Some of the most powerful medicines on the planet are masquerading as foods and spices. While they do not lend themselves to being patented, nor will multi-billion dollar human clinical trials ever be funded to prove them efficacious, they have been used since time immemorial to both nourish our bodies and to prevent and treat disease.
1. Garlic
With the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria and the failure of the conventional, drug-based model to develop effective solutions against them (nor accepting responsibility for creating them), spices have regained their once universal reign as broad-spectrum infection-fighters with sometimes life-saving power. Garlic, in fact, has several hundred therapeutic properties.- Amoeba entamoeba histolytica (parasite)
- Cholera
- Clostridium
- Cytomegalovirus
- Dermatophytoses (a type of topical fungal infection)
- Haemophilus influenzae
- Helicobacter pylori
- Herpes simplex virus Type 1
- Herpes simplex virus Type 2
- Klebsiella
- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus A. (MRSA)
- Parainfluenza virus
- Peridontal infection
- Pneumococcal infections
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Streptococcus mutans
- Streptococcus infections: Group A
- Streptococcus infections: Group B
- Streptococcus pyrogenes
- Thrush (oral fungal infection)
2. Honey
Bees produce a wide range of therapeutic substances beyond honey, for example, propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, beeswax, bee pollen, and the like, but this sweet, sticky stuff that we all love to dip our paw into occasionally, is the most well-known and most copiously consumed of them all—and for good reason, it tastes great. But did you know that this sweet treat is one of nature’s most powerful healing agents, as well?- Aspirin-induced gastrointestinal toxicity (honey coats the delicate linings of the stomach, preventing aspirin-induced lesions and bleeding)
- Bacterial infections
- Burns
- Candida infection (despite the fact that honey contains sugar, it demonstrates anti-fungal properties)
- Conjunctivitis
- Dental plaque (a recent study showed that Manuka honey was a viable alternative to chemical mouthwash in dissolving dental plaque)
- Dermatitis
- Diabetic Ulcer
- Herpes-related ulcers
- MRSA (especially for Manuka honey)
3. Apples
An apple a day does in fact keep the doctor away, especially cancer specialists, it would seem. For instance, one of the most well-established health benefits of consuming apples is to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. The more apples you consume, the less likely you are to develop this potentially fatal disease.
4. Sunlight
This one may throw some of you off, but sunlight possesses both energy and information with real, metabolic value and is, therefore, a source of usable energy for the body—and so, in a very real sense it can be considered a form of food that we consume through our skin by way of its built in, melanin-based “solar panels.”Not only does adequate sunlight exposure result in the production of vitamin D, a hormone-like substance that regulates over 2,000 genes in the human body—and as a result, prevents or ameliorates hundreds of vitamin D deficiency-associated health conditions—but sunlight exposure itself has a unique set of health benefits not reducible to simply vitamin D production alone.
One of the more interesting studies performed on sunlight exposure, based on data gathered from over 100 countries and published earlier this year in the journal Anticancer Research, showed that there was “a strong inverse correlations with solar UVB for 15 types of cancer,” with weaker, though still significant evidence for the protective role of sunlight in nine other cancers.
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Depression
- Dopamine deficiency
- Dermatitis
- Influenza
- Multiple sclerosis
- Psoriasis
5. Turmeric
This is quite possibly the world’s most important herb. Named “Kanchani,” or literally “Golden Goddess,” in the ancient Indian healing tradition, its healing properties have been deeply appreciated, if not revered for countless centuries.Turmeric has been scientifically documented to have over 500 applications in disease prevention and treatment. It also has been shown to modulate over 150 distinct biological and genetic or epigenetic pathways of value in health, demonstrating a complexity as well as gentleness that no drug on the planet has ever been shown to possess.
- Oxidative stress
- Inflammation
- DNA damage
- Lipid peroxidation
- Colorectal cancer
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Chemically induced liver damage
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Tumors
