Let the food be your medicine

The headline to this post is a quote from Hippocrates. Already at that time, he understood that the key to health and healing lays in the food we eat. Still today we all sense, deep down, that this is true, but powerful economical and political actors like producers of processed foods, as well as pharmaceutical companies, are effectively preventing us from regaining charge of our own lives. This is worth taking under consideration if you are interested in your health. After all, healthy people would be the death for the pharmaceutical industry. Figure that equation out for yourselves.

Eat the rainbow

Up until a few years ago I almost exclusively ate processed foods, cooked and fried, heavy sauces and not so much raw things. Nevertheless, I was not extremely unhealthy, since I my sweet tooth was always moderate. Then I progressively started to transform, but the most dramatic step was initiated by a detox week I suddenly decided to go through. This detox was not a fast, rather it was a vegan week with cleansing smoothies and lots of fresh and crispy foods, and of course abstinence from animal products, white carbohydrates, sugar, coffee, black tea and other toxins.

This week made me feel vitalised and fresh and it made the character of my cravings for foods change for good. Before this, fresh vegetables often grew molds in my fridge, but all of a sudden the largest part of my plate was consistently covered with raw vegetables. I am not a vegetarian, and I never think that I will become one, since I love meat too much, but I am far more pickier with what kinds of animal products I eat nowadays. I can also go days without it, but then all of a sudden my inner predator screams for satisfaction and then it is time for some blood shedding.

The theory behind the raw foods trend makes perfect sense to me. Heat degrades the food into something that is not recognised as nutrients by the body. Vitamins and antioxidants are degraded and useful enzymes are inactivated. By the way, what other species cook their foods? However, if you investigate the matter a bit deeper, it is not that black or white after all, since some nutrients actually become more bioavailable through heating. Hence, I would never adapt a 100% raw diet, but my own system has clearly told me that a majority of raw foods is what makes it work optimally. Same goes for the animal products. I have always preferred my meat rare and I feel intuitively that the raw meat is more natural for the body.

I guess that my diet can be defined as a mix between the Palaeolithic diet and a raw omnivorous diet. Mostly fresh vegetables and fruits, berries and a lot of different nuts, and some nice meat, fish and eggs, complemented with small amounts of dairy products. The more active I am, the more carbohydrates I need, but I prefer to add that through whole-grains like quinoa, rice and buckwheat, or potatoes, rather than processed pasta and couscous, or white bread.

Seductive chocolate

Then we have the indulgence. I am not the fanatic type and there are things that I would never cut out from my life. I drink my coffee every morning, I drink my red wine and I eat my chocolate. All of the above mentioned have their own health benefits in moderate amounts, as you can see if you follow the links. In the case of chocolate, cacao is actually a real superfood, with high amounts of essential micronutrients, as well as several alkaloids with positive physiological effects. It also contains nearly twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times those found in green tea. However, I suggest going for as pure chocolate as possible, mostly whole cacao mass, with less (or none) additives like refined sugar, milk or other vegetable oils. What is even better is to choose raw chocolate that has not been roasted. Then you are sure that none of the "goodies" have been degraded.

Bottom line is, that we are what we eat. If you learn to listen to your body, it will also tell you what is good and what is not - and in what proportions. However, if your bodily intuition has been incapacitated and corrupt for a very long time, it might need some soft encouragement to get back on track again, but I can promise you that it will. That wisdom is already in there, in your genes.