{"id":325,"date":"2024-02-15T07:06:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T07:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/?p=325"},"modified":"2024-02-25T13:56:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T13:56:37","slug":"food-is-your-best-medicine-or-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/traditional-medicine\/food-is-your-best-medicine-or-is-it.html","title":{"rendered":"FOOD IS YOUR BEST MEDICINE\u2026  Or is it???"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>This article introduces my readers to the way modern food is processed, and the main changes that have happened to our food supply in modern times, and why these changes have happened.\u00a0 I conclude by telling my readers to educate themselves well about the food they eat.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/traditional-medicine\/food-is-your-best-medicine-or-is-it.html\/#Introduction_Is_Food_Still_Our_Best_Medicine\" >Introduction: Is Food Still Our Best Medicine?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/traditional-medicine\/food-is-your-best-medicine-or-is-it.html\/#The_Food_Processing_Industry_From_Subsistence_Farming_to_Factory_Farming\" >The Food Processing Industry: From Subsistence Farming to Factory Farming<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/traditional-medicine\/food-is-your-best-medicine-or-is-it.html\/#Conclusion_Only_YOU_Can_Protect_and_Preserve_Your_Health\" >Conclusion: Only YOU Can Protect and Preserve Your Health!<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/traditional-medicine\/food-is-your-best-medicine-or-is-it.html\/#Sources\" >Sources:<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Introduction_Is_Food_Still_Our_Best_Medicine\"><\/span><strong>Introduction: Is Food Still Our Best Medicine?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_326\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-326\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ann_Wigmore.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[325]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-326\" src=\"http:\/\/www.greekmedicine.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ann_Wigmore.jpg\" alt=\"Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute. Courtesy of Wikipedia\" width=\"250\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-326\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute. Courtesy of Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Perhaps the best-known quote from Hippocrates is, \u201cLet your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.\u201d\u00a0 But how true is this piece of advice from the Father of Medicine today?\u00a0 Back in Hippocrates\u2019 day, pure, whole organically grown and raised foods were the norm \u2013 you might say that, way back in those days, all we had was Mother Nature.\u00a0 But, the truth is that our food supply has changed a lot since Hippocrates\u2019 day, and a lot of those changes have not been good.\u00a0 Hippocrates\u2019 maxim of letting our food be our medicine and our medicine be our food still holds true, provided we acquire and eat our food in a fresh, natural state, but once we depart from this pure, natural state in our acquisition and consumption of food, we open the door to all kinds of corruption and abuse.\u00a0 In this article, we will be taking a brief, introductory look at the state of our food supply today, and how it is different from the fresh, natural food that was eaten in Hippocrates\u2019 day.\u00a0 We will also be looking at how and why these changes came about, and how we can best return to eating our food in as natural a state as possible.<\/p>\n<p>No one in their right mind who is familiar with today\u2019s highly processed \u201cjunk food\u201d could ever claim that this kind of denatured, devitalized food could ever be used as medicine.\u00a0 Ann Wigmore, the founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute, once said that the food we eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest acting poison. \u2013 1.\u00a0 And when she talked about food being poison, she was talking about today\u2019s denatured, devitalized, overly processed \u201cjunk food\u201d, which has been robbed of the vital nutrients necessary to support life.\u00a0 An architect would never dream of making a huge building that would withstand the test of time out of inferior materials, and neither should you consider building your body and its health out of inferior quality foods.\u00a0 Therefore, it behooves us to learn all we can about the food we eat, and then use that knowledge to acquire and consume only the best foods we can get.\u00a0 Yet too many people today are woefully ignorant of the food they eat, even though their very life and health depend on making wise, informed choices about what they choose to eat.<\/p>\n<p>The big, existential problem when it comes to food is that we absolutely need food and drink to sustain us and maintain life.\u00a0 Hippocrates summed this truth up in his doctrine of <em>Pepsis, <\/em>which means digestion and metabolism; because of our Pepsis, or the digestion and metabolism of vital nutrients to maintain and replenish the physical structure of our bodies, said Hippocrates, every man and woman, in fact every living organism, is absolutely dependent on its natural environment.\u00a0 And the faculty of our bodies that is responsible for metabolism, nutrition and growth is called the Natural Faculty in Greek Medicine.\u00a0 Because food and drink are absolutely necessary for the sustenance and maintenance of our physical bodies, there is the strong temptation to cut corners and accept food \u2013 any kind of food \u2013 to \u201cfill our tanks\u201d and keep us going.\u00a0 But cheap, low quality junk food leads to a low, devitalized mode of living, so it behooves us to seek out, and consume, the best quality food we can get.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how many people I have run into who will only put the highest octane fuel into their cars, but when it comes to food for their bodies, or their own physical vehicles, will think nothing of going out to a fast food joint and getting the cheapest stuff they can find.\u00a0 There\u2019s only one thing wrong with that:\u00a0 You can always go out and buy another car when the one you have breaks down, but you can\u2019t go out and buy another body \u2013 you\u2019re stuck with the one you got.<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Food_Processing_Industry_From_Subsistence_Farming_to_Factory_Farming\"><\/span><strong>The Food Processing Industry: From Subsistence Farming to Factory Farming<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Back in Hippocrates\u2019 day, and in fact throughout the vast majority of human history, the transportation, processing and acquisition of food was a fairly simple, natural affair. Farmers eked out a living from their family farms, and sold the surplus food they produced to others in their local community.\u00a0 The human population that lived on this planet was still relatively small, and it was still a relatively simple affair to get food from the growers to the consumers \u2013 from farm to fork, if you will.\u00a0 But all that started to change with the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century as goods started to be mass produced in big factories, and the population started to move away from rural areas, where natural food was readily available, into the big cities.\u00a0 Suddenly, the journey of food from farm to fork got a heckuva lot longer.\u00a0 With this big change, the challenges involved in this process got a lot more difficult and numerous, and a lot of the solutions that were adopted to meet these challenges, while expedient, were far from perfect.\u00a0 In short, a new industry was born out of the industrial revolution \u2013 the food processing industry.\u00a0 Why not process our food the way that other products are processed on an assembly line?\u00a0 The challenges that had to be met and solved were as follows:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preventing Spoilage \u2013 <\/strong>This is probably the single greatest challenge that the modern food and agribusiness industry faced \u2013 making sure that the food didn\u2019t spoil on its much longer journey to market.\u00a0 And one of the best and most satisfactory solutions that was adopted was that of refrigerating or freezing the food.\u00a0 Heck \u2013 in colder regions, you can put food outdoors overnight in cold or freezing temperatures and it will be perfectly fresh and edible in the morning.\u00a0 In other words, the microbes that contaminate and spoil food need a fairly warm temperature in order to be active and do their dirty work, and drastically lowering the temperature was, in many ways, the most natural and least invasive way to prevent spoilage.\u00a0 The food could always be heated up prior to consumption, and that was all fine and dandy.\u00a0 Since body temperature is a pretty warm 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37 degrees Celsius, Greek Medicine says that we should not eat our food in an overly cold or refrigerated state, but that we should consume it warm or hot, or at the least in a moderately cool or room temperature state.\u00a0 Sadly, this sage advice is all too often ignored, as too many people are addicted to the thrilling, chilling pleasures of cold smoothies, ice cold drinks and, of course, ice cream.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preservatives \u2013 <\/strong>Preservatives, or substances that are added to food in order to lengthen or preserve their freshness and shelf life, are also a fairly old, or even ancient, idea that goes back a long ways.\u00a0 Perhaps the oldest known preservative is salt, which was used in a variety of ways.\u00a0 For example, Jesus\u2019 famed companion Mary Magdalene hailed from the town of Magdala, a port city on the Sea of Galilee whose main industry was the production of salted fish, preserved against spoilage by the addition of large quantities of salt.\u00a0 Some say that it was from this industry that she derived the financial means to support Jesus and his band of wandering disciples.\u00a0 Closely allied to this was the process of pickling food or vegetables \u2013 adding salt and other substances, like vinegar or citric acid, to the food to keep it in a stable state and prevent spoiling.\u00a0 Many pickled foods, such as German Sauerkraut, Japanese <em>Nuka Miso <\/em>pickles, or Russian or Eastern European Borscht, are rich in healthy probiotic bacteria that support optimal intestinal function and regularity.\u00a0 When refined sugar became available in medieval times, it was discovered that it could also act as a preservative \u2013 and hence the advent of a wide variety of syrups, conserves, jams and jellies.\u00a0 Honey can even be used as a preservative \u2013 ancient jars of honey have been discovered in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs that are still edible today.<\/p>\n<p>Natural substances like salt, and other substances like refined sugar, can be added to food to lengthen their shelf life and prevent spoilage, but it must be remembered that these substances have their drawbacks as well, especially for those who have a condition that compromises their metabolism.\u00a0 Most obviously, if you suffer from diabetes, you should stay away from sweet syrups, jams and jellies; if you have high blood pressure, it is advisable to stay away from excess salt, as well as too many foods that are preserved or pickled with it.\u00a0 As with so many other things in life, one must weigh the pros against the cons before deciding whether or not to eat the food in question.\u00a0 When it comes to more modern food additives and preservatives, it is a much more mixed bag still.\u00a0 On the relatively benign side, there are food additives and preservatives that are pretty natural and harmless, like Carageenan gum from Irish Moss, a kind of seaweed, that is used to emulsify or stabilize certain foods in order to keep them from separating; Locust Bean Gum, taken from the seed pods of various trees in the <em>Fabaceae, <\/em>or Bean \/ Pea family, is also quite natural and harmless.\u00a0 On the other end of the spectrum, certain other preservatives, like Sodium Nitrate and Sodium Nitrite, which is used to preserve many lunch meats from spoilage, have been linked with various forms of cancer, like stomach cancer. \u2013 2.\u00a0 And then, there\u2019s a whole bunch of others that fall somewhere in between these two extremes \u2013 not the best stuff on earth, but not real delterious or harmful either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pasteurization \u2013 <\/strong>Louis Pasteur, the formulator of the germ theory of disease and a big hero of modern medicine, is credited with the invention of the pasteurization process that bears his name.\u00a0 Basically, pasteurization is done to liquid foods like milk in order to lengthen their shelf life and render them a lot less prone to spoilage and microbial infection; Liquid foods like milk, and even many juices, are subjected, bit by bit, to quick bursts of high, intense heat to kill any lingering microbes that might be in them.\u00a0 While the public health authorities are the main advocates for the pasteurization of milk and other liquid foods, in order to reduce the risk of microbial infection and spoilage, the fact is that the pasteurization of milk denatures the natural enzymes present in the milk, as well as the protein molecules that are in the milk, rendering them a lot harder to digest, especially for those with slow, weak or frail digestive systems.<\/p>\n<p>As a person with a slow, weak digestive system, I can personally attest to this fact; when I lived in Tucson, Arizona, I used to go hiking in the summer, and after a hike, I would love to drink a bottle of cool tangerine juice to cool me off after a long, hot hike.\u00a0 The only problem was that this tangerine juice was \u201cflash pasteurized\u201d (This is actually a euphemism, since all pasteurization happens in a flash.).\u00a0 And because it was pasteurized, it was rendered a lot harder to digest, and even hours later, when I cooked and ate my dinner, the sour acids of the tangerine juice would still be lingering around in my stomach to upset the digestion of my evening meal.\u00a0 Anyway, those who are familiar with the natural food business will know that there have been ongoing legal and legislative battles in many localities between the proponents of raw milk and the public health authorities, who want all milk to be pasteurized.\u00a0 Drinking spoiled or infected milk is an obvious health hazard, but so is drinking milk that is a lot harder to digest, and which generates a lot more phlegm than it otherwise would have; ideally, you want both.\u00a0 All too often, \u201cjunk food\u201d that keeps forever on the shelves has also been denatured and devitalized; this prompted a natural food advocate to write that we should only consume natural foods that will spoil easily, but to eat or consume them before they spoil.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Canning \u2013 <\/strong>Canning is a fairly old food preservation technology that is relatively desirable and safe; I say \u201crelatively desirable and safe\u201d here because it is obviously not as desirable as eating the food in its fresh, natural state.\u00a0 The canning process consists of putting food, usually in a moist, wet or semi-liquid state, into artificial containers made of tin or stainless steel; these hermetically sealed containers are often lined with plastic on the inside to prevent the dissolution of the metal into the food.\u00a0 The safety of the canning process depends on the maintenance of strict cleanliness and freedom from microbes within the cannery, or canning facility; in addition, certain natural preservatives, most notably salt and oil, are often used to further discourage and prevent spoilage.\u00a0 \u201cCanning\u201d can also consist of putting preserved food into mason jars, where they can be stored and consumed at a later date.\u00a0 Back in the sixties, when the threat of nuclear war loomed large, people were instructed to build fallout shelters and stock them with large quantities of canned food for survival purposes.\u00a0 Canned food was also a mainstay of soldiers\u2019 rations during World War II and other wars, and greatly aided military logistics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dessication, or Drying \u2013 <\/strong>In Greek Medicine, it is said that there are two basic qualities or ingredients that are essential for all life, including microbial life, to manifest, and these are a moderate amount of heat, and a moderate amount of moisture as well.\u00a0 We have already seen how freezing and refrigeration can preserve or greatly lengthen the shelf life of food by depriving microbial life of the requisite heat necessary to support their cellular metabolisms.\u00a0 Food can also be preserved by drying it, or by depriving microbial life of the moisture or aqueous environment necessary to conduct the metabolic reactions essential to life.\u00a0 Here again, drying is a very old technology essentially, but one that also has modern offshoots, like freeze drying; as a whole, it is a very safe and reliable food preservation technology that is remarkably free of any serious threat to one\u2019s overall state of health.<\/p>\n<p>The Native Americans would slice buffalo meat into thin slices and dry them on racks out in the sun; once thoroughly dried, this dried meat, known as pemmican or jerky, could keep for long periods of time, or virtually indefinitely.\u00a0 Besides meat, other foods that are commonly dried are mainly fruits, as well as some vegetables, including sea vegetables.\u00a0 Dried foods can be added to a pot and cooked up in stews, soups and porridges when desired, or they can be eaten in their dry state.\u00a0 There is one potential health hazard with many dried foods, especially when it comes to dried fruits, and that is the addition of sulfur, or sulfur dioxide to the dried fruit; many individuals are sensitive to it, particularly in their delicate oral and throat mucosa, and it can aggravate other conditions, like food and respiratory allergies.\u00a0 How can you tell if a dried fruit has been sulfured or not?\u00a0 Many dried fruits, such as apricots, will maintain their original color when sulfured, but will turn a dark brown, or a much darker hue, when left unsulfured \u2013 and of course, the unsulfured dried fruit is preferable health-wise.\u00a0 Barring this, the ultimate test of whether a dried fruit has been sulfured or not is to savor its taste or flavor.\u00a0 Other additives to dried fruit are much more harmless and innocuous.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Smoking \u2013 <\/strong>Smoking is actually a specialized form of drying food; during the smoking process, the food in question is slowly dried and deprived of the majority of its moisture content.\u00a0 To aid in the preservation process, the food is often salted as well.\u00a0 In addition, smoking adds a certain subtle, savory smoky flavor to the food.\u00a0 How safe is smoked food?\u00a0 Although the majority of people seem to be OK with it, there are those who are sensitive to it, as the more volatile constituents of the smoky aroma can provoke irritation of the bladder and other delicate mucosal linings in sensitive individuals.\u00a0 Some have even linked the frequent consumption of smoked foods to certain forms of cancer, like stomach cancer.\u00a0 Sodium Nitrates and Nitrites are a common additive to smoked foods, particularly to sliced lunch meats, and they have been linked to certain forms of cancer \u2013 so beware.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Homogenization and Emulsifiers \u2013 <\/strong>Besides getting spoiled or contaminated with harmful microbes, another undesirable thing that can happen during the long journey from farm to fork is that the food separates.\u00a0\u00a0 There are basically two solutions to this problem of separation:\u00a0 You can either homogenize the food by forcing it through a very fine meshed sieve, or you can add emulsifiers to the food to prevent separation.\u00a0 In the world of food additives, emulsifiers are usually quite safe and natural; two different emulsifiers I have already written about in this article \u2013 Carageenan gum and Locust Bean gum \u2013 are perfectly safe and natural.\u00a0 A typical emulsifier is a thick, gummy substance that is rich in natural adhesive properties that help to hold a food together; many of them could also be called soft, soluble vegetable fibers.\u00a0 Eggs or egg whites are also a common emulsifier in foods, especially in baked goods, but when it comes to eggs, those who are allergic to eggs should avoid prepared foods that contain them.\u00a0 Homogenized milk is milk that has been forced through a very fine meshed sieve under high pressure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hydrogenated Fats and Trans Fats \u2013 <\/strong>A big problem with fats and oils is that they can go rancid, with some fats and oils going rancid much more quickly than others.\u00a0 A careful savoring of an oil, or oil and fat-rich food\u2019s flavor will usually reveal whether or not the \/ its oil has started to go bad, and rancid fats and oils will usually have a bitter aftertaste.\u00a0 Sometimes, even the smelling of oil-rich foods like nuts will tell you if they have started to go rancid or not, and the rancid smell of a certain nut or seed, once experienced and identified, will tell you if the nut is fresh and safe to eat or not.\u00a0 When it comes to fats and oils and their shelf life, the general rule is that poly-unsaturated vegetable oils, while frequently hailed as being heart healthy, go rancid a lot more quickly than animal fats that are saturated, or other oils like Olive oil, which are only mono-unsaturated.\u00a0 Vegetable oils that have been artificially hydrogenated or saturated have certain practical advantages over those same vegetable oils in their original unsaturated state; namely, they keep for much longer before going rancid, and they are solid or semi-solid at room temperature, which is a property that lets them be used as emulsifiers as well.\u00a0 Most margarines and vegetable shortenings have been artificially hydrogenated, and this hydrogenation at high temperatures denatures the basic shape and configuration of the hydrocarbon chain, rendering it a lot harder for the liver enzymes that digest and metabolize fats to handle.\u00a0 The body\u2019s digestion and metabolism of fats and oils is actually quite complex, and so is the problem of figuring out exactly how beneficial or harmful to one\u2019s health a certain fat or oil is.\u00a0 In fact, Dr. Udo Erasmus has devoted a whole book to the subject: <u>Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill<\/u>.\u00a0 \u2013 3.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Artificial Coloring Agents \u2013 <\/strong>Artificial coloring agents are often added to processed foods in order to give them a more desirable or natural color or hue.\u00a0 Many of these artificial coloring agents have very undesirable or deleterious effects on one\u2019s health, however; therefore, I would avoid them wherever possible.\u00a0 You might say that these artificial coloring agents completes the list of additives that can be added to highly processed, denatured or devitalized foods to make them appear more attractive and palatable than they really are.\u00a0 Just think \u2013 you can add preservatives to retard or prevent spoilage, you can add emulsifiers to hold the food together and prevent separation, and finally, like an artist putting the finishing touches on a painting, add artificial coloring agents to give the food a desirable color.\u00a0 When all is said and done, the \u201cfood\u201d that stands before you on the supermarket shelf may be a real work of art \u2013 but is it really natural?<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion_Only_YOU_Can_Protect_and_Preserve_Your_Health\"><\/span><strong>Conclusion: Only YOU Can Protect and Preserve Your Health!<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Navigating the ins and outs of today\u2019s complex and multifaceted food marketplace can be a very precarious and difficult undertaking indeed.\u00a0 And because of this intricacy and complexity, it behooves you, as a human being and a food consumer, to really educate yourself about the food you\u2019re eating \u2013 what it is, where it comes from, what is done to it and how, and much, much, much more\u2026\u00a0 After all, your very life and health depend on it.\u00a0 You gotta know all its ingredients \u2013 so above all, READ THE LABELS!\u00a0 And if there is anything on the labels that you don\u2019t quite understand, by all means, google it up online, and do your research on it.\u00a0 Legal codes and regulations may vary from country to country, or even one locality to another, with some countries offering much better protections and guarantees regarding the quality and purity of the food that is sold than others, but ultimately, the responsibility of eating a healthy diet and therefore safeguarding your health falls squarely on YOUR shoulders.\u00a0 Having lived on this planet for over seventy years, and having traveled to many different countries, I can personally attest that you can find unhealthy \u201cjunk food\u201d and really trash your health just about anywhere you go \u2013 but why do that???\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it much better to eat well, and to be healthy instead?<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Sources\"><\/span><strong>Sources:<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/quotes\/385454.Ann_Wigmore#:~:text=Ann%20Wigmore%20Quotes&amp;text=The%20food%20you%20eat%20can,the%20s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ann Wigmore<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicinenet.com\/how_bad_is_sodium_nitrate_for_you\/article.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How Bad Is Sodium Nitrate for You?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Fats-That-Heal-Kill-Cholesterol\/dp\/0920470386\">Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill: The Complete Guide to Fats, Oils, Cholesterol and Human Health<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article introduces my readers to the way modern food is processed, and the main changes that have happened to our food supply in modern times, and why these changes have happened.\u00a0 I conclude by telling my readers to educate themselves well about the food they eat.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[372,383,376,374,32,44,373,384,379,381,378,382,380,375,377],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traditional-medicine","tag-ann-wigmore","tag-emulsifiers","tag-food-additives","tag-food-processing","tag-greek-medicine","tag-hippocrates","tag-industrial-revolution","tag-junk-food","tag-metabolism","tag-pasteurization","tag-pepsis","tag-preservatives","tag-raw-milk","tag-refrigeration","tag-udo-erasmus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FOOD IS YOUR BEST MEDICINE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This article introduces my 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