Food as Medicine that Helps Your Body to Get Heal

Everyone in their life has gone through home remedies. Home remedies have been used for centuries to treat certain ailments such as colds, upset stomachaches, and toothache. And even nowadays people tend to use these remedies to cure some common ailments. But it is advisable that no matter how bad the situation is, always consider consulting with your doctor as there are certain home remedies that are not safe or effective.

What you choose to eat has a very direct effect on your overall health. Therefore, consuming certain foods without knowing the ailment properly can be dangerous.

Food as a medicine or not?

When you are recovering from an illness or from any medical condition, one of the major factors that directly affect your recovery process is food as well as beverages that you consume. Consuming food has two binary resultants, that will either help you in your recovery process or can hinder your recovery process.

Foods such as fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and other protein sources are very important as they provide certain nutrients that are important for the body. Another reason is that they depict the tendency to reduce inflammation, improve immune function and promote healing. Eating whole and nutritious foods is necessary to fulfill the nutritional requirement and reduce the chances of having nutritional deficiencies. Although your body only needs small amounts of vitamins and minerals that are vital for your health. One should know that some dietary choices can either prevent or increase your disease risk, not all diseases can be prevented or treated through diet alone.

Some of these foods are used as remedies to treat certain medical problems. Or the best way to state it is that; food that you need to consume to maintain good effective health recovery. Some of them are mentioned below:

Leafy Green vegetables – vegetables like spinach, arugula, mustard greens, etc. all are packed with several nutrients that decrease:

• Inflammation
• Immune function
• Wound healing capabilities

Therefore, spinach can be used as a perfect recovery food to enhance the recovery process of any individual. Leafy green vegetables are also high in vitamin C, manganese, magnesium, folate, and provitamin A. They are also rich in polyphenol antioxidants that have powerful anti-inflammatory and immune-supportive properties. Thus, people tend to consume leafy green vegetables when they are going through any kind of recovery.

• Eggs – if somebody has gone through the surgical process their body’s protein demand increases significantly. As your body needs protein to function properly. Moreover, it will help with muscle development as well. The current Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) Of 0.36 grams per pound (0.8 grams per kg) of body weight. Eggs are not simply providing you with protein, in fact, they are also providing the nutrients that are important and help maintain immune health as well as wound healing. Eggs contain vitamin A and Vitamin B12. Both Vitamins A and B12 with other important nutrients like zinc, iron, and selenium are important for immune health.

• Salmon – salmon is another food that many people consume normally as well as when they go through with any kind of inflammation in their bodies. Salmon is a good source of several important nutrients that include protein, vitamin B, selenium, iron, zinc, and omega-3 fats. Omega -3 fats are very prominent in wound healing, enhancing the immune response and reduction in inflammation when taken in supplement form. 3 ounces (85 grams) of wild-caught salmon delivers over 70% of your daily needs for selenium, a mineral that regulates inflammation and immune response.

• Berries – berries are helpful in promoting your body’s recovery. They have nutritional compounds such as vitamin C and anthocyanins (antioxidants). As you know, vitamin C promotes wound healing by stimulating the production of collagen. Antioxidants such as anthocyanins are helpful in problems such as inflammation, and viral and support immune function.

• Nuts and Seeds – nuts like almonds, pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds, all of these provide plant-based protein, healthy fats, and vitamins and minerals that support healing.

• Poultry – poultry foods refer to chicken and turkey. Both chicken and turkey, pack glutamine and arginine. Glutamine and Arginine are two amino acids that may aid recovery and healing. Glutamine helps in protecting the cell by providing cellular protection during times of stress, such as illness and injury. Whereas arginine helps collagen production and wound healing.

• Cruciferous vegetables – vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and kale are coming under the category of cruciferous vegetables. They provide remarkable support to the recovery process. As these vegetables are enriched with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These vegetables have glucosinolates. Glucosinolates are compounds that your body converts into isothiocyanates. These compounds have been shown to promote immune health by activating immune defenses, reducing inflammation, and inducing death in infected cells.

There are certain home remedies as well that can help, and they are backed by science as well. Some of them are listed below;

• Using turmeric – turmeric is beneficial as it helps in reducing pain and inflammation.

• Using chili peppers – Consuming chili peppers for pain and soreness as it contains capsaicin that helps in reducing pain.

• Using ginger – Consuming ginger for nausea or cold is quite common. But you can also consume it if you have pain as it contains certain nutrients and antioxidants that help in reducing the pain.

• Using eucalyptus – you can consume eucalyptus as it has a component known as 1,8-cineole. The component helps in relieving pain.

• Using lavender – you can consume lavender as it can help in Migraine attacks, headaches, anxiety, and a general feeling of distress. Drinking lavender tea or keeping a satchel around for times of high stress is one way to reduce anxiety and relax the mind and body.

• Using mint – mint is beneficial as it can help with muscle pain as well as also help with digestion. Apart from digestion, it can also help with stomach trouble, headaches, colds, and other body discomforts.

Using fenugreek – fenugreek is important, it helps in milk production when consumed with milk. If you are having diarrhea consuming it can help in firm up stools.

Other ways by which you can help your body to get healed

In addition to having a nutritional diet, you also need to consider other important factors that promote and help in healing as well as recovering. The Factors such as.

• Sleep
• Rest
• Proper hydration
• Avoiding Tobacco products such as cigarettes and alcohol

All these factors play a vital role when you consider your body’s recovery process. You need to have proper sleep as well as proper rest. Apart from this drinking water and electrolytes are important to maintain hydration of the body. And you need to avoid cigarettes and alcohol as these can delay the recovery process.

Conclusion

Food does much more than just act as fuel for the body. The right food can promote health as well as if it is taken in the wrong way can worsen it. A nutrient-dense diet of whole foods has been shown to prevent many chronic diseases and may help treat some conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. Therefore, having a nutritious diet is important as it promotes health and enables us to have a long healthy life. Remember one thing, do not simply depend upon food, for certain medical issues you need to have medicine. Therefore, do not replace medicine with food. Have a proper consultation with doctors and follow the prescription.