Using Food as Medicine

Last summer I received 3 separate invitations to attend a talk given by Stephen Devries, MD. Dr. Devries specializes in preventative cardiology and in his role as Executive Director at the Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology promotes education to healthcare professionals on the critical role of nutrition used in combination with the best in conventional heart medicine.

As a general rule I pay attention whenever I receive 3 messages about the same subject. So upon receiving the last invitation I took some time to read about him and I signed up for the conference immediately.

His work really resonated with me for 15 years earlier I had spent quite a bit of time studying the impact of nutrition on human development.  My interest stemmed from the fact that my 3 year old son wasn’t hitting his developmental milestones and I was searching for natural interventions.  After reading an interesting book called “Why Can’t My Child Behave?” I eliminated all food dyes from his diet.  From that simple experiment I saw an immediate improvement in his behavior, such as reduced levels of implusivity, and embraced the concept of using food as a first line intervention.

With this insight, Dr. Devries’ research on the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet as an important step towards a heart healthy life made sense to me.  I found his talk so inspiring that we decided to devote the entire month of February to creating a recipes to support his research.

Here, Dr Devries explains how he came to bridge the gap between nutrition and conventional medicine…

“My interest in nutrition was piqued early in my cardiology career. Although we were doing a great job helping people with critical heart emergencies, our success appeared all too often to be short-lived. The problem was that many patients returned with repeat crises-often requiring multiple procedures and operations. I soon realized that much more was needed, and began to explore the role of nutrition.

Lack of attention to nutrition is one of the most glaring missed opportunities in medicine. We now have a wealth of research to support the critical role of nutrition in heart health. Such facts include:

* More than 70% of heart problems can be avoided with adoption of a Mediterranean style diet

* Key ingredients are vegetables and fruit (especially dark green vegetables like spinach and kale and brightly colored fruit)

* Whole grains rather than refined

* More fish / less red meat

* Nuts

* Olive Oil

Creative combinations of these delicious ingredients-cooked and savored slowly in the company of family and friends-is one of the best heart medicines I know. “

 We hope you enjoy your tour of the Mediterranean!

This is a wonderful cookbook gifted to me by Jane’s friend Katie. Ripe by Cheryl Sternman Rule, photography by Paulette Phlipot is a colorful foray into fruit and vegetables.

Zen Moment

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
― Hippocrates