Start With Food To Get Healthy

In delving deep into Functional Medicine, I have learned that there are five areas that you need to address to get healthy. These steps are a must and all are quite important in the process of getting healthy.  These five areas are important for everyone, again for us here at Rx Health and Wellness we help women over forty and women who suffer from chronic diseases get healthy.

These five areas are also important when trying to improve or reverse chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, PCOS, dementia, and cardiovascular disease. We look to improve cardiometabolic syndrome, reduce risk, improve and in many cases reverse chronic disease.

The Five areas are:

  1. Good Nutrition
  2. Exercise or movement
  3. Reduction of stress
  4. A good night’s sleep
  5. Meaningful social interactions

Start with Food – Move away from the Standard American Diet (SAD) toward a Whole Foods diet; vegetables and fruits (organic when possible), non-GMO, humanely raised meats (if desired), gluten-free grains and seeds

Movement – Moving within the means of what the body can handle for where a person is – both physically and mentally – at that time.

Stress Reduction – Change how a person sees and manages stress because chronic stress is a precursor to disease

Good Sleep  – Sleeping soundly, waking up fully rested and refreshed, and feeling awake throughout the day is crucial to vibrant health. Our bodies go into healing and repair mode while we are sleeping

Meaningful Social Interaction – Adults need to have fun! Engage in activities that don’t involve electronics or are mind numbing, but bring people together. Peer support and being part of a group of women going through the same challenges to improve their health.

While we need to address all five areas, it can be overwhelming to start addressing or changing all five things. Our recommendation, again based on Functional medicine’s recommendations, is to start with food.

Start With Good Nutrition

Food is medicine, by using the principles of functional medicine we can use food to improve and reverse disease.

What about exercise? You can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet. How many times have you seen an athlete at the top of their profession who suddenly dies? 

Nutrition is energy, medicine, without good nutrition you will not be able to reverse chronic disease and you will not be able to get healthy.

The New field of nutrigenomics, the science of how molecules in food interact with our genes to support or interfere with our health. Nutrition, beyond simply being a mechanism for conveying calories, food is a source of special ingredients that can prevent and treat disease and transform your health. These are called phytonutrients – special plant chemicals that are not calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, but special molecules that interact with your biology, special molecules that act like switches on your DNA to heal your body.

Scientists are rapidly discovering new molecules, the phytonutrients, in food that have medicinal properties and enhance health through improving the function of genes and metabolism.  Many older cultures like the Chinese, and many others have been using food as medicine for centuries.

Food as Information

Food contains information that speaks to our genes, not just calories for energy. We are learning from research in the field of nutrigenomics, that good “talks” to our DNA switching on or off genes that lead to health or disease. What you eat programs your body with messages of health or illness.

Think Color

The vast array of colors in vegetables represent over 25,000 chemicals that are beneficial. There is evidence that interaction between the colors provides additional benefits, so it’s important to have a diverse diet and eat different foods.

Fruits and vegetables are historically and biologically important. Our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, ate over 800 varieties of plant foods.

Each color represents a different family of healing compounds. Though we have selectively bred the colors we eat into very narrow ranges in nature, vegetables come in a painter’s palette of color. There are red carrots in India, we eat orange ones. There are 150 varieties of sweet peas, but only a few are available to us. We need to make an extra effort to eat many different foods to get the full range of benefits.  Remember to eat the rainbow!

Red Group

(tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon)

These contain the carotenoid lycopene, which helps rid the body of free radicals that damage genes. Lycopene seems to protect against prostate cancer as well as heart and lung disease. Processed juices contain a lot of the beneficial ingredients. One glass of tomato juice gives you 50 percent of the recommended lycopene.

Yellow/Green Group

(spinach greens, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, yellow corn, green peas, avocado, honeydew melon)

These are sources of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. These are believed to reduce the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Lutein is a yellow-green substance that concentrates in the back of your eye. It may also reduce atherosclerosis.

Orange Group

(carrots, mangos, apricots, cantaloupes, pumpkin, acorn squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes)

These contain alpha carotene, which protects against cancer. They also contain beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A. It protects the skin against free-radical damage and helps repair damaged DNA. Beta-carotene is also good for night vision. It’s important to note that these beneficial nutrients can be received from other foods, too. For instance, vitamins found in dairy products and meat. But it’s not as beneficial because you get high calories and fat along with it.

Orange/Yellow Group

(pineapple, orange juice, oranges, tangerines, peaches, papayas, nectarines)

These contain beta cryptothanxin, which helps cells in the body communicate and may help prevent heart disease. In addition, a single orange contains 170 percent of the recommended daily vitamin C. It’s interesting to note that the skin of an orange is high in a protective fat that has been found to kill cancer cells in humans and animals, which highlights the fact that two-thirds of all drugs come from the plant world.

Red/Purple Group

(beets, eggplant, purple grapes, red wine, grape juice, prunes, cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, red apples)

These are loaded with powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins believed to protect against heart disease by preventing blood clots. They may also delay the aging of cells in the body. There is some evidence they may help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Green Group

(broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese cabbage or bok choy, kale)

These contain the chemicals sulforaphane and isocyanate and they also contain indoles, all of which help ward off cancer by inhibiting carcinogens. It’s a fact that ten percent of the population doesn’t like broccoli. But it is important in diets because of the beneficial chemicals it contains.

White/Green Group

(leeks, scallions, garlic, onions, celery, pears, white wine, endive, chives)

The onion family contains allicin, which has anti-tumor properties. Other foods in this group contain antioxidant flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol.

Gut Healing Foods

The Microbiome

The microbiome, the magical kingdom of microbes living in you, may be the most important organ in your body. Bacteria in your microbiome outnumber your own cells 10 to 1, and bacterial genes outnumber your own genes 100 to 1.

An unhealthy microbiome can lead to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, autoimmunity, dementia, allergies, asthma, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, skin disorders like acne, asthma, eczema and psoriasis, not to mention all the digestive disorders including irritable bowel, reflux or colitis. A healthy gut microbiome can help heal those conditions.

We know that the right gut bugs and the right food help keep your gut barrier lining intact while the wrong bugs and foods break it down.


How do you feed the good bugs? They munch down on the fibers in our food. These are called prebiotics. Certain foods have high levels including, artichokes, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes,
plantains, seaweed and more. Any fiber rich foods help keep the garden healthy. This means
vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and beans.


Probiotics rich foods also help support a healthy gut. Traditional fermented foods
such as sauerkraut, pickles, tempeh, miso, natto and kimchi.


Some of the exciting discoveries around the microbiome involve the role of polyphenols, the
colorful phytonutrients found in plants. The good critters love them, feed on them and in turn,
those bugs protect us. For example, one such bug, Akkermansia, loves cranberry, pomegranate and green tea. When it is in abundance, it creates a protective layer in the gut preventing a leaky gut, autoimmune disease, and even heart disease and diabetes. Food is the most important regulator of your microbiome.

Use the Power of Anti-inflammatory Foods


While there are many ways food can trigger inflammation, food is also the most powerful source
of anti-inflammatory compounds. Many of those 25,000 + phytochemicals are powerful anti-inflammatories. The polyphenols in plant foods are among nature’s best inflammation-fighting
compounds. Where is the best place to find these compounds? At the end of the rainbow — a
rainbow of bright pigments and colors found in plant foods, red, green, yellow, orange, purple.

Extra virgin olive oil contains oleocanthal, for example, which activates the same anti-inflammatory receptors as ibuprofen without all the side effects.

Spices are anti-inflammatory powerhouses, including turmeric, ginger, and rosemary. Meat cooked with spices neutralizes potential inflammation. Omega 3 fats found in wild foods, fish, seafood, and some nuts and seeds are also powerful anti-inflammatories.

Mushrooms including Shitake, Maitake, Reishi, Chaga, Turkey tail, and Cordyceps contain powerful immune regulating and anti-cancer compounds called polysaccharides. And foods rich in vitamins and minerals boost immunity and reduce inflammation, including vitamin C, zinc, selenium, and vitamin D. Vitamin D alone regulates hundreds of genes that affect inflammation and immunity.

There are so much more we could talk about such as food and immune system, food and sex hormones, food and detoxification; you get the jest of it, There is so much food can do for us, start eating purposely to improve your health.



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