Foods that are true medicines.

Some of the most powerful medicines on the planet are disguised as foods and spices. While they cannot be patented— multi-billion dollar human clinical trials are rarely funded to prove them effective—they have been used since time immemorial to both nourish our bodies and prevent and treat diseases. So valuable were they in ancient times that they were worth their weight in gold, and entire civilizations either rose to great power or collapsed as a result of their relationship with them.

What is even more surprising is that many of them are found growing in our backyards, and often overlooked in our refrigerators and spice racks or unappreciated. In fact, many of us use them daily, unaware that this is why we don't get sick as often as those who don't incorporate them into their diet. Let's look at some examples...

With the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria, spices have regained their once universal reign in combating broad-spectrum infections, sometimes saving lives. Garlic, in fact, has several hundred therapeutic properties confirmed by a growing body of scientific research, which you can find at GreenMedInfo.com (i). Last year, a peer-reviewed article was published in a scientific journal showing that garlic was able to inhibit a wide range of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis strains (ii). The authors concluded: “The use of garlic against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) may be of significant public health importance.” Garlic's anti-infective properties do not end with MDR-TB, as it has also been shown to inhibit the following pathogens:

Bees produce a wide range of therapeutic substances in addition to honey, e.g., propolis, royal jelly, wax, pollen, etc., but honey is the best known and most consumed of all. But did you know that this sweet treat is one of nature's most powerful healing agents? Here is just a handful of some of its health benefits and/or applications, according to science:

An apple a day, in fact, keeps the doctor away, and it seems, cancer specialists in particular. For example, one of the most well-established health benefits of consuming apples is reducing the risk of colorectal cancer. The more apples you consume, the lower the chance of developing the potentially fatal disease. To see the 5 studies that reference this association, visit the apple research page at GreenmedInfo.com where you will also find 50 other health benefits of apples or their by-products (e.g., apple cider vinegar) that include:

This may surprise some of you, but sunlight possesses energy and information with metabolic value and is therefore a usable energy source for the body – thus, in a very real sense, it can be considered a form of food that we consume through our skin via melanin-based “solar panels”. Not only does adequate sunlight exposure result in the production of vitamin D, a hormone-like substance that regulates over 2,000 genes in the human body – and, as a result, prevents or improves hundreds of health conditions associated with its deficiency – but it also has a unique set of health benefits. One of the most interesting studies conducted on sun exposure, based on data collected from over 100 countries and published earlier this year in the journal Anticancer Research, showed that there was “a strong inverse correlation with solar UVB for 15 types of cancer”, with a weaker, though still significant, correlation for 9 other types of cancer. Here are some additional benefits of sunlight exposure: Alzheimer's Disease

Possibly the most important herb in the world. Named “Kanchani”, or literally “God of Gold”, in ancient Indian healing tradition, its healing properties were deeply appreciated, if not revered, for countless centuries. Turmeric (and its most important polyphenol, curcumin) has been scientifically documented to have over 500 applications in the prevention and treatment of diseases. It has also been shown to modulate over 150 distinct biological and genetic/epigenetic pathways, demonstrating a complexity as well as a gentleness that no drug on the planet has ever shown to possess. Since there are many health conditions that turmeric can benefit, we are listing only the top 10, according to the amount of evidence (number of studies) and the quality of the evidence. In addition, the number in parentheses denotes the number of studies in the GreenMedInfo database that demonstrate the beneficial association.

References: http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/5-food-medicine-quite-possibly-save-life/

This content is part of Clínica Revitalize's commitment to translating science into accessible clinical practice — without losing rigor or depth.