Food is medicine.

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine said it best, “Let thy food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be thy food.” In our era of caloric abundance, it becomes easy to choose from a large variety of food items, types, and flavors. There are so many options to choose from (and, unfortunately, so many of these come with long-term detrimental consequences for health), that one often feels lost as to the best course of action. What we put into our bodies, has suddenly become so complicated, even at times dangerous. Meat and dairy items are largely laced with pharmacologically-active antibiotics, steroids and hormones. Non-organic fruits and vegetables have been genetically-modified, doused with herbicides, fungicides. How do all of these chemicals affect our own body’s chemistry, especially if we are taking medications ourselves? (And, no, your doctor doesn’t check interactions between your prescribed drugs and the pharmaceuticals given to the animals you just ate for dinner, many of which are still pharmacologically active!)

Eat wisely. Eat simply.

Diet really doesn’t have to be that complicated! The author, Michael Pollan sums it up nicely, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Another way of terming this is a “plant-based Diet.” This may sound incredibly simplistic, but long-term evidence suggests this really is the best way to eat. According to Dr. Valter Longo, the director of the Longevity Institute of USC, a plant-based diet can reduce the risk factors for aging and diseases. This conclusion is based on looking at the diets of people worldwide, over the long-term. The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine also strongly endorses this evidence-based approach, with a scathing review of both the mainstream medical approach to dieting, as well as fad dieting, the latter of which preys upon consumer confusion and desperation in an effort to make profits over socially-responsible achievements.

So what does a plant-based diet look like? Avoid animal sources for food, and focus on plant sources for food. What’s also important is to focus on quality sources of nutrients, and the right type of nutrients. One way to know you’re getting the right mix-up of plant-based nutrients is to look at the ANDI table (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index) of foods, a clever table designed by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (author of “The end of diabetes”). This table is based on his equation: H=N/C (Health = Nutrients/Calories). In this equation-based table, you can see the foods that have the best ratio of micro-to-macronutrient profiles. When we eat a diet high in micronutrients compared to macronutrients, for all intents and purposes, we are guaranteed adequate amounts of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, while gleaning plenty of healthy carbohydrates and proteins, as well as the right type of fats. This not only protects the heart and blood vessels, but also decreases the insulin resistance and lowers blood sugars, all effectively working for you as your food-based medicine to counteract chronic illness such as diabetes, high blood pressure, vascular disease, etc.

In the interest of keeping the above simple, follow the adage “eat the rainbow”. Eating a variety of colors from plant sources ensures that you are both maximizing your intake of high nutrient density foods and getting a wider profile of essential life-sustaining building blocks to help stave off diseases of deficiency and of excess. The standard american diet (S.A.D.) does just the opposite – it is making us sick, promoting chronic illness, and it does so by promoting diseases of micronutrient deficiency and by promoting diseases of macronutrient (carbohydrate, fat, protein) excess. You are what you eat. Eat unadultured foods in their natural state, which means avoiding foods that contain added ingredients (this largely rules out commercial meat and dairy products, shelf-stable foods, and foods with labels that contain more than a few familiar ingredients). If in need of a quick diet to follow, consider the Mediterranean diet, a simple, plant-based diet that would have us eat the rainbow and largely avoid processed foods.

If you eat meat, do so medicinally.

In Chinese medicine, meat is used in dietary therapy to build blood & qi (vital energy) in certain conditions of deficiency.  Diet, according to the ancient Chinese medical perspective, would have us eat meat sparingly, and when medically necessary. This plant-based, low meat diet also parallels the profound results of the long-term and notorious China study.

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