Can Food really Cure diseases?

The fact that food is life can not be over emphasized. Many even go as far as to say every man becomes what they eat. To be honest, food is a major component of healthy living, the building block of body immunity and the source of supply of life sustenance.

The importance of food however does not cover the use as drug! It is now a common thing to see people list out set of foods that can cure ailment. Some go as far as to list a combination of food as the cure for a particular disease or even go as far as say it contains some minerals or chemical constituents that prevents a disease. This most times are unfounded myths that leads many astray and have caused the death of many.

It is true that lack of some essential food components can lead to some nutrition deficiency diseases such as scurvy and kwarshiokor. However, this does not indicate that the foods can be used as drugs in these cases. It is important to note that you may be asked to eat balanced diet to get back on track but in cases of severe diet, intervention by drug use is usually advised. This is why some of these nutrients have been isolated into drugs and are used to treat such illness. You have heard of multivitamins, vitamin B complex, Vitamin C and a lot of such essential nutrients which are already isolated in drugs for use.

Many patients do not like to take drugs, especially for chronic illness such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension. Many get tired of taking drugs daily and also because of side effects these drugs may have on them. So they will gladly take an alternative of a food source or combination of food that they are told contains “compounds” that can heal their disease. This is why many are spreading the food idea of cure as it is most convenient and quick way out for the patients to try their luck with something different. Without argument that some foods might have compounds that help do better in a disease, let us assume this to be true, what are still the dangers of taking the foods as drugs

1. Many patients will abandon the drugs prescribed to them, drugs that have been proved scientifically to be the cure or source of management of their illness and embrace the unsure food remedy prescribed to them with unsure outcomes. This usually leads to deterioration of the ailment or in bad cases death of the patient. The untested method of use of a food product as cure is a big risk that should be avoided by patients to avoid “gory” outcomes.

2. The food may not contain the useful compound being portrayed in quantities enough to cure the disease. The reason for dosage in drugs is to ensure that the right quantity that can combat the disease is taken. In cases of food, where constituents differ across breed, location, handling and processing, it is unsure of the quantity of the compound in any lot (if it exist at all) and if the quantity is enough to fight the disease in question.

3. Body absorption of nutrients from food is not automatic as many make it seem. Sometimes, the body fails to absorb particular nutrients from the body even when they are available in the food. An example is the case of Soybean that contain anti-nutritive factors which inhibits the absorption of some protein which the soybean is to supply to the body. Another case is the poor absorption of calcium in elderly people leading to osteoporosis at old age. This is a strong basis why you shouldn’t prescribe food to any patient as drug as the presence of the compound in the food is not enough to say it will be absorbed and used by the body.

In all, it is more professional to allow patients seek medical help from qualified people in managing their ailment than to prescribe a combination of food or a source of food as cure. It is important to also know that as important as food is, it can not take the place of drugs. This piece has nothing to do with traditional medicine, it is talking basically about food sources being used as cure for ailment.

If a food contains a compound that is useful to curb some ailment, let the compound be isolated and used as necessary, that is the professional practice. If you keep sharing information of how foods will help cure a disease, then you may be contributing to the death of people or to deterioration of their well being.