If you have health - you have hope... you have everything! - African proverb

Many of us have been groomed to look to our doctors whenever illness hits us. What we fail to realize is that "the cure" comes from within us. The creator has provided us with an immune system that constantly works to protect us. All we have to do is take proper care of this inner healing force, assisting it by creating the perfect internal environment. Nature intended to fuel our inner healing system with the proper natural sources in order for our body to function at its highest potential. Oftentimes, today's way of living has short-circuited the body's innate ability to do this. Here is a list of nature's resources that are designed to be used by the human immune system:

• Whole foods

• Vitamins

• Minerals

• Enzymes

• Amino Acids

• Phytochemicals

But because most of us have a lack of knowledge as to what our body truly needs in order to thrive, we find ourselves out of balance. It is in this imbalance that energetic blockages turn into full blown illnesses within the body.

The Body

The body is a complex organism that has the ability to heal itself, but it takes being dedicated to actually listening to and responding with what your body needs. In spite of the abuse we put our bodies through - whether through environmental toxins, poor nutrition, drug abuse, or sedentary living - they still usually serve us well for many years before there are signs of dis-ease. Even then, all you need to do is decide that you want to be healthier and your body will begin to function for you... you must do the work.

Think of your body as being composed of millions of tiny little engines. Some of these engines work in unison and some independently. In order for them to work properly, they all require special fuel. We know that if we give our sports car diesel fuel, we might be in big trouble right? Well your body is no different, giving it the proper fuel to run will ensure that it stays efficient and smooth. If the engine is given no fuel at all, it will stop!

The fuel we give our bodies comes directly from the food choices we make. The foods we eat contain nutrients. These nutrients come in the form of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, water, amino acids, carbohydrates, and lipids. It is these nutrients that sustain life by providing us with the basic materials our bodies need to carry on their daily functions.

In order to jump start the process of your body's healing process. Because your Root System has been compromised, there are certain Vitamin requirements that you must meet and we would prefer that your source comes from nature. In the next lecture you will identify which sources of nutrients best serve your condition and give you the internal environment to heal.

Food As Medicine: Basic Principles

1. Eat in harmony with your genetic programming — i.e,. the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.

This doesn’t mean conforming to a strict Paleo diet, but rather following the guidelines it suggests. Consider a whole foods plant-based diet with as little processed food and added sugar as possible.

Ideally this means consuming far fewer grains (understanding that some people can’t tolerate wheat and other grains at all); little or no dairy (even if you don’t seem intolerant to it); reasonably sourced cold water fish like salmon, sardines and mackerel as the preferred animal product; and far more intestine-activating fiber - this is especially important, as nature has packed fiber into foods that also include supportive nutrients that help to process the fiber naturally in your body.

2. Use foods rather than supplements to treat and prevent chronic illness.

Whole foods contain a number of substances that work synergistically and may be far more effective than supplements that just deliver one of them.

Why take the powerful antioxidant lycopene in a pill when you can eat a tomato that contains both lycopene and a number of other antioxidants, along with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that work together to prevent heart disease by decreasing cholesterol and lipid levels and stopping abnormal blood clotting? Again, nature takes the guess work out of pairing certain vitamins with additives in order to process properly in the body.

3. Combine your nutritional plan with a program to reduce stress and raise awareness about how as well as what we eat.

Stress inhibits and interferes with every aspect of digestive functioning and with the efficient use of nutrients. Stressed-out people can’t make very good biological use of even the most healthy diets.

Learning to eat slowly and mindfully will increase your enjoyment of meals, reduce your consumption of food (most of us eat so fast we don’t have time to register signals from our stomach that we are full), and help you make food choices that are better for you.

4. Understand that we are all, as the pioneering biochemist Roger Williams pointed out 50 years ago, biochemically unique.

We may be the same age and ethnicity, have very similar health status, ethnicity, and income, but you may use 100 times as much B6 as I do, and I may require 100 times more Zinc.

Sometimes we may need a nutritionally oriented physician, dietician or nutritionist to do specific, sophisticated tests to determine our deficiencies and requirements. We can always learn a great deal about what’s good for us by experimenting with different diets and foods, and by paying close attention to the outcomes.

5. Find a health professional who will help you begin treatment of chronic conditions with nutrition and stress management (as well as exercise) rather than medication.

Except in life threatening situations, this is the sane, common sense way to go. The prescription antacids, Type 2 diabetes drugs, and antidepressants that tens of millions of Americans use to decrease acid reflux, lower blood sugar, and improve mood, only treat symptoms and do not address causes. And they have very significant and often dangerous side-effects. If they are only prescribed, as they should be, after a thorough trial of non-pharmacological treatment, they will rarely be necessary.

6. Don’t become a food fanatic.

Use these guidelines (and others that make sense to you), but don’t beat yourself up for deviating from them. Just notice the effect of a questionable choice, learn, and return to your program.

And don’t waste your time and energy judging others for what they eat! It will just make you cranky and self-righteous, stressful emotional states that will ruin your digestion. And it sure won’t do those other people any good.