When I'm selling our veggies, you'll frequently hear me touting the nutritional benefits of our just picked, naturally grown produce. I say stuff about vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, antioxidants, and omegas. I say Eating good food is preventative medicine!" over and over and over. When I make this claim, it's not just a sales pitch. I believe, I know that food is medicine because I've seen it heal better than any pharmaceutical and almost any procedure. Food can go a long way toward healing conditions that are deemed incurable. Fresh, clean food does amazing work...and it tastes incredible to boot.
I consider myself an expert on this subject because I have watched someone come back from the worst of worst case scenarios to a place that no one thought possible, in large part because of nutrition. My older brother, when he was twenty-five and on the cusp of marriage and law school, was hit by a car while riding his bike out in the West County. Hit from behind at 55 mph, he didn't stand much of a chance against that big, hard car, regardless of his strong physical condition and the helmet on his head. His brain was broken - broken badly. They said he wouldn't survive the night. When he did, they said he wouldn't survive the week. After that, they said he wouldn't feel or move or eat or talk or express how he felt. And he didn't for pretty much as long as he was in the hospital. But once my parents, my faithful, courageous parents, brought him home, he started to improve.
Once he was home, my Mom started feeding him real food. No more soy and sugar based formula received through a tube - only real, organic, vegetables and proteins. He started getting the meanest green smoothie in Northern California, with more kale, chard, and other super greens than you could imagine. He started getting real vitamins in shapes and forms that our bodies can recognize - in carrots, broccoli, peppers, butternut squash, and healthy grass fed meats. Soon after he started getting real food through a tube, he was eating the real food through his mouth by means of his own fork and hand. The physical practice of eating helped retrain his body to move in controlled ways, which helped his body get stronger and more controllable. As he has eaten probably an elephant's weight in kale, his mind has become quicker, more focused, and he has been able to express himself more. The first way he really expressed himself since being hurt was to express how much he loves food and eating. Without a doubt, food seems to brings him more joy in his still very limited and challenged life than anything else.
Now, a few years after his love affair with food was renewed, my brother can talk, eat, move, express, and almost walk. And they said he would never do any of it. They also thought that the human body doesn't care what kind of nutrition you put in it. Some people, no matter how smart, can be wrong.
Isn't it ironic that they serve some of the most toxic, shabby, and least nutritious food to sick people in hospitals? The people who need it most are the last to receive real, nutritious, medicinally powerful food. Kids and senior citizens also get left behind when it comes to having ready access to fresh, organic food- fruit and produce, especially. So, as it stands, in our society, the most at-risk members of our population receive the worst and most deadly food. Because these groups typically have more susceptible immune systems, they get sick or sicker and then end up costing society more in the long run. How's that for unintended consequences? Real food also has the capacity to bring joy to people, especially the elderly and sick, and joy is the most powerful healer there is. I have elderly customers who live for the taste of good tomatoes every Summer because those tomatoes take them back to special times and places and help them to feel young.
We justify the status quo by saying that organic, local food is too expensive. It's low on the totem pole of priorities, especially in hospitals. But I think, I really do believe, that if we invested more money in proper nutrition, we would have to spend far less in the long run on pharmaceuticals, surgeries, therapists, and fad diets. My belief in the importance of accessible and affordable real, clean food is one of the reasons why I will continue to farm no matter how challenging. Maybe someday farmers will earn a fraction of all that money going to the drug companies who thrive on people's sickness and dependence on their products. I'm pretty sure my kale can't kill you if you use it too much and the side effects, well, they're minimal.
Thank you for this article. I, too, believe this is true. My father-in-law recently passed away, and he was vindicated in that he always said the people in the hospiotal were trying to kill him. Now, they weren't really, but the care he received in the hospital, and the rehab facility, though good in intentions, did not provide him with the sustaining nutrition he needed.
ReplyDeleteThe first time we "saved" his life was after hip surgery. He wasn't eating in the hospital and he developed pnuemonia and almost died--had to be intubated and ended up in the ICU. He regained conciuousness, and told us to take the tube OUT!! We did so, he came home to our house from the ICU and in a matter of weeks was healthy again, had beaten the pnuemonia and was ALIVE--contrary to what the Dr. said would happen! Good food was the biggest key!
I love your writing about real food and how badly it is needed for our sick, young and elderly.
ReplyDeleteMarlena Hirsch