Our modern diets of convenience, speed and instant meals are fast replacing many precious food traditions which have nourished healthy families for centuries.

Avoiding fast foods and purchasing available locally grown organic food may cost more, but it is a good investment we can make towards our own health.

“The first and foremost measure is appropriate diet. It is not until this bears no results that one should use medicines.” – Ancient Chinese Proverb

The Free Food and Medicine Worldwide EDIBLE PLANTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcmTK-g8EHc

Very nice video Dr. Krishnan Umachandran 

Extensive usage pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc reduced the food value now-a-days. Even flavor and taste of food items, vegetables, and fruits are not soothing, healthy, and pleasant.

Our modern diets of convenience, speed and instant meals are fast replacing many precious food traditions which have nourished healthy families for centuries.

Avoiding fast foods and purchasing available locally grown organic food may cost more, but it is a good investment we can make towards our own health.

“The first and foremost measure is appropriate diet. It is not until this bears no results that one should use medicines.” – Ancient Chinese Proverb

I don´t share the opinion that food is medicine. Food primarily is food and has the superior task to present nourishments.

But I agree that natural foods contain all essential ingredients which help to stay healthy.

Not all plants are genitically modified by chemical influences, but nearly all are modified by human work, call it breading. So to eat natural products is no synonym for missing important ingredients.

Is food consumption without being hungry mentally-based or physiologically-based medicine?

What fraction of the world's food production is consumed simply to be occupied?

Great video + great interesting question, dear Krishnan!

Thank you.

As I read your question, it immediately reminded me of a famous German phrase, that I am accustomed to use as a physiological moto:

" Man ist was man isst" (or "we are what we eat") (hope I got the spelling correct but dear Hanno Krieger will surely better correct.

The idea behind this moto is that our food choices and imbalance certainly accounts for much of our physiological behaviour, hence our health.

The new fact that we can add to this is the renewal of ancient knowledge of how much we can find of cures for many diseases, from the better knowledge of natural food ingredients.

As a medical practioner, I am eager to know more about this, and I thank you for opening such interesting debate!

May I add a comment. It´s true that a lot of pesticides etc are used to produce food. But there is also a trend to return to a more "natural" agriculture when ever this is possible.

But the question here was "Is food medicine", and I don´t believe this statement. Some plants contain substances (minerals, vitamins, bitter essences) which help to stay healthy. But these are no medicines.

Dear Krishnan Umachandran, 

Thanks for the video. Well done and informative. The book seems also to be very informative.

Best regards,

Vilemar Magalhães

Thanks  Krishnan  both  the video  and the book  are informative

Dear Maria,

gut übersetzt.

I once bought a book in Arabic entitled “Switch from Drugs to Food”. The author tried hard to be convincing. Well, I used some of his advice on myself before 2 decades but I found out that food helps in a long period of time but is NEVER an alternative to the pharmaceuticals. Most of the food is safe & I do not believe that chemical fertilizers have harmful effect simply because the plants assimilate the required elements in an ordered manner especially the 6 essential elements (C,H,O, N, P,K). Pesticides & insecticides disappear normally within 10 days & the consumer usually washes the fruits & vegetables thoroughly. I do not reject the idea of genetic modification of food if it is done after comprehensive studies & tests. Concentration on one or two types of food is not advisable; diversification is better for health. However, if you very much like a certain food then most probably you body needs it badly.

To give a simple example for discussion:

(Many) people will be convinced that herb treatment belongs to medicine (e.g. herbal medicine), but can you convince them when you mention that meat treatment belongs to medicine (meat medicine)? 

By the way, the notion of 'sex' as a medical treatment is excluded from the former remark!

What is the exact definition of medicine? Probably different meanings for the same word, as usual?

I think  the  origin  of  the medicine  is food in Mankind there was no  medicine,  but later  on  it  has been observed  that  cats which are not grass consumer will eat grass when they are ill 

I believe that the type food can help too much, but the presesent food we are eating, especially the junk food, have a bad effect on the healthcare of people. 

There are "good" and "bad" medicine! A good balanced diet is a good basis for a good health. As for herbal  medicine, I should note here that some decades ago, in mountain villages (in Greece and elsewhere) herbal medicine and popular medicine ware the only possibility for them. Today we have a division "food supplements" and "formal medicine". Finally in order to evaluate the whole issue we should have:

1. A treatment of popular medicine

2. Data and research for "food supplements"

3. A treatment and data of present day involvement of pharmaceutical industries in invent medicines for non-existed  illnesses.

Then we may have a clear picture, and decide what is truth and what are just "profits"   

Dear friends, it's our LIFESTYLE with many duties and responsibilities during weekdays, that caused us to resort to buying food.  Only yesterday, I ate something wrong and was unwell, but I still worked overtime.  So our lifestyle created these unhealthy diet practices.  But when I find time, I cook and prepare herbal soups to re-hydrate the body.  

• Look… and Breathe
• Serve
• Chew
• Swallow… and Repeat

Pausing before our meals, we practice mindfulness. We take a minute to recognize what’s good for us because we don’t want to make war in our bodies and minds by the way we eat.

http://www.dailyom.com/library/000/000/000000810.html

Dear Dr Nizar, I agree that switching from drugs to food is what we all must do. Here are healthy foods that I like.

Thanks @Umachandran, however busy we all must chew so that the food is tiny, and presents a large surface area exposed and can be easily acted upon by digestive enzymes.

“If you do not mix saliva in every morsel of your food, you are eating poison.” We gulp our food. It is totally unconscious. We break up the food with the teeth and swallow. The problem is that digestion begins in the mouth. Your saliva breaks down starch into simple sugar. Poison becomes nectar by simply eating small bites, chewing consciously, mixing your saliva and tasting the sweetness.'

https://www.3ho.org/3ho-lifestyle/yogic-diet/conscious-eating-guidelines

Some nice quotes on the topic

Processed, fast food, ans packed food have reduced the original taste and medicinal value of the food. Young generation is used to it and so, loosing health parameters.