Nutritional healing

Nutritional Healing is balancing the needs of the human body through the use of nutrient-rich foods and dietary supplements. It offers the belief that nutrition plays an important function in virtually every medical condition such as allergies, anxiety, high cholesterol, diabetes, and many more. A nutritious diet is essential to having good health and vitality. Many people forget that food provides the building blocks that allow the body to function. Nutritional healing employs wholesome food and supplements to encourage the body's natural healing by boosting the immune system, detoxifying the body, restoring digestion, and/or correcting vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Nutritional healing is also a complementary medicine, which means it can be used alongside with conventional medicine. Nutritional healing is the oldest form of medicine. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food [.".] He believed in the natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air, and cleanliness.

Healing with Whole Foods

Nature produces a variety of foods that are perfectly compatible with the human body. Whole foods are natural foods that are produced from nature that have not been processed or refined. These foods consist of organic fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, sea vegetables, fresh fish, poultry and meats. The best way to eat these foods is consuming them in their natural forms, without processing them. A whole food diet is much richer in nutrients than packaged and processed food. The Standard American Diet consist of highly processed meats that have hormones injected in them. Also, most fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides. The diet is responsible for our society's growing numbers of cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and many other diseases. A century ago, our meals were prepared from fresh whole foods. People took the time to prepare their food and enjoyed the intrinsic flavors and aromas.

Healing with Nutritional Supplements

Nutritional Supplements work by supplying nutrients that are missing from a person's diet. Some nutritional supplements include vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and amino acids. Vitamins are an organic substance that is essential for life. Most vitamins cannot be synthesized in the body so they must be obtained from a nutritous diet or supplements. Minerals are inorganic substances that are important for proper functioning of vitamins, enzymes, hormones, and other metabolic activities in the body. Most minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium are important for bone health. Omega-6 fatty acids are considered essential fatty acids (EFAs), which means that they are essential to human health but cannot be made in the body. For this reason they must be obtained in food. Omega-6 fatty acids can be found in supplemental oils such as olive oil, flaxseed oil and fish oil. Omega-3 fatty acids are another important group of essential fatty acids. Together, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development. They are generally necessary for stimulating skin and hair growth, maintaining bone health, regulating metabolism, and maintaining reproductive capability. [University of Maryland Medical Center. Omega 6- fatty Acids. Copyright 2008. http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-6-000317.htm ]

Conclusion

The human body has the wonderful ability to heal itself if provided with right circumstances. In other words, if you provide your body with wholesome foods for a long period of time, you will remain disease free. The only problem with nutritional healing is that it may take a long time to heal. Although some improvement may be seen within weeks, it may take a couple of years to restore full health. It all comes down to how dedicated a person is about their own health. Some people experience side effects while taking nutritional supplements. Please be sure to check with your doctor if you are thinking about taking any nutritional supplements because what works for one person, may not work for another. Also, be sure to inform your doctor if you are on medication because some supplements may cause some interactions or side effects.

External links

The Basis of Nutritional Healing/Why it's effective,When it's effective. Ed. Eric Armstrong.Copyright 1999. [http://www.treelight.com/health/healing/NutritionalHealing.html]

References

1. "Hippocrates." SJSU.edu 1996. San Jose University Virtual Museum 1 April 2008 .

2. University of Maryland Medical Center. Omega 6-Fatty Acids. Copyright 2008. http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-6-000317.htm

M.D., Balch, F. James, and Mark Stengler, N.D. Prescription for Natural Cures. Hoboken, New Jersey, Copyright 2004 by Balch enterprises.

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