As a child, many people have come across the expression, 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away.' At first, it may seem like just a catchy phrase, but researchers have now been able to prove why this statement holds truth. What many individuals do not know is that there are foods that can ward off an array of illnesses; therefore, taking it easy on those expensive visits to the doctor’s office. A Greek philosopher named Hippocrates who is known by many people as the father of modern medicine once said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” (Cleary, Dworkin-McDaniel, Gordon, Foltz-Gray, and Gower 12). Believe it or not, these magic foods are all around us in the form of disease preventers and cures; just don’t be fooled by the ever common food myths.
First of all, magic foods are a rich source of nutrients, minerals, and vitamins that provide many benefits to one’s body and mind. These foods are hiding in plain view at every grocery store in the country; most individuals stroll past them on a daily basis without realizing they are as valuable to one’s body as a gold mine is to one’s wallet! Diseases and sicknesses are a daunting reality most everyone will face in his or her lifetime, but these horrors can be prevented with a simple healthy diet. No symptoms of illness and no doctors may sound like a fantasy to many; moreover, by substituting junk food with some of the magic foods, that dream will become a reality. Take nature’s heart medicine for example: salmon is one of the best omega-3 fatty acids in the world to date. Amazingly, only a couple of four to six ounce servings of this fish a week has been found to reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by seventeen percent (Cleary, Dworkin-McDaniel, G...
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... adding these hearty magic foods to one’s grocery list, it will be close to impossible for an illness to stop one from achieving his hopes and dreams!
Works Cited
Cleary, Allison, Norine Dworkin-McDaniel, Debra Gordon, Dorothy Foltz-Gray, and Timothy Gower. Food Cures. White Plains, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 2007. Print.
Gupta, Priyanka. "POWERFUL probiotics." Alive: Canadian Journal of Health & Nutrition 338 (2010): 45-48. Alt HealthWatch. EBSCO. Web. 3 May 2011.
Kalish, Nancy. "GIVE THESE POWER FOODS A WHIRL!." Prevention 62.1 (2010): 96-103. Alt HealthWatch. EBSCO. Web. 3 May 2011.
Laliberte, Richard. "14 WAYS TO NEVER GET CANCER." Prevention 62.10 (2010): 34-38. Alt HealthWatch. EBSCO. Web. 3 May 2011.
Liebman, Bonnie. "The Latest Scams." Nutrition Action Health Letter 37.8 (2010): 9-11. Alt HealthWatch. EBSCO. Web. 4 May 2011.
In the article “Paranoia about Fats is Driven by Junk Science” by Jill Richardson discusses the idea of how many Americans’ have false beliefs on the consumption of fats. Many think fats are bad and unhealthy for our diets, when in reality; we need them to maintain a healthy diet. For me and just like many others, I had the wrong impression on fats. Since many products today contain the label fat-free, I always believed that this was bad for diets. Since reading this article, it helped me take into account that eating omega-3 and omega-6; such as fish, greens, seeds, and oils are part of a well-balanced diet. This can be related to chapter 3, as omega-3 fatty acids are essential in preventing
As the Western world experiences increasing occurrences of certain diseases, society is focusing not only on finding the source of this phenomena but also on finding a solution to the problem. In his essay “Escape from the Western Diet”, Michael Pollan places the blame on the Western diet, arguing that people need only to change their eating habits in order to prevent many chronic diseases. While the author makes a compelling argument, his usage of logical fallacies, his questionable credibility, and his apparent bias weaken his point; nonetheless, I agree with his overall surmise that the western diet should be improved.
Nature is the best Medicine. “Just feel the magic in the air and the power in the breeze, feel the energy of the plants, the brushes and the trees, let yourself be surrounded by nature at its best, calm yourself, focus and let the magic do the rest. “ - Sally Walker Many have said that nature is the best medicine for the soul. Have you ever noticed the simple bliss and purity nature holds? Never competing, never degrading, never giving up the purity it holds.
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
In recent studies, it was discovered that most of the foods that Americans consumed are foods which had gone through so many processes and thereby losing most of its nutritional values. Unhealthy nutrients are also been added to foods as additive during production to either preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance. An individual cannot simply trust what he or she is consuming at a fast food restaurant or even a cheap prepared meal at a grocery store. Processed food or western diet needs to be replaced and totally taken out of the American life and diet; this will help the Americans to live a healthier life, and spend less on medical bills.
Food science has led to find cures for diseases such as scurvy. Scurvy is a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by swollen bleeding gums and the opening of previously healed wounds, which particularly affected poorly nourished sailors until the end of the 18th century. This disease was very common among sailors because in the 18th century they didn’t have refrigerators, so their diets lacked perishable foods while sailing the sea. Today, if you come across this problem you can just eat a vitamin C tablet. This is just one of the many examples food science has promoted a balanced diet by the study of nutrients in our food.
All in all, this book is a great read for those seeking to learn more about food and how it relates to all aspects of life and history as well as find that extra push in taking the initiative in improving one’s eating habits and lifestyle. It serves as an easy to follow introduction into a healthy relationship with food including with simple guidelines that are not too forceful or complex to understand.
Waist sizes are expanding, everyone is on a diet of some sort, and a large majority of the population is under the care of a physician for some disease that can be attributed to the modern diet. With no end in sight to the obesity crisis and its associated diseases, individuals will need to educate themselves on healthy nutrition and how to avoid the pitfalls inherent in our food environment. Information on the origins of this epidemic, potential cures both magical and old-fashioned, and who or what is to blame for this crisis are everywhere you look. Two authors that offer their opinions on this vast subject are Michael Pollan, author of the book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, and Mary
Since 1916, the United States Department of Agriculture (the government agency responsible for all U.S. policy regarding agriculture, food, and farming) has revised their recommendations several times. Unfortunately, money talks and the USDA’s recommendations are based on outdated science and are influenced by people with business interest. Even so, its recommendations are considered almost “holy” by physicians, nutritionists, and dieters, but in reality, they are the root cause of the problem. A single visit to our local public school cafeteria and it will become clear that they do not have the best interests of the children at heart. What they are feeding our innocent children is preposterous. Doctors, the people we trust and expect to be “the experts”, do not know much about the subject of nutrition. A vast majority of medical schools in the U.S. require just 25-30 hours or less of nutrition training, and some do not require at all. So doctors must rely on the ...
The poor food choices that men and women make is the cause of many illnesses, disease and chronic health conditions. Men and women generally have different thoughts and choices on the topic of healthy food. People’s bad health may be genetically occurred or their exposure to their past nutritional education was not helpful, but their bad health is primarily based upon the poor choices that the individuals choose in daily life.
Holistic nutrition is increasingly becoming popular in healthcare practice due to the growing detoxification culture amongst the people with the aim of improving individual health. Consumption of toxic elements toxifies the body, the consumption of processed food products is the primary cause of diseases amongst the people. There is increased use of Holistic Nutrition by both healthy people and people with health conditions with the aim of achieving optimum body function and health. The increased use of holistic nutrition in the community improves health outcomes and reduces poor health outcomes that are caused by poor lifestyle choices of using processed food products. Holistic nutrition provides a natural approach of ensuring positive health
Many people in America, from toddlers to the elderly, have shown numerous signs of bad health. People have the desire to keep on eating due to more, new things being merchandised as “new and improved items” from the producers. For example, nowadays, people are eating pure junk that they find satisfying on the grocery food shelf. As, stated by Michael Pollan, in his article, “Eat Food: Food Defined” he affirmed that “real food is the type of things that our
It became so clear that junk foods lead to a punch of catastrophic diseases like obesity, type two diabetes, vascular diseases and cardiac disorders. Those kinds of diseases cost more than $150 billion annually, just to diagnose, treat people who suffer from them. That disease is chronic and leads to many health-related issues, for example, obesity considers a risk factor for type two diabetes, and high blood pressure, joint disorders and many others (The Denver Post 2012). The key of preventing many chronic problems is nutrition. Low income plays an important role of limiting most people to buy and eat a healthy diet and in the other hand, it is easy for people budgets to purchase junk foods. So controlling the prices of healthy foods to be suitable for all people make good nutrition available for everyone. Adequate diets mean decreasing the epidemic of those serious diseases, and stopping the spread and break the bad sequences that may happen. Long-term exposure to junk foods that are full with chemicals like additives, preservatives have led to chronic illnesses difficult to treat. Also, the chemical added to junk foods are tasted unique and made millions of people becoming addicted to them and are available everywhere for example in restaurants, cafes, lunchrooms (The Denver Post
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Proper nutrition is one of the most essential elements to being healthy and living a long life. People deal with food every day, and food has been a part of life since the beginning of civilization. What we eat becomes our diet, and our diet plays a major role in deciding how healthy we are and how well our body functions. Without proper diet, our body cannot carry out the functions it needs to perform. Most people have some common knowledge on what is good and what is bad for the human body to consume. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains are some common items people think of when they think of healthy foods. However, it is not enough just to know what foods are good for your body, it is also important to understand why certain foods are good for you and what they do to help the body function.