Foods that heal
Excerpt from The Daniel Plan

What is food? Nourishment?
A source of energy or calories? A delightful pleasure?
Yes, it can be all of those things. But as a doctor who has dedicated his career to studying how food affects the body and contributes to or prevents disease, Dr. Hyman has a slightly different take on food: Food is medicine.
Food has the power to heal us. It is the most potent tool we have to help prevent and treat many of our chronic diseases — including diabetes and obesity. Truly, what you put on your fork dictates
whether you are sick or well, slim or fat, depleted or energized.

How does food do all this? Through the groundbreaking science known as nutrigenomics. The molecules in your food do much more than provide fuel for your body. They provide instructions that tell every cell in your body what to do every moment. More than 95 percent of chronic illness is not
related to your genes, but to what those genes are exposed to in your lifetime. We call that the exposome.
The exposome is the sum of everything you eat, breathe, drink, think, and feel, plus the toxins in our environment and even the 100 trillion bacteria that live inside your gut. This is good news because it means that you have almost complete control over your health. And the most important thing you do
every single day to interact with your genes is eat.

So the next time you put something on your fork, imagine what your genes might feel. Would they like that extra large soda or cheesy corn chips, or would they prefer some sweet blueberries or sautéed broccoli with garlic and olive oil?
Food is medicine. It is the most powerful tool we have to combat chronic disease.

We want to teach you how to treat your body with respect and kindness. We will teach you what foods to choose to nourish yourself and which ones to avoid. Most of all, we will show you how to create a nurturing, peaceful relationship with food and cooking that will automatically lead to weight
loss, radiant health, and an overall sense of well-being.

The Scriptures teach us how to live and love fully. But somehow we skip over the parts that instruct us to honor the vessel of the Holy Spirit, our body. Being in a food coma from eating sugar and junk food, having your brain chemistry hijacked by hyper-processed, hyper-palatable, hyper-
addictive foods prevents you from fully inhabiting your body and your mind. If the food you are eating is making you sick and unfocused and makes you so sluggish that if you happen to get the urge to exercise you instead lie down until it goes away, living a fully engaged and God-honoring life is difficult.

Real food has the power to give you your life back and more fully engage in the purpose for yourlife. The reason to do it is not to fit in your jeans or look good in a dress, but to be awake to the beauty and miracle of life, to be able to live with purpose, to love, serve, connect, and celebrate the gifts God has given you.

If you nourish your body with high-quality ingredients from real food, not only will you increase your energy, lose weight, and reverse many chronic illnesses, but you will also feel lighter and more motivated to exercise, your mood will lift, and your brain will have better clarity, allowing you to clear out the debris in the way of your relationships with others and God.

So what do we mean by “real” food? Anything that is whole, fresh, and unprocessed. Stuff that your great-grandmother would recognize as food. A chicken, a vegetable, a bean, a nut, a grain, a fruit, an egg. Everything else is fake food that depletes energy and health. Real food heals. Real food
nourishes.

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”
— James Beard

The good news is that the list of real food is short, easy to understand, and easy to identify. Unfortunately, though, many of us are not well acquainted with real food. We have outsourced our cooking to the food industry for packaged, processed, and prepared convenience foods and to fast-
food restaurants and convenience stores. But there is nothing convenient about feeling disconnected, sluggish, slothful, foggy, or depressed or having the diseases you get and medications you have to take when you fuel up with “convenient food.”

Let’s debunk one myth up front. We have been led to believe that eating well is expensive and that cooking your own food takes too much time. The facts are quite different. The research shows that you can eat well and in less time for less money than buying processed foods. With a few simple tricks,
you can shop well, cook simply, and eat better for less in the same time it takes to hit a fast-food drive-through window and eat your meal. More importantly, real food tastes better and is more nourishing and satisfying. It can even eliminate your cravings.