Thy medicine

Julia ♦ October 11, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

Even in December (2005), this shop in rue Cler, Paris, had abundant healthy choices.

“Let food be thy medicine…” — Hippocrates

You really don’t want to get me started on this topic, so I’ll try to keep it relatively brief.  I think one of the best ways to keep our minds and bodies fit and healthy is to take care what we feed them.  This applies to thoughts and images, of course, which is why I started this blog.  But it also applies to food — and mental and physical health are inextricably linked.

I’m lucky that my mother taught me years ago not to believe everything I hear from the FDA about what is safe or healthy.  Some of what she was saying 30 years ago was scorned and laughed at (such as “margarine is worse for you than butter” and “refined carbohydrates are empty calories” and “artificial sweeteners are harmful”).  Now, of course, she has the last laugh, as do many of the nutritionists who were once dismissed as kooks.

Pharmaceuticals have their place, of course, but as Dr. Santos Rodriguez told me recently, “a great many diseases are basically the result of malnutrition.” As a remarkably fit physician in his 90’s, he has a lot of credibility in my book.  No matter what may ail your spirit or your body, a good diet can be the start of your journey toward wellness and peace of mind.

As winter approaches, I hope you will enjoy the benefit of fruits and vegetables, now available year round thanks to the advances in shipping that allow us to enjoy produce from other regions when we are unable to access food that is grown locally.  Years of experience have taught me that eating lots of fruit and vegetables in fall and winter translates to fewer colds and viruses.  If you’ve never tested this idea, give it a try this year.  Indulge in your favorites, even if they cost a bit more in the off-season.  It will be an investment in your health and enjoyment that will pay dividends!

This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.