Why Natural Foods Are A Good Substitute For Drugs

Because most drugs that go onto market are designed to mimic naturally occurring substances in the first place.  It’s the drug industry’s largest source of medicinal compounds.

From the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists:

Scrutiny of medical indications by source of compounds has demonstrated that natural products and related drugs are used to treat 87% of all categorized human diseases (48/55), including as antibacterial, anticancer, anticoagulant, antiparasitic, and immunosuppressant agents, among others.

The article is wonkish, but worth reading. The starting point for most drug discovery is to take a naturally occurring compound that has an observed effect, and then recreate it in a lab.

If that’s true, then a logical starting point for many people is to look at natural food sources as a means to improve their ailments.

I mentioned in my article about Green Tea Catechins that their chemical structure  is often used as the backbone of many drugs that treat Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, because catechins produce biochemical effects in the body that you’d want in a drug that treats dementia.

You don’t have to be anti-science to have the opinion that many conditions can be treated (or at least greatly improved) with lifestyle improvements. Most evidence supports the opposite conclusion. In my biochemistry classes in university one of my professors loved the saying “Mother Nature knows her Chemistry.” He was right. She knows it really well.

I don’t believe that there aren’t any situations where taking medications is the best course of action, but for a lot of people, it makes sense to begin your course of recovery by analyzing the food you put in your mouth.