Real Food Is Good Medicine

[From The Doctor]

Real Food Is Good Medicine

by Nadia Linda Hole, MD

What is real food?  There’s no doubt that the implications of man-made processed foods, GMO Bt foods,  & unnaturally sweetened foods, in our diets;  correlated with the rising rates of chronic disease, auto immune disorders, cancer, Alzheimer’s, mental and mood disorders, and more, in both young & old,  is undeniably alarming.  Scientific studies clearly document that food is a vital factor, both causative and curative, for our health, happiness, and aging.

As Integrative Medicine, qi practitioners, with the plethora of diets from Atkins to Raw Paleo, shelves of nutraceuticals, & multitude of A to Z choices to offer our patients – What are we to advise?  With all thanks to evidence based medicine, what lessons might our real life experiences, ancestors, and land, have for us?

Here in Hawaii, I’m blessed to live, in a largely off the grid community, where respect for our ancestors & the aina, or land, is paramount.  Here, the norm is to buy & eat, only local, fresh from the land, non GMO, organic whole foods, as natural as possible.  Fermented foods & raw milk are natural.  The USA average 35 pounds of high fructose corn syrup annual per capita, & commercial industrially produced processed “foods,” routinely laced with havoc wrecking pesticides, plasticides, questionable chemical additives, & non-food fillers, are not.

I also happen to be blessed to have as parents, physicians, both Chinese MD graduates from WWII era, Yale in China.  My parents had an innate no nonsense wisdom about how – what you eat becomes who you are.  They served us fresh vegetables & fruit daily, with daily rice instead of gluten bread.  We had little in the way of processed, packaged, &/or sweetened foods.

My father took us weekly to the fish market, for truly fresh seafood, often still alive. My mother furthermore firmly believed that it’s more important to follow your 6th common sense, rather than listen to any so called authorities “non-sense!  I don’t care what all your articles say. Fat is good for your brain.”  It’s taken decades for everyday science to catch up with my mother.

As physicians, my parents believed in the nutritional completeness of simple “real” food, & took supplements rarely & grudgingly.  Well into their 80’s, they were remarkably healthy, trim, & fit. Likewise, here in Hawaii, women well into their 50’s & 60’s, commonly appear decades younger than their biological age.

As Qi health practitioners, we all have patients who come in with bags and boxes of supplements that may cost them hundreds of dollars a month, complaining still of a whole list of ailments.

My favorite “rubber hits the road” study on all this, is by our friend Dr. Beverley Rubik PhD, Bio-electromagnetics Chair for NIH Advisory Panel Office of Alternative Medicine.  At the 2011 World Congress on QiGong, Dr Rubik presented her live blood cell analysis of a series of matched subjects;   on organic “city” diets,  of store bought food & supplements; vs indigenous organic, direct from the land, diets.  The results were stunning. In every single case, the live blood cells of those on indigenous direct from the land diets,  no matter how much fat and meat they ate, were robust and healthy; in contrast to those on organic “city” diets.

Incidentally, here in Hawaii, at a health gathering for women, using UC Davis’ Bio Photonic Scanner to measure antioxidant protection levels of attendees; the women who scored the highest by far, were not those on nutraceutical supplements, but those who ate, direct from the land, real food.

So, before you invest in treasure chests of nutraceuticals & encyclopedias on diets, what about first asking yourself – What kind of diet, lives, & health did your great grandparents have?  As physicians, we know what a life changing difference, a back to basics, diet & life style, can make in the health & happiness of our patients. Our challenge, as practitioners, is how to motivate people, including our colleagues, to change long ingrained habits.

Real food is of course more than food. Studies on morbidity, mortality, & aging, show how relationships play a vital key role as well. There’s good medicine in preparing a meal together with those you care about, & sitting down to share your meal,  & your lives, with family, be it your birth family, or our growing extended “heart” families.  In pre-Cultural Revolution China, the patient’s family, community, and social support network were an integral part of treatment. It’s far easier to change your way of eating, and life, with the support of the people you break bread with.


What’s the real medicine?  In our practice, we like to keep things simple. No matter what diet you choose – Buy & eat, local, organic, whole foods, as much as possible, direct from land/sea, from farm to plate, or wild to plate.

Listen to your body – When in doubt, faced with confusing &/or overwhelming information, muscle test via kinesiology.  Your body will muscle test stronger for foods that are good for you

Ask yourself – In what other aspects of your life, would you like more nourishment?  Besides food, what is “real” food for you?

Honor meal times as Sacred, to honor the real food we’re all hungry for – chew slowly, to make time to eat & digest life, with the people & community you Love, & those who Love You.

Blessings & Bon Appetite

 

References:

 

Nadia Linda Hole, MD

Nadia Linda Hole MD is a Qigong practitioner, teacher, & pioneer, with degrees from Princeton, Duke, & Oneness Universities. She has served on the faculties of the American Holistic Medical Association , American Academy of Pain Management, & World Congress on QiGong;  as a contributing author of chapters on Qigong & KHT Koryo Hand Therapy, for Pain Management, Neurology, & Cardiology, complementary medicine textbooks; consulting editor for landmark textbook, Chinese Medical Qigong; & is your From the Doc columnist for Yang-Sheng.com magazine, & co-founder of a Qi based Free Distance Healing Project. Regarded as a master by fellow Masters, Dr Hole herself makes no claims. Besides dancing, dolphins, healing in the way of Love; & the practical science of “miracles,” Dr Hole’s passion is bringing a more heart-centered, Qi approach, to medicine. www.DivineEnergetics.com. 808-987-7268       707-986-8129

 

 

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