Let food be thy medicine

Dr Brian Clement makes the case for eating for health, not recreation.

From the time we are babies, food is presented to us as a mechanism for pleasure and emotional sedation. The first drug pushers we meet are most often our parents. When we please them, they offer us sweets. When we disappoint them, these addictive foods are withheld. When we go out into the world on our own, most of us continue the learned unhealthy pattern of eating to pacify uncomfortable feelings. Consciously or unconsciously, we use food as a tool for veiling the emotional brokenness that we suffer.

Some of us are later provoked into leaving the standard fare of our heritage. If we are lucky, we springboard into the universe of natural whole foods and if we’re luckier still, we eventually arrive at the realm of raw foods. But unfortunately, our unhealthy emotional patterns around food often continue to prevail. Rather than traditional white refined sugar, we use sugar called agave (or other concentrated sweeteners, or bags of dried fruit). When these foods are consumed habitually, they create much the same disconnected consciousness refined sugar does.

The same goes for fats, which we formerly consumed from meats, gravies, butter, ice cream, and so on, and now derive from large amounts of oils, nuts and seeds, often mixed together in heavy concoctions. And raw chocolate, in my opinion, is like methadone for chocoholics. 

Many would say that to consume raw/living foods without the “recreation factor” of these stimulating foods would be to condemn oneself to a very dull life. Others believe that food should be chosen and consumed primarily for its nutritional – and even medicinal – properties, while recreation should be found elsewhere in life. This, by the way, does not preclude mealtimes from being times of companionship and sharing, suffused with ritual significance.

The point is, developing a passionate existence will carve food down to the role it should rightfully play in your life. So if you find yourself consumed with consumption, work hard to fill your heart up with real security and fulfillment.

Hippocrates recognized the medicinal properties of food, and this recognition informs everything we do at the Hippocrates Health Institute. Our founder, Dr Ann Wigmore, was a genius when she chose to name her organization after the father of Western medicine. He was the epitome of what our organization stands for. For example, the original text of the Hippocratic Oath includes the statement: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.” Most of you will also recognize Hippocrates’ words, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.

My foremost project these days is researching scientific studies that support this very premise, and it is clear that in coming years we will free healthcare from the shackles of symptom treatment, raising it to the level of system building.

A vast data bank of scientific work points to the disease-fighting properties of plant foods. No foods have greater healing power than raw sprouts, vegetables, herbs and fruits. One reason for this is their phytochemical content. Phytochemicals are natural bioactive substances found in plant foods. They are found in highest quantity in freshly harvested plant foods and they are either diminished or destroyed by modern processing techniques, including cooking. Research has shown that phytochemicals can both prevent and heal degenerative disease.

However, science has only just begun to identify and document the healing properties of these natural plant-based medicines. While we wait for studies to provide even more conclusive evidence, which kind of diet do you choose to consume? One that is low in these potent natural healers, like the standard diet of our era? Or one that is abundant in them?

Attend Dr Brian Clement's lecture "Living food, living life and living well" in central London on Sunday, June 27. Go here for details.

Comments

[Max Tuck]

Excellent stuff as always from Brian! Thankfully we can always be assured that all of his recommendations are based on carefully researched science and massive personal experience with the many thousands of guests who have been fortunate enough to participate in the Hippocrates program.

[Anita Lo Iacono]

Food should be pleasureable ,not just "nutrients". Obviously this guy is not Italian. While it's not beneficial to subdue your emotions with food, that doesn't mean that food can't be a source of delight in one's life.

[JankaSpinka]

another great article. It is so true. As a sugar addict I can only highly agree with everything Dr. Clement said. I can compare myself what a difference in personality can consuming raw foods make. When I started to eat raw the shft was amazing on every level. Physical, emotional... Unfortunately I experienced some financial difficulties and could not spend quite so much on nutritios foods and I can feel the difference. there is much less life in my mind and body. The only thing I want now is to get back where I was a year ago and free myself from the addiction driven world...

[Edith Meyer]

Dr Clement is exactly right with his emotional issue of dietary habits in childhood: I could often cry when parents feed their children that often with sweets and white bread to keep them silent. And if they don't kept silent with sugar foods, they get a rubber teat. The children initially don't really ask for it, because they don't know the taste of foods. They learn to taste them, combining them with educational emotive behavior of parents and teachers.
And all of a sudden the little children get exzema or even asthma or severe inner diseases because of failure of their immune system.

When growing older, these innocent young people are destroyed personalities, not konwing how happy and intelligent they could be when living more consciously and respectfully towards their own body.

The fact is: also natural, unprocessed foods can be sources of delight. That's the art of raw and live foodism, a new taste gets developed. Diet is culture, a very satisfying culture!

[beco gemini]

A vast data bank of scientific work points to the disease-fighting properties of plant foods. No foods have greater healing power than raw sprouts, vegetables, herbs and fruits.

[Diana henderson]

I am in awe of Brian Clement and his books and videos on Youtube. So much of what he says and writes just makes so much sense. I only read his book LifeForce 3 weeks ago and gone from about 40% to about 80% raw. Not all organic as very hard to get, but hope to eventually grow my own sprouts. Live in a humid climate and having trouble with mould with my wheatgrass !! The more raw people an eat, the better their quality of life, physically and mentally and emotionally !! He has inspired me !