Imagine a doctor pulling out a prescription pad and writing you a list of foods to eat, not just a list of medicines to take.

Welcome to the world of culinary medicine, an emerging evidence-based field of medicine that promotes eating high-quality foods to prevent and treat disease and improve well-being.

“But I don’t want to take medication!” Kathy’s doctor had recommended a statin to lower her cholesterol. “Let me see what I can do by changing my diet. I am 71 and want to be healthy. I don’t want to have a heart attack or spend the last 10 years of my life in a nursing home like my mother-in-law.”

Kathy started reading How Not to Die by Michael Greger, M.D. This motivated her to stop eating ice cream, cookies, and pizza. She cut back on sugar, salt, oil, and processed foods. She started reading labels. But the ice-cream kept calling. Kathy prayed for help to fight the cravings and change her mindset.

“Now my husband’s cookies and ice-cream don’t tempt me anymore,” Kathy says. “God gave me a new mindset.”

Kathy filled up on pinto beans, black beans, brown rice, oats, and lots of vegetables and fruits. Over a three-month period, she lost 15 pounds. “I am eating a lot of food, but my weight kept dropping. Now I can wear jeans that I haven’t been able to wear for five years. Plus, I feel better.”

Kathy’s cholesterol dropped 32 points in two months. Her doctor said, “Your results are markedly better. Keep up what you are doing.”

Kathy is just one of the many people who have discovered that when they change their food choices, they change their health.

The hard-to-swallow facts

Consider this information about the impact of food and lifestyle choices:

• An unhealthy diet is the most significant risk factor associated with the major causes of death in the United States.
• Lifestyle-related diseases are now the leading cause of death in the overfed and undernourished modernized world.
• “What people eat can be medicine or poison,” says Brenda Rea, M.D., a physician in leadership at the preventative medicine and lifestyle residency program at Loma Linda University School of Medicine.

Food as medicine

We’re digging our graves with our forks. So, what can we do to set things right? Eat more whole-plant foods, which contain superior medicinal, therapeutic, and healing properties. In other words, “Let food be your medicine.” While some attribute this saying to Hippocrates, researcher Diana Cardenas calls it the Hippocratic misquotation, because she could not trace it back to his writings. No matter where the saying originated, the concept still provides a timeless remedy for the plague of lifestyle diseases.

Plant foods have the power to nourish

Certain essential nutrients necessary for the cellular function must come from food. Our bodies depend on us to eat quality foods that provide vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Nutrient-dense plant foods contain disease-fighting antioxidants and phytochemicals that synergistically build and repair our body and strengthen the defense against disease.

Fiber, found only in plants, plays a vital role in health and immunity against pathogens. Research led by Hana Kahleova, M.D., demonstrated that a whole-food plant-based diet promotes a more diverse and stable ecosystem of beneficial gut bacteria than an omnivorous diet. Polyphenols, also abundant in plants, provide anti-inflammatory effects and cardiovascular protection.

Processed foods and synthetic supplements do not provide the same nourishing power on the cells. Whole-plant foods do the best to nourish and enable the path to health through our forks.

Plant foods have the power to prevent

Compared with a typical Western diet with high amounts of animal products, a healthy, plant-based diet has been associated with a lower risk of chronic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. Antioxidant rich vegetables, fruits, and other plant foods protect cells from disease-causing damage. The anti-inflammatory properties of a whole-food, plant-based diet result in less chronic disease, including heart disease, arthritis, and even acne.

Plant foods have the power to heal

Cardiovascular disease is the leading global cause of death. A plant-based diet is the only dietary pattern to show a reversal of heart disease.

“The most effective diet for weight loss appears to be the only diet shown to reverse heart disease in the majority of patients,” says Michael Greger, M.D. “Plant-based diets have also been found to help treat, arrest, and reverse other leading chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.”

A prime example is Diabetes Undone, a science-backed program by Wes Youngberg, DrPH and dietician Brenda Davis. It helps people reverse type 2 diabetes through a low-fat, plant-based, whole foods diet without giving up carbs o good taste.

Plant foods have the power to delight

Think of the simple pleasures of peak-season produce–a ripe peach, so juicy that you have to eat it over the sink, the burst of flavor from a garden tomato, or the crispy-crunchy sweetness of a carrot pulled out of the garden.

God created a beautiful variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds for our enjoyment as well as our nourishment. Imagine how different life would be if He had designed u to consume a nuclear nugget once a month for our sustenance instead of eating food.

Wholesome plant foods prepared in simple, attractive, and tasty ways make the best-tasting medicine.

So what’s for dinner?

Minimally processed, simply prepared whole-plant foods possess superpowers–the power to nourish, prevent, heal, and delight. Food cannot always replace medicine. The power of plant foods works best in combination with other healthy lifestyle habits, such as exercising, drinking water, and getting adequate sleep. In most instances, diet and lifestyle changes offer benefits without side effects.

“Health has more to do with choice than chance,” says Wes Youngberg, DrPH, “The simple choices you make each day will soon begin turning your good genes on and your bad genes off.” Every bite of food either fights disease or feeds it. You have the power to choose with every bite.

Written by Heather Reseck, RDN/originally published in Vibrant Life magazine, 2021