Food as Medicine

Aim high, keep it simple, use God's ways.

It's my motto for anything I do, including health. I've struggled most of my life with health issues from endometriosis, leaky gut, skin problems, digestive problems, adrenal fatigue. One of the things I've learned from my many experiences and failures with different types of doctors is that food is medicine.

Health starts in the gut, the digestive system. Think about it, the food or fuel you put in your body determines the output, how you feel. Yep, I've dealt with endometriosis, adrenal fatigue, concentration and memory issues, hormone issues, infertility, skin problems, seasonal allergies with food!

My conclusion: God-made is better than man-made.

I know some will think, “well everything man-made is from something God-made.” And, yes that is true. But, what I mean is, the closer it is to its original form, the form in which God made it, the better it is going to be for you. I am not saying that there is no place for medicine and synthetic things. But in my experience the principle remains that the more it resembles God's plan and ways, the more I have benefited from it. I've been around long enough to see diet fads come and go, but God's plan never goes out of effectiveness.

The more natural and not processed a food is, the better it's for you. Foods that are packaged in plastic, cardboard, and cans, that can be cooked and ready in several minutes are not beneficial. One, they have more ingredients that are not even real food. Two, they take long to break down or don't decompose at all. We had a group over one time and they brought chicken nuggets over. You know, the kind in the frozen food isle. We noticed that someone left a nugget outside in the backyard. So, I decided to do an experiment with the boys. We watched the nugget and an apple core for two weeks. After the two weeks the apple was all black and shriveled up. It was a lot smaller. It had decomposed. The nugget was exactly the same size and color. Nothing had decomposed. I told the boys that the same thing happens in our stomach. Our digestive system works hard, expends energy to break down the food to get nutrients. But since it can't break it down and get anything from it, our body works hard for not only no return, but it struggles to pass that food through. It sits in our system longer. Our digestive system is the perfect warm and moist environment. When food sits in there undigested it starts to attracts bacteria, and collect toxins. When this process of undigested food, bacteria, and toxins (any chemical in the body it cannot use) repeatedly occurs, it leads to sickness and disease. (This is a simplified explanation. Diseases do have other causes also including unexplained causes.)

Here are some of the things that I earned to do to reverse those affects or avoid them, and to better steward my health and body.

DRINK YOUR FOOD

Drink your food. Yes, have a few times a week or one of your daily meals be in liquid form. I drink a vegetable juice and a protein shake for breakfast everyday. Liquid foods are easier for your digestive system to absorb. You accomplish the first step of digestion for your body by drinking a meal. It gives it a break. Not only does it make it easier for your body to digest, it is usually more nutrient-rich. A liquid meal will have condensed amounts of vitamins, proteins, and minerals, versus the 5 pieces of broccoli and rice you may have for lunch. And, lastly drinking your meals especially vegetables, will help cleanse your digestive system of toxins and kill unwanted bacteria.  

PUREST PLAIN FORM

I don't eat everything in its purest form. I can't afford to. But, what I try to do is eat the purest form I can get or afford. For example, I eat plain yogurt and kefir. I choose the plain flavor because it doesn't have all the added dyes and sugars. I’m ingesting something by body will use fully and not have to work to rid of or store extra unneeded materials. In the fall we go to farms and farmers markets when we have time to because we know we will get better produce. When possible we buy grass-fed meat and meat without antibiotics or fresh meat from a farm. It tastes better! We don't drink any fruit juice or sodas. When we really crave something besides water or milk we buy crystal light mixes or flavored sparkling waters.

AJUST DESSERTS AND SWEETS

We make our desserts and sweets an event. We don't keep any in the house. So if we want something we either make it a “date” and go out and we usually choose a place where they are made from scratch like a local bakery. Or, we make our ourselves, again, an event we can enjoy together. We substitute stevia for sugar for all our baking because stevia is a more pure sweetener and healthy. If the recipe needs more mass we include applesauce. We do things like make pies with just the fruit and no added sugar.

SNACKS OF FRUITS, VEGETABLES, SEEDS AND NUTS

We choose to eat fruits, vegetables, and seeds or nuts for snacks rather than packaged things like bars, chips, or crackers. We use humus, cream cheese, and nuts butters to eat with the fruits and vegetables.

LUNCH & DINNER FROM SCRATCH

We eat a lot of soups and salads especially for lunch. They are vegetable based and healthy. I have a list that I pull from. For dinner, we use ingredients that are simple and we add the spices and flavor. I don't buy packaged meals and a lot of cans. We use plain tomato puree and diced tomatoes for spaghetti sauce and we flavor it ourselves. Did you know they add sugar to tomato sauces? We use our bread maker for pizza dough every Saturday night. We buy pepperoni from the meat counter and have it sliced. It's the same price and tastes so much better than the pre-packaged.  Our kids like it more because they can taste the ingredients and not just the spices. Tomato soup from plain canned tomatoes, some garlic, olive oil, salt, and milk roasted in the oven for 20 minutes is way better and healthier than a can of condensed tomato soup. You'll never want to go back!

I can't do this everyday. I will let you know, that I do things like keep a bag of frozen processed meatballs in the fridge for an emergency meal. And, I do have things like boxes of mac and cheese in my pantry. The key is, that the habit, the norm, is the fresher way. And the times we use the processed foods are the exception.

NO FAST FOOD

We don't eat fast food hardly ever! If you see me on any outing with my family we always bring a lunch. Is it harder? Yes, it is way more work! But when we get less sick, we realize how worth it, it is. So that we have fast meals on hand, we cook in bulk and freeze so we almost always have something in the freezer.

When I started to change the way I ate, when I learned that God's food was better than man's and implemented those changes I felt better. I have used these methods and others to keep several diseases at bay. In Chinese medicine there is a saying, “Food is medicine and medicine is food”. In my case I have found it to be true. I only get one body. I want to steward it well. May you live abundant days for His glory and your good!  

Kristin Overman