“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, proclaimed a simple and yet profound idea that food could be used as a tool by the healer and that the wrong foods could make us ill. We have lost sight of the power or nutrition.

Weight loss is only the beginning. Realizing that obesity and overweight are symptoms of more serious chronic metabolic disease, it becomes clear that we are addressing much more than just behavior and appearance.  Our focus is the treatment and prevention of chronic metabolic disease and inflammation, the root cause for the many chronic diseases we see today in modern society.

Having been a family physician now for over 20 years I have personally seen how modern Western diet, what many call the standard American diet, affects our health. We are reassured by the USDA and the commodity food producers that the food we eat is safe and free of acute toxins. But the more challenging question relates to the long term effects on health and wellness as it relates to our food including the macro and micro nutrient content, quality, processing and refining.

The debate about food and health has raged on, but over the past 30 years we have seen a dramatic change in the nutrition guidelines and the foods that we consume. Unfortunately, during this same time period we have seen an alarming rise in the development of chronic diseases. Conditions such as overweight, obesity, type II diabetes, HTN, hyperlipidemia, heat attack, stroke, arthritis, dementia, premature ageing and cancer are just some of the many chronic diseases we treat. I must admit that business is booming and yet find it frustrating that there appears to be no end in sight.

More to come…