| Nutritional therapy is a system of healing based on the belief
that food provides the medicine we need to remain in a state
of health. Food is our medicine and our medicine is our food.
Many conditions can be relieved effectively with nutritional
therapy, (although some health problems require specific medication
be it botanicals, supplements or pharmaceuticals). These include
disorders ranging from chronic fatigue, energy loss, insomnia
and depression, to backache, skin complaints, asthma, and headaches.
If you have specific health challenges they can be address
at a level you feel most comfortable with.
If you have no specific illness, and want to maintain a state
of your optimum health, nutritional therapy will be of benefit.
The typically prescribed change toward more wholesome foods
or eating patterns is safe for children as well as adults,
and is a reasonable way to proceed toward wellbeing.
In our modern culture, the pressure of daily life, deadlines,
immediacy, eating on the run, denies us the experience, the
purpose, and the role of food. Indeed even the quality of
food becomes secondary. Eventually it denies us our very lifestyle.
Nutritional therapy is a holistic discipline. As the key
to good health, nutrition is the fundamental encompassing
principle to help people of all ages to stay at their personal
peak of energy and vitality. Research is continually exposing
a lot more specific bio-nutrient information that staves off
negative effects of aging and disease. Integrative Medicine
puts the focus on people to reconnect with their own intuitive
knowledge and to take responsibility for choices that fit
their own values, by learning food and supplement recommendations
that support optimal health they make those decisions, and
then experiencing how they feel returns decisive power back
to the individual for health, for wellbeing, for life.
Some of the foundation concepts of the nutritional therapy
approach: 1. Mindful eating savoring, enjoying and focusing
on what is being eaten.
2. Only foods known to have healing benefits or essential
nutrients are included.
3. Plant foods create the base and may be accented by animal
foods.
4. Seasonal variety of color, balance, nutrient diversity
and attention to portion size.
5. Choosing foods that support a healthful environment (e.g.
knowing whats in our food and where it comes from) an education
in learning what is essential. Acknowledgement is given to
Patricia Quinn MD for her insight and discussions on nutritional
therapy. |
