The best cure could be what’s on our plates.

So often drugs and surgery are thought of as the breakthrough for helping diseases. However, the real breakthrough and effective long term cure will be when people look at what they put on their plates!

“The food you eat can either being the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison” – Anne Wigmore

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would find the safest way to health” – Hippocrates

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates

Plant foods contain 100,000 different antioxidants or phytonutrients that are disease preventing nutrients.

The knowledge that casein (the protein in dairy products) has been found by researchers to be so predictive of cancer that they could turn cancer on or off simply by altering the casein intake should be enough to put anyone off eating dairy!

One of the most comprehensive studies to date “The total antioxidant content of more than 3,100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide,” Nutr J 9(2010) by MH Carlsen, BL Halvorsen, K Holte, SK Bohn, S Dragland et al, on antioxidants in food found that plant foods have 64 times the number of antioxidants than animal based foods, such as meat, fish, dairy and eggs.

Antioxidants inhibit oxidation by removing damaging oxidising agents, meaning they protect our bodies from damage and cell death. Oxidative stress is linked to many human diseases so getting the antioxidants we need from food is very important.

Phytochemical are non-nutritive chemical compounds that naturally occur in plants that can give them their colour or smell. Antioxidants are also classified as phytochemicals. But overall, having these plant chemicals fighting for your health is the best option!

Ten top medicinal foods:

1. Burdock root – is the active ingredient in many natural cancer remedies such as Essiac tea. The phytochemicals and antioxidants are mostly stored in the root of the vegetable.
2. Flax seeds – recent studies reveal these can lower cholesterol and stabilise blood sugar
3. Cruciferous vegetables – such as broccoli, kale and collard greens are loaded with phytochemicals and found to help detoxify our bodies.
4. Leafy green vegetables such as parsley, spinach and beet greens have the highest nutrient density of any food.
5. Blueberries – are high in antioxidants protecting us from oxidative stress as well as helping urinary tract infections.
6. Turmeric root – this bright yellow spice is an anti-inflammatory agent as well as an antioxidant.
7. Cumin seeds – one of the many phytochemicals in it, cuminaldehyde has strong anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity.
8. Green tea – contains polyphenols that are responsible for the antioxidant and anticarcinogenic effects of the plant, so it’s great to drink after meals.
9. Mushrooms – again these have loads of phytochemicals and mushrooms such as shitake and maitakes have been shown to reverse tumors.
10. Citrus fruits – contain a host of phytochemicals with bioprotective effects.

Overall by choosing these living whole foods over the dead foods such as milk, chicken and fish you are fuelling your body with goodness that will help it to continue living!