What actually is food? Should it only provide what we need for daily life, or should it be more?
Hildegard von Bingen said over 900 years ago that food should be your cure.
A healthy person also maintains their health through their diet.
All bodily functions, control mechanisms and even the nervous system must be supplied and maintained by what we eat. It is therefore fundamentally about much more than just consuming daily energy. Nutrition is the maintenance and preservation of health. Understood in this way, every food becomes a remedy. Because every food has certain ingredients, not just vitamins, trace elements, carbohydrates, fats and proteins, but also active substances whose function has a significant impact on our health.
But what is the content of our food today? Is there enough to really fulfill this maintenance function / healing function?
Example Grapefruit
The glycoside naringin is a substance that occurs naturally in grapefruit. In the first 90 years, it was discovered that this active ingredient can prolong and enhance the effect of heart medications such as statins via the liver metabolism. A process of education about the risks and possible dangers of the interaction in patients began. Naringin, together with another highly effective secondary active ingredient, bergamottin, is responsible for the bitter taste of grapefruit. In addition, these active ingredients also lower blood lipids and therefore have a positive effect on humans. In South America, grapefruit is a widespread fruit. Nothing could be more obvious than to think that the people there have fewer problems with blood lipids. Those who keep a grapefruit tree in their garden and give it little care have fruit with a high content of both active ingredients. Grapefruits from the plantation, on the other hand, tend to have low concentrations. This is due on the one hand to the choice of variety and on the other to the growing conditions. The plantations must produce fruit in quantity, which can mean the use of strong agrochemicals. The plant reacts to this by reducing all secondary active ingredients. The grapefruit is still a tasty fruit, but instead of its natural secondary active ingredients, it contains an abundance of agrochemical residues (fungicides, pesticides, insecticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc.). Unfortunately, the latter substances do not have the same effect as the secondary active ingredients in plants.
Conclusion – if we want to positively influence our blood lipid balance by eating a simple grapefruit, we can only do so if we eat grapefruits that have been grown without agrochemicals.
ORGANIC CERTIFICATES DO NOT GUARANTEE ACTIVE INGREDIENT CONTENT
What applies to grapefruit is just as valid for any other crop. Even organic certification does not protect against the absence of these secondary active ingredients. We have permanently reduced the quality of our food through agrochemicals and in some cases even ruined it. It is also astonishing that we judge food according to criteria that in no way take secondary active ingredients into account. Even trace elements are not taken into account. We are used to taking note of the nutritional values in kcal in the form of carbohydrates, fats and proteins on the label. Ultimately, these are only energy values that cover our daily requirements. We have reduced food to a fuel and completely neglected its essential function. It should maintain our health in all aspects. Ultimately, a person remains healthy if they get all the substances they need.
SECONDARY ACTIVE INGREDIENTS CANNOT BE ADDED ARTIFICIALLY
In the last thirty years, biochemistry has understood that these secondary active ingredients are indispensable for humans. The problem is that they cannot be supplied artificially. Fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, cereals and pulses contain these substances if they are cultivated in a way that allows them to be formed.
WHAT IS THE DIET OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES?
They are often called hunters and gatherers. That is correct in itself. However, the presumed excessive consumption of meat is not
as excessive as people think. Moreover, despite the allegedly high meat consumption, the health of these people is not burdened with the same diseases as ours. There are hardly any cardiovascular, liver or intestinal diseases. The woman
ensure an abundant supply of secondary active substances in the form of herbs, wild fruit, wild vegetables, mushrooms etc. through their gathering activities. Studies have shown that the consumption of secondary active ingredients is many times higher among indigenous peoples than among us modern people. If it weren’t for homicide and accidents, the life expectancy of some peoples would be on a par with ours. So who lives healthier?
NUTRITION OF MODERN MAN
Ultimately a very meagre diet from a health point of view. The question is, why hasn’t science looked into this more thoroughly? Well, it has, but what is not commercially viable is not desirable. That is the bitter reality. So it is not surprising that even professors at universities are dismissed when they prove that our food is harmful. The case of Prof. Arpad Pusztai in England, for example, who proved that genetically modified potatoes damaged the immune system in rats and altered organ growth, even causing tumors, and was dismissed for this, is just one example of many. These findings do not reach the general public. If they did, there would be a radical rethink. Who in their right mind would eat food that is absolutely certain to harm them?
The question now is, what should we eat and what about its quality?
There are many theories. Is there a right way to eat? No.
Hildegard von Bingen
DISTINCTION BETWEEN SICK AND HEALTHY
But there is another interesting fact, namely that more than 900 years ago Hildegard von Bingen
made a clear statement about this. She began to differentiate between what a healthy person should eat and what they can tolerate and what a sick person should avoid in any case and what they should eat. She saw all foods as remedies and used them selectively. A sick person gets better faster if he eats more of certain foods and avoids others. Before her, no one in the Western tradition had such a clear idea of how to use food in a cause-related way. This view of things places the health of the person at the center, everything else is secondary.
Let’s take a closer look at this statement. The distinction between a sick person and a healthy person is
fundamental. Let’s take a general look at the suggested diet for a sick person. The sick person should avoid everything that can harm him. His organism is in a state of weakness, so he should only eat what heals him. This begins with the consumption of spelt in all its forms. Other grains are permitted to a limited extent, but none of them come close to spelt. Why? Well, it is a grain that has hardly been hybridized for thousands of years. It has been able to retain its original characteristics. It is interesting to note that spelt does not concentrate all its ingredients in the husk, but also in its endosperm. Which is a rarity in itself. Most cereals contain all their beneficial substances in the husk. This is why they are called whole grains, because this is the only way to obtain all the active ingredients. This is not the case with spelt, hence the preference for it. Pulses are a source of protein. Soy is seen as the Asian woman’s fountain of youth. What few people know is that in the West we have some legumes that are just as good as soy and have not undergone any genetic manipulation. Chickpeas are equal, if not superior, to soy in all respects. Its isoflavone content is higher than that of soy, depending on where it is grown. Hildegard von Bingen describes it as very healthy. Unfortunately, it has only found its way into the kitchen in Mediterranean cultures. Very few people north of the Alps are familiar with it. It has been proven that women who ate a lot of chickpeas in their youth have significantly fewer hormonal complaints and a much lower risk of developing hormone-active tumors. Of course, other pulses are also recommended, but chickpeas are the most important. It provides a wide range of different secondary active ingredients.
The following is a list of all the recommended foods that are good for a healthy
that are good for a healthy person. The list does not claim to be
completeness. We have listed the foods that are common in Europe.
Depending on the continent, there is a wide range of foods that are also recommended.
are also recommended. We will continue to expand and complete this list over time.
complete it.
In fact, the following list and explanations for the foods that are not beneficial should be followed closely.
foods.