Good Food is Good Medicine

Sometimes there can be a disconnect between what people say and what they do when it comes to their health. This often shows up when ranchers say they are organic but will give cattle parasite medicines that kill dung beetles. For them, organic means they are not using pesticides to kill weeds. While other ranchers say they raise organic cattle but spray the fence line and pastures with weed killers.

My friend Bruce Deuley was visiting a gentleman who was growing certified organic produce for sale to retail stores. During the visit, the gentleman said they would need to leave the house while the exterminator sprayed for pest. Surprised, Bruce asked why, when organic pesticides typically do not have a label that requires reentry times. The gentleman said the in-house pesticides they were using were not organic. Disconnect.

I do my best to be as organic as possible. I sometimes fail for economic reasons, but I am learning that in the long run, it does not pay to fail. I might save a little money now by eating something non-organic and then have to pay more later on hospital and doctor bills.

Eating an organic apple instead of a conventionally raised apple has enormous health benefits. The same holds true for strawberries, spinach and nine other fruits and vegetables. The “Dirty Dozen” foods are plants found to be treated with more than one pesticide. Many of the pesticides found on conventionally grown foods are known to cause cancer or other diseases. Several of these pesticides are banned throughout the world but allowed in the U.S. You can read about the Dirty Dozen online.

But there is still a disconnect with the “Clean Fifteen.” These are plants that are generally exposed to fewer pesticides and toxins. The disconnect is that they are likely to have been treated with one or more pesticides that are “less toxic” but not organic pesticides. Despite being labeled “clean” the foods may still contain poisons. And they are often less nutritious.

What an animal eats in the pasture or feed lot directly impacts its health. Most feed lot grown animals have their livers condemned by meat inspectors. If the liver is not healthy, the animal is sick. Too many people who claim to eat healthy have fatty livers.

I belong to organizations that state that food should be grown organically. They oppose genetically modified organisms. I belong to the Native Plant Society of Texas where many members believe that only native plants should be installed in landscapes. Cultivars (plants that are crosses with natives) should not be planted as they are not “true natives.” I am affiliated with many environmental groups that state that nature should operate without pollutants and oppose pesticides, toxic chemicals, and environmental destruction. Some people from each of those groups completely agree with the other group’s positions. You could say these groups practice the “Care of Creation.”

But some of those same people will go to a conventional doctor and take any drug recommended without paying attention to what nature has done for eons to care for humans. Disconnect?

Chinese herbal medicine is over 4,000 years old; Ayurveda holistic medicine is 3,000+ years old. Native American medicine has been recorded for over 250 years. Some of the same plants (but of different species) are used for the same purposes now to help humans with their health. How did people so far apart in the world know to use those plants for the same illness?

Food is medicine. Good food is good medicine. Is your life deficient in a drug? Is your illness caused by a drug deficiency? Where is the disconnect? Humans don’t need to be controlled by drug companies from cradle to coffin. The same applies for chemicals to pastures, toxins to animals, and destruction of the home environment by advertising and marketing products that are known to cause long term illness.

Natural medicine has many solutions that make disease and illness fade away. This is evidence based science that anyone who wants to learn can easily access if you know where to look.

Unfortunately, many people disconnect their health from what they eat. Do we have a health care system that will care for them? If it were a health care system, wouldn’t there be fewer sick people? I can’t cure anyone, but perhaps I can plant the seed of thought that will put them on a course to real health. Think about it.

I am teaching classes at Blinn College on Natural Health Remedies beginning Sept. 25. I will address pain, heart disease, cancer and a whole lot more. Contact Lorraine Orellana at (979) 743-5237 for more information or look in this paper for free classes that I teach.

David E. Will is a local rancher and nutritional consultant. He can be reached at (830) 629-9876 or by email at dwill207@satx.rr.com.