{"id":8201,"date":"2012-07-06T15:11:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T19:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=8201"},"modified":"2012-07-06T15:13:15","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T19:13:15","slug":"8201","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=8201","title":{"rendered":"Real Food Is Good Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

[From The Doctor]<\/h3>\n

Real Food Is Good Medicine<\/span><\/h1>\n

by Nadia Linda Hole, MD<\/span><\/h2>\n

What is real food?\u00a0 There\u2019s no doubt that the implications of man-made processed foods, GMO Bt foods,\u00a0 & unnaturally sweetened foods, in our diets;\u00a0 correlated with the rising rates of chronic disease, auto immune disorders, cancer, Alzheimer\u2019s, mental and mood disorders, and more, in both young & old,\u00a0 is undeniably alarming.\u00a0 Scientific studies clearly document that food is a vital factor, both causative and curative, for our health, happiness, and aging.<\/span><\/p>\n

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?\u00a0 With all thanks to evidence based medicine, what lessons might our real life experiences, ancestors, and land, have for us?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here in Hawaii, I\u2019m blessed to live, in a largely off the grid community, where respect for our ancestors & the aina, or land, is paramount.\u00a0 Here, the norm is to buy & eat, only local, fresh from the land, non GMO, organic whole foods, as natural as possible.\u00a0 Fermented foods & raw milk are natural.\u00a0 The USA average 35 pounds of high fructose corn syrup annual per capita, & commercial industrially produced processed \u201cfoods,\u201d routinely laced with havoc wrecking pesticides, plasticides, questionable chemical additives, & non-food fillers, are not.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also happen to be blessed to have as parents, physicians, both Chinese MD graduates from WWII era, Yale in China.\u00a0 My parents had an innate no nonsense wisdom about how – what you eat becomes who you are.\u00a0 They served us fresh vegetables & fruit daily, with daily rice instead of gluten bread.\u00a0 We had little in the way of processed, packaged, &\/or sweetened foods.<\/span><\/p>\n

My father took us weekly to the fish market, for truly fresh seafood, often still alive. My mother furthermore firmly believed that it\u2019s more important to follow your 6th<\/sup> common sense, rather than listen to any so called authorities \u201cnon-sense!\u00a0 I don\u2019t care what all your articles say. Fat is good for your brain.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s taken decades for everyday science to catch up with my mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

As physicians, my parents believed in the nutritional completeness of simple \u201creal\u201d food, & took supplements rarely & grudgingly.\u00a0 Well into their 80\u2019s, they were remarkably healthy, trim, & fit. Likewise, here in Hawaii, women well into their 50\u2019s & 60\u2019s, commonly appear decades younger than their biological age.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite \u201crubber hits the road\u201d study on all this, is by our friend Dr. Beverley Rubik PhD, Bio-electromagnetics Chair for NIH Advisory Panel Office of Alternative Medicine.\u00a0 At the 2011 World Congress on QiGong, Dr Rubik presented her live blood cell analysis of a series of matched subjects;\u00a0\u00a0 on organic \u201ccity\u201d diets,\u00a0 of store bought food & supplements; vs indigenous organic, direct from the land, diets. \u00a0The results were stunning. In every single case, the live blood cells of those on indigenous direct from the land diets,\u00a0 no matter how much fat and meat they ate, were robust and healthy; in contrast to those on organic \u201ccity\u201d diets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Incidentally, here in Hawaii, at a health gathering for women, using UC Davis\u2019\u00a0Bio 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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?\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Real food is of course more than food. Studies on morbidity, mortality, & aging, show how relationships play a vital key role as well. There\u2019s good medicine in preparing a meal together with those you care about, & sitting down to share your meal,\u00a0 & your lives, with family, be it your birth family, or our growing extended \u201cheart\u201d families.\u00a0 In pre-Cultural Revolution China, the patient\u2019s family, community, and social support network were an integral part of treatment. It\u2019s far easier to change your way of eating, and life, with the support of the people you break bread with.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s the real medicine?\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to your body – When in doubt, faced with confusing &\/or overwhelming information, muscle test via kinesiology.\u00a0 Your body will muscle test stronger for foods that are good for you<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask yourself \u2013 In what other aspects of your life, would you like more nourishment?\u00a0 Besides food, what is \u201creal\u201d food for you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Honor meal times as Sacred, to honor the real food we\u2019re all hungry for \u2013 chew slowly, to make time to eat & digest life, with the people & community you Love, & those who Love You.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blessings & Bon Appetite<\/span><\/p>\n

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References:<\/span><\/p>\n