Food Is Your Medicine- It cures or kills

GUEST COLUMN: Dr. Prabhudev

Bengaluru Express
Bengaluru, March 17: Nutrition, when done right, can create more health than all the pills and procedures combined”
You are what you eat! Eat with heart in mind! Don’t forget to take the Brain with you!
So, Doc, what should I eat? A simple question many people ask themselves often. In medicine, it is one of the most common questions and yet many of us shy away from talking about nutrition!
Food is medicine” is not just a trendy catchphrase; it is a paradigm shift that emphasizes the role of nutrition in maintaining health and preventing disease. “Food is medicine” is not just about eating better; it is about fostering a holistic approach to nourish the body and the soul!
Start with exercise – keeps calories in balance and weight in check!
Focus on quality of food and not on grams and calories
Go with plant based diet, vegetables, whole fruits- go for colours every meal every day!
Cut on Red meat, refined grains, sugary drinks, salty snacks, whole grains, lean meat and fish
Take Supplements!-vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids,
Wake up and have a glass of water, then have a protein punch – eat two egg whites every single morning! Coffee is gut friendly!
We’re wildly under-eating fibre and it’s very dangerous,
Cauliflower rice with lentils because it’s a protein and fibre mix, specifically plant protein, add some yogurt and some leafy salad and vegetables.
Food kills! It causes
• 45% of all heart diseases
• 30–35% of all cancers
• 45% of all strokes,
• 45% of deaths due to diabetes.
• Keeping salt intake to less than 3to 4 g per day – could prevent 1.7 million deaths each year!
• The food we eat is putting 11 million of us into an early grave each year – study from Lancet! Our daily diet is a bigger killer than smoking and is now involved in one in five deaths around the world.
• Obesity Kills 5 million people annually
• What we eat is killing one in five around the world!
• Not enough vegetables and not enough fruit: Deaths: 1.52 million and 2.36 million
• Too much salt – three million deaths
• Too few whole grains – five million deaths
• Too little fruit – two million deaths
• Low levels of – nuts, seeds, vegetables and omega-3 and fibre are the other major killers.

What does food do?
Food provides calories- Plays critical role in controlling inflammation levels, Balances blood sugar levels, Regulates cardiovascular health, and Regulates blood cholesterol, Regulates Blood pressure Regulates processing of and elimination of waste!
• Nutrient deficiencies and toxicity from a poor diet are linked to nearly all modern health conditions.
• 80 percent of cancer patients are believed to be malnourished
• Balancing Hormones – abnormal hormonal changes contribute to accelerated aging, diabetes, obesity, fatigue, depression, low mental capacity, reproductive problems and an array of autoimmune diseases
• Allergies, autoimmune disorders
The current burden of malnutrition globally is 22% stunted growth, 8% wasted children, 6% obese children! Mal nutrition costs the world $3.5 trillion per year!
Nutrition is a word often spoken but very little understood. Nutrition is the biological process by which food creates, maintains and restores health. Disease rates generally increase with the consumption of more animal-based and refined, processed foods and less whole plant-based foods. These high-risk diets are higher in calories, in salt, fat, and refined carbohydrates and lower in antioxidants and complex carbohydrates.
Food is our medicine. More is poison!
Food is the most basic form of medicine. Food provides nutrients that boost your immune system’s ability to fight infection and disease. It can heal, nourish and energize your body. But it can also be your worst enemy. Certain foods cause many health problems, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease and even cancer. Obesity is one of the most common diseases in the world today. It’s estimated that over 30% of adults are obese.
Eating a healthy diet is a cornerstone of treating and preventing heart disease, strokes and even cancer. That’s easy to understand, but sometimes hard to implement. There’s no one-size-fits-all eating plan that will work for everyone.
What is a healthy diet?
• Healthy diet is the Diet that maintains health!
• Protects against malnutrition in all its forms!
• Helps prevent non-communicable diseases – NCDs including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
• Energy intake (calories) should be in balance with energy expenditure.
• A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy
Balance your calorie intake with physical activity. Eating better is exercising more!
Let’s face it… there’s conflicting information everywhere you turn, along with an endless stream of overblown claims. And the science is constantly evolving. Every week it seems like there’s a new fad diet whether you want to lose weight, tame inflammation, prevent heart attack, stroke, or cognitive decline, or just get healthier. It’s almost impossible to know what is right!
A Rainbow diet! More colour the better! Vegetables are packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and cell-protecting antioxidants. Not only that, they pack in the fibre which helps stabilize blood sugars, keeps you feeling full longer after eating, and supports healthy digestion. Aim to eat a variety of different colours of fruits and vegetables throughout the week to benefit from all the different nutrients found in each colour!
Include Protein at Every Meal, Every day!
Protein helps us build muscle, supports metabolism, and slows the rise of blood sugars when eaten with a meal. You need 1gram of protein per kg body weight!
When you eat, its vegetable, when you are sick, it’s medicine.
“Medicine 3.0,” which focuses on proactive, personalized, and technology-driven care. This new model emphasizes early detection and prevention, creating investment opportunities in innovations like AI, genomics, and wearables to improve patient outcomes.