So, I was pondering why do doctors prescribe medication but not food? Now you’re wondering too, aren’t you? Are food and drugs that different? Or is there something more?
According to dictionary.com, a drug is:
Site reference for drug screenshot as of December 23, 2018 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/drugs?s=t
Alright, now that we’ve got that under our belts, here’s what dictionary.com gives as a definition for food:
Site reference for food screenshot as of December 23, 2018 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/food?s=t
Ok, last dictionary.com screenshot, I promise! Now let’s take a look at the definition of medicine for our conversation:
Site reference for food screenshot as of December 23, 2018 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/medicine?s=t
So, on my personal journey, I had 3 primary roadblocks to overcome. I have defeated obesity, depression/anxiety, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Here’s my N=1 experience and summarizations for your review.
Obesity
- Physician’s recommendation: Eat according to the Standard American Diet (SAD) food pyramid. Exercise daily. Yearly follow ups.
- Physicians End Result/Goal: Weight control
- My Researched and Experimented Solution: Use food as medicine to change my body by eating more lower carbohydrate whole foods without chemicals instead of high carbohydrate processed convenience foods that are laden with chemicals. I was already exercising a lot and led an active lifestyle so that wasn’t an issue.
- My End Result/Goal: Weight control, increased muscle mass, improved energy, higher level of mental clarity, and improved quality of life.
Depression/Anxiety
- Physician’s recommendation: Drugs and monitoring
- Physicians End Result/Goal: Control symptoms
- My Researched and Experimented Solution: Our bodies have evolved to function on whole foods. Today, many of our convenience foods contain chemicals that have not been studied for their affects on human beings. Some of the purpose of these chemicals are to stabilize the food for long shelf life, make it taste better, look better, and even create a physical dependency on the products they are put into. Eating whole foods and the removal of soy (hormone precursor to estrogen), processed sugars, and all grains from my diet. There is also research showing that high fat, medium protein, and low carbohydrate macro diets can assist in brain function.
- My End Result/Goal: Issue resolved. I wanted to get rid of my panic attacks and bouts of depression. What I got was a more calm and happy state of mind in general. “Eating the right medicines” also improved my energy levels and I found instead of crushing depression, I had challenges I was looking forward to!
Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Physician’s recommendation: Stage 1 – Over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs and monitoring. Stage 2 – Prescription anti-inflammatory drugs and monitoring. Stage 3 – Prescription anti-inflammatory and steroidal drugs and monitoring. Stage 4 – Prescription anti-inflammatory and steroidal drugs of higher dosages and types.
- Physicians End Result/Goal: Minimize symptoms until death.
- My Researched and Experimented Solution: Arthritis is an inflammatory disease. Studies now show us that grains are inflammatory and actually an unnecessary part of any human diet. Stress and lack of sleep are also high on the list of inflammatory stressors in the human body.
- My End Result/Goal: Complete reversal of my arthritis. I am now fully functional human with no joint pain!
So why do doctors prescribe drugs instead of food. It’s not necessarily their fault. Your typical family doctor has less than 8 hours worth of nutrition training from research over 30 years old. 8 hours isn’t even enough time to take most single college credit classes. That 30+ year old information has some components in it that have been disproved by research since publication.
Drugs do have studied efficacy and history on their side. Antibiotics like Penicillin have saved many human lives. NSAIDs like Sodium Naproxene work for their pain relief and anti-inflammatory effect. Insulin has helped to control diabetes (much of which we have brought upon ourselves because of the mass amount of processed sugar in our modern day convenience foods).
So it makes sense if your family doctor looks no further than their degreed education to prescribe a drug where a food and/or lifestyle change may work.
So, why not just keep using drugs? To my mind, the known/unknown short/long term side-affects alone make me want to use my local grocery store instead of the pharmacy to heal myself if I can. I’m all about making decisions that maintain and improve my quality of life without future complications.
There’s also the cost factor. My grocery bill went from about $100/week to $150/week for my wife and myself. That’s a 50% increase with an annual value of $2,600 (52 weeks x $50). My physician, therapist, and medication bills have reduced from my $6,5000 Health Savings Account High Deductable Premium to under $1,000 per year. My incredible quality of life…PRICELESS!
I hope this has helped you want to and begin to take control of your life! You can do it! You’re AWESOME!
That’s it! Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for more help in optimizing your own life and would like to engage my services, or have an idea for a blog post, feel free to contact me.
Wishing you happiness, health, and success!
-Gregg
