Let Food Be Thy Medicine

By Gene

Despite the “war on cancer” initiated by President Nixon in 1971, the disease continues to spread, afflicting millions of Americans across the U.S. and leaving a trail of suffering and death in its wake. It’s particularly disturbing that health organizations and professionals working to eliminate cancer have failed to address major contributors to the disease and have failed to provide simple advice for reducing risk.

I recently learned of a chicken barbeque, organized by well-meaning citizens that sought to raise funds and awareness for a cancer society. I was struck by the irony. People coming together to fight cancer were consuming grilled chicken, which increases the risk of cancer. Rather than advancing its purported cause, this event was actually perpetuating the problem, along with the dangerous assumption that eating chicken is somehow healthy.

Mainstream health organizations have failed to heed the advice of Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, who said “Let food be thy medicine.” How we eat has profound impacts on our health. Sadly, we’re eating ourselves to early deaths. Billions of dollars are spent every year in the U.S. to treat preventable diseases. Those burdensome costs, along with the untold suffering accompanying these illnesses, could be significantly reduced, or even eliminated in many instances, through healthier food choices. The best nutritional advice, according to leading experts, is to eat whole plant foods and to leave processed foods and animal products off our plates.

Hopefully, organizations whose mission it is to promote health will remember Hippocrates’ advice, and instead of centering fundraising events around barbequed chicken or other unhealthy foods, they’ll start bringing people together over whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

Comments

[Denise Heimstead]

I totally agree. I was very upset with Susan G. Komen for teaming up with Kentucky Fried Chicken. I compared it to the American Cancer Society teaming up with Marlboro.

[Bepasgarden.blogspot.com]

I whole heartedly agree. It's not only cancer but also other diseases including food allergies that can cause inflamation. We switched to a vegan diet several years ago because my wife was suffering from (what the doctors thought was) psyoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. She is in her early 40's and couldn't get out of bed becasue the pain was so bad. She was put on expensive medications and was told she would always have some degree of pain and will be on medications the rest of her life. That wasn't acceptable so we decided to go vegan because the medications seemed to cause other problems like high blood pressure, and within a month she had absolutely no pain and was off all her medications. We recently discovered, through keeping a food journal, that the psoriasis was actually a gluten allergy. We are now gluten-free vegan and her psoriasis is almost all cleared up - with no medication! We have slowly become healthy food advocates and can't seem to tell people enough the importance of healthy, whole foods!

[MA Moore]

Spot on Film Gene! Educate thru Media! Sending Vegan hugs and kisses!

[MA Moore]

Dear Gene, I am following you on your "just Eats" Tour. I am amazed at your energy level! How do you do it? Keep up the great work and thank you for restoring my faith in the human race! xoxo

[Tim Barker]

Denise's story sounds really positive. A great example of veganism and healthy eating. I know I am preaching to the converted somewhat, but isn't it obvious that natural food is going to improve our health. However, today we are able to use technology to help us use the right foods. What I mean is; Grandma knew that onion could be used as a medicine, but she didn't know why. We can know analyse foods to our greater advantage and hit the spot so-to-speak. That's exiting.