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Using Food As Medicine (1)

Posted on 02.03.2010 : Authored by Te Laston
I had read sometime ago that there are foods that have almost magical curative properties, but at the same time I did not realize how cheap and commonly available they were. It will also be no surprise to vegetarians in particular, that the vast majority of these are not animal products, and to have the greatest effect many of them will be have to be consumed in a raw, unprocessed state.

I will describe some of my favorites, which fit in very well with a weight loss diet for those who are overweight, or even be the best cure for someone with a pre-existing condition. Going down this path will be a welcome alternative to those who are taking prescription medications, which obviously will raise the issue of side-effects. In either case your doctor's opinion is always a wise course of action.

The only foods that were from animal or non-plant sources were milk and products derived from milk, such as yogurt. The anti-bacterial qualities of yogurt along with it's nutritional value has been known for a long time and it is one of my regular foods, consuming it almost daily by itself, or on breakfast cereals. It is also inexpensive and in my case, requires no preparation as it is taken directly with a spoon from it's container. The other one that I like is onions. Onions have been acclaimed as a multi-faceted protector of your heart and blood. It does this in two ways. Firstly, it is a blood thinner, which can obviously be of great benefit in the prevention of potentially life-threatening blood clots. There is a story reporting that horse owners in France had been using onions in the diet of their animals to actually dissolve blood clots in their legs. If that is not amazing enough, onions can reportedly alter the ratio between HDL and LDL cholesterol in our blood stream. To explain, it can cause the level of 'good' cholesterol to be higher than 'bad' cholesterol relative to the overall levels in your blood.

Next in issue (2) of this series, I will discuss another readily available product - beans.

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