More Doctors Are Prescribing Food as Medicine- Here’s Why

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The post More Doctors Are Prescribing Food as Medicine- Here’s Why appeared first on Healthy Holistic Living.

This article was written by Nicole Eckert, Holistic Nutritionist and the Owner + Founder of Holisticole. Check out her holistic living blog: holisticole.com for amazing clean-eating recipes, informative blog posts and online programs. Stay inspired by Nicole’s passion – follow her on Facebook & Instagram (@holisticole). BE vibrant.

How do you feel on a day-to-day basis?

When we wake up with high energy levels and a positive mood, the overall quality of our day is improved. How nice would it also be for our energy levels to remain high throughout the day? Many of us begin feeling more drained by the hour after waking up, we develop symptoms such as headaches, we get bloated after a meal, and making it past the 3:00 pm can only be done by filling the craving for sweets, caffeine and stimulants, which help us to push through until home-time.

Then what? We get home after another work day with zero energy to enjoy the last taste of our freedom until we’re suddenly back in bed? I can understand why takeout has more appeal than spending an hour in the kitchen cooking, followed by cleaning, and watching Netflix sounds way more rewarding than opening up the meditation app you downloaded, but hardly find the time to use.

You know what though. A majority of us aren’t feeling well, and when energy levels get low, unwanted symptoms just progress each day until something treatable appears. We’re all tired, and we can only take so much before it reaches the unbearable point where we start questioning whether something is truly wrong in our body.

When we want to feel better, some of us begin on the holistic route and seek a naturopath doctor to address symptoms, or a nutritionist to help with customized meal planning and a wellness protocol.

However, this first route is not the most common. Many of us eventually end up in the waiting room at our doctors office, or worse in a walk-in-clinic – and often times, we don’t even get the answers that we need to help us understand why we feel how we feel.

Why are we depressed? Why do we have no energy? Why is our blood pressure high? Why do we have inflammation?

You deserve to know the answers that pertain to your own self and health.

The New Medicine

It’s not a new prescription pill. Because how many people are taking medications, but still do not feel well on a day-to-day basis?

The ‘New Medicine’ is much simpler. What if I told you that disease reversal and prevention could be accomplished by just changing what you choose to eat? You’re going to start seeing more on latest doctor prescription, and it’s not a new drug, it’s a healthy plate of whole-foods.

Popping a pill might appear easier than changing your lifestyle, because how can we find more time to cook? But if it’s going to work, the real question isn’t about finding the time – it’s how badly do you want to feel better?

Beth Morris, a physician at Greenville Family Medicine and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina, is board-certified in Family Medicine. She is also the first physician in the area to become board-certified in Lifestyle Medicine.

What is Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle Medicine is an evidence-based practice that utilizes lifestyle interventions. It’s one that focuses specifically a whole-food, plant-based diet, healthy exercise, quality sleep and stress management, to both prevent and reverse disease.

How many people do you know with heart disease, cancer, diabetes and inflammatory diseases? These are some of the most common diagnoses that Dr. Beth Morris sees, and too many people have “yet to realize the benefits of a lifestyle change until they’ve had their first heart attack or they’ve been diagnosed with cancer”.

It’s inspiring to hear a physician who is passionate for helping and truly believes in what they do. Beth wants her patients to avoid those fates, and it might just be as simple as changing their nutrition.

Are you ready for a change?

Here’s Beth’s first question for you: “What do you want to achieve and what is stopping you from doing that”.

Healthy Lifestyle Made Simple

Focus on creating a plant-based diet for yourself. This is one that focuses on whole, fresh foods, in their most natural form. A whole-food isn’t a food with a list of ingredients, instead – it IS the ingredient. Simple to the core, the food industry has just made it complicated. Include more fresh vegetables, low-sugar fruits, whole and sprouted ancient grains, pasture-raised proteins, spices and herbs. Choose the foods which are not processed, and instead as they would exist in nature.

Yes, It Takes Work to Be Healthy

But the reward is well worth the work. As Beth shares: “we now live in a world that does not have a healthy food environment, and our biggest problem is the lack of awareness. A lot of people aren’t aware of how easy it is to reverse disease, prevent disease and feel better”. In addition to that, a lot of people don’t really know what real food is.

A healthy diet is not just lettuce and water. Your possibilities are endless. You can create all of your favourite foods in a healthy way, from pizza, macaroni, chicken tenders all the way to carrot cake.

Here’s Your Homework

Get motivated. Find an online program, pick-up a healthy cookbook, or work with a practitioner to develop YOUR plan (learn how to choose a practitioner here). Lifestyle changes impact every aspect of your health. Manifest your motivation by watching documentaries such as Food Matters and That Sugar Film and find some new recipes to try out at home.

If you aren’t convinced, challenge yourself to a completely whole food, plant-based diet for three weeks. The proof will be in your results.

So. How badly do you want to feel better?

Now, what’s stopping you?

Sources

The post More Doctors Are Prescribing Food as Medicine- Here’s Why appeared first on Healthy Holistic Living.

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