Rediscovering Remedies
Did you know that sweet potatoes, spinach and cashews all help fight depression? Have you heard that dark leafy greens and grass-fed meat can reduce your migraine symptoms? And apples, cranberries, celery and onions can heal the inflammation in your stomach caused by acid reflux? Before foods were fortified with nutrients, we ate spinach, black beans and asparagus for folate to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Although it probably wasn’t a conscious effort. The required nutrients were already in our diet, we didn’t have to make an extended effort to find 100% of our daily requirements.
While we do need to be careful of the health affects we make claims to, it is no secret that the remedies to many of our most common maladies can be found in nutrition. It also shouldn’t be a surprise that our ancestors didn’t suffer from many of the same illnesses that modern society experiences either. The top four causes of death at the turn of the century were infancy death, death from childbirth, death from infections, and death from accidents.
Today, the leading causes of death are heart disease and cancer. Clearly, something has changed.
If you think people didn’t live as long 150 years ago as they do today, that is not exactly correct either. The average life expectancy figure is greatly skewed due to infant mortality rates. In the year 1907, the rate was nearly 10%. Today it is closer to 0.07%. Back then, many people lived long into their 80’s and 90’s despite their diet loaded in fats.
We focus so much on the quick cure for our ailments, that we forget all about the cause. At the root of our modern health crisis is our modern diet and desire for a quick fix. All of this fueled by million dollar marketing campaigns. The numbers are staggering! Unfortunately, family farms can’t compete. Mainstream America has come to trust infomercials instead of trusting their instincts to feel better by eating better. Eating real food, simple food and overpowering illness with nutrition and living a long healthy life.
Crunching on kale,
