Food - Your best medicine

Food is the best medicine that your body can take. The correct food choices can be a powerful medicine to both your mind and body. Many people are aware of this but they ignore it or don’t use it to the maximum in order to get the full benefit out of it. If care is taken to intake right food at right amount then it acts as a medicine to your body.

Everything that goes into our body has an effect on body by one way or the other. Foods that constitute Junk foods, refined food, processed foods, and foods high in sugar, foods with high pesticides level, preservatives and additives all tend to have an adverse effect on the health and wellness of our body. Their effect will be both physically and emotionally as well. Healthy foods like whole fruits and vegetables, herbs and nuts are excellent sources of vitamins and nutrition. They also help us to fight or prevent against a wide range of health conditions or syndromes. Some of them may even help in preventing and curing certain type of diseases.

Now- a-days more and more people are beginning to realize how important it is to choose the food they have to intake. More research is being done to explore the impact of foods on our health. Gone are the days when people just look how nutritious the foods are or whether they are low in bad fats, etc. They're now smart enough to buy foods which will help contribute to their overall level of health.

Health researchers who were doing their research for quite a long time were very much focused on trying to identify the primary constituent in a food that was responsible for it's healthy properties. During the course of time they found that there is no one miracle constituent that is present in food is responsible for overall healthy growth. The best health and wellness benefits come from a variety of elements within each particular food. Just by isolating one factor won't give you the same results as eating the whole amount of food. That’s why if you want to get the benefits of garlic you have to actually eat the garlic on a regular basis.

Many studies had revealed that it is not the one food that is the healthiest. The nutrients in food work together to promote health and wellness. It is widely understood that eating a wide variety of healthy foods is much more important than one or two independently. For example, having a balanced meal that contains meat, complex carbohydrates, vegetables and fruit is healthier than having one of them alone. The types of foods we eat play a vital a role in maintaining optimal mental and physical health condition. It is also important to prevent and heal chronic health problems, diseases, and syndromes.

Also, a food that acts as a best medicine for one person can also be a poison for another person. Each person is unique biochemically and metabolically. Different people need different things and it all depends on individual body chemistry.

For example, a diet that is healthy and beneficial for a diabetic patient may be completely different for a person living with asthma. Some body types adapt well with a vegetarian diet, while other body types need meat protein to function optimally.

Your diet should take into account the following factors:

- your overall level of health
- health conditions you may have
- what are you trying to achieve
- food allergies or food sensitivities
- the integrity of your gastrointestinal tract

One of the major problem that many people face is that they really don’t know the condition of their body. They also don’t know what their body needs. Around 70% to 80% of the population has undiagnosed food sensitivities that they are not aware of. Many hidden food sensitivities are often the root cause of many health conditions.

For example, whole grains may be a good food for a person without sensitivities, but for another person, it can unknowingly be the root cause of headaches, irritable bowel, fatigue, chronic pain, insomnia or even depression, anxiety, hyperactivity and many more.

A person without sensitivities may derive benefits with a diet rich in whole grains, while someone who is sensitive to grains may find that these foods are the root cause of their irritable bowel or gas. One person can extract the full benefit from the vitamins and minerals in fruits which is high in sugar, while for another it may be the cause of their anxiety attacks and depression. It all depends on the individual and how his body responds to a particular food.

It is important that you choose the food that is best for your body. Food can be your best medicine only when it meets your unique biochemical and metabolic needs. By planning a diet that is right for your body chemistry, you can make significant improvements in your physical and psychological health conditions.