Food as Medicine

"Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food" Hippocrates

The idea of food as medicine has been around since ancient times, its funny how today we've completely disassociated the idea that food makes you feel good or bad, and that food has a direct impact on our health and how we feel everyday. 

Have you considered how foods make you feel - does caffeine perk you up but then make you jittery?  When you eat a donut or a big bowl of pasta do you feel good afterwards? How about more subtle things, like when you eat dairy do you experience that your skin breaks out a few days later, or that you wake up the next morning and are more congested than usual?  Food directly impacts how we feel and directly impacts our health.  Experimenting with how foods impact your body is a great way to determine what you want to eat for your optimal health.  Personally I think that whole foods make me feel best, and I've found that I operate and feel much better when I eat clean.

Check out this article, Spices and herbs that promote longevity on how spices and herbs can help improve your health.  One of my goals is health and longevity - e.g. to live a long time and be healthy for that time.  I'm always looking for ways to increase my longevity, like reducing stress and inflammation and varying my workouts.  I know that food directing impacts how you feel, but hadn't thought about things like spices and how they can help.  A few I found interesting in the article are that cinnamon can help lower blood sugar and that in addition to anti-nausea properties, "ginger is also thought to relieve the aches and pains of arthritis, headaches, sore muscles, and menstrual cramps." 

What new spice or spices are you going to add to your food?