shitty day! The simple fact is it is what we choose to eat that makes us. The food we choose to put inside our body gives us the macro and micro minerals we need to create new cells – and so create us. Food is our medicine.

What medicine do you give your body every day?

There are some foods that are very high in medicinal value and my belief is that there is a plant on the planet to cure all dis-ease. As a naturopath, I have many different foods in my toolkit to use to help people heal. Many of these foods can be used on a daily basis with no need to think about their medicinal value.

We have come to associate food just with pleasure and taste, with many of us being totally detached from the real reason we eat…to make us. Over the years, during conversations about food with clients, I have often been faced with ‘I don’t like that’, ‘I don’t like the taste of that’, ‘I can’t eat that, I don’t like it’…you get the picture. Even when I prescribe food as medicine, people still associate it with a pleasure. But I have news for you – the pleasure from food goes far beyond the taste buds: we need to be looking at foods that add pleasure to every cell in our body!

Now, I’m the biggest baby when it comes to taking foods or powders whose taste I detest, but I always remind myself that it goes beyond taste. Taste is just in the mouth. My stomach doesn’t suddenly say I don’t like the taste of this I am refusing to digest it! That doesn’t mean to say I am not a complete drama queen when taking it, but I get it in and reap the rewards.

Some tactics I use to help me overcome the yuck factor:

• Close my eyes so I can’t see how much is left to swallow.
• Have a wedge of lemon before and after to bite into…think healthy tequila slammas!
• Tap my chest as I swallow, so my brain concentrates on the tapping rather than the taste.
• Keep telling myself it’s a delicious smoothie.

After a relatively short period of time, you will find that if you continue to taste something your taste buds will grow to love it as much as your cells. Over the years, I have gone through this with many things. Two examples that jump into my head are fennel and ginger. I used to hate the taste of fennel, so much that if there was one sprig of it in my salad I would have to hunt it down and get it out! Now, if I need to use fennel medicinally it’s not a problem, and I even voluntarily add it to my salads on occasion. Years ago, the only ginger I consumed was a ginger nut biscuit, but I have grown to love it so much it now features in most of my meals!

Now, I invite you to start looking at food as your medicine. Look at your plate and ask yourself: is this feeding my emotions or my body? Will this food help me make the best cells possible, so my body can move from surviving to thriving?

Follow