When sickness strikes, it is often because we haven’t fulfilled our body’s basic nutritional needs. While there are general guidelines for basic nutrition, specific foods can play a role in preventing disease or curing it. While traditional cultures had specific insights about foods and herbs that could treat illnesses, it wasn’t until recent decades that scientific understanding of body chemistry was sufficient to understand that the intricate biochemistry of natural foods provide complimentary effects that are more potent than the individual components of those foods. Many foods have synergistic healing effects due to the presence of different vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, fiber and more. Using this insight, functional medicine doctors, nutritionists and others have joined with Chinese medicine doctors and others in using food to help the body return to normal functioning and prevent disease. Besides avoiding illness through eating well, various botanicals and even animal products can provide immediate support to help the body deal with various diseases, such as vitamin C-rich foods for colds, vitamin A-rich foods for measles, zinc for age-related macular degeneration, and so on. While supplements can provide isolated vitamins and minerals, foods are a far superior source in most instances.
