An article posted in the Billings Gazette caught my eye today; The title is: Naturopathic Medicine: Can food be your medicine? For those of you who follow my facebook page, know that about a month ago I was invited to speak at the FUMC of Birmingham on food as medicine. It remains one of my favorite talks to date because I had the opportunity to share the fundamentals of health & wellness with avid health individuals. What struck me as most interesting was that a topic that seemed mundane & straightforward actually turned into a very high energy Q & A session. I was asked all kinds of questions:

**Food as medicine: Naturopathic medicine foundations at Troy Naturopathic**

What is your opinion on soy? yay or nay?
How do you feel about dairy?
What are your thoughts on hot yoga 5 days a week?
What are you thoughts on the gluten-free diet?
Do you recommend any supplements that everyone should take for good health?
Do you recommend yearly detox?

I quickly realized that there is much about food that remains a topic of controversy or ambiguous because of the plethora of misinformation available on the internet. And more importantly, I realized, that people are confused! It is unfortunate that those who actually take the time to understand their health better end up getting the 'run around' with misinformation. The questions are not complicated so why aren't the answers easy to find? I think as a society we over-dissect topics and as a result miss seeing the bigger picture.

Now I'd like to switch gears and to discuss how something as simple as food can have such a PROFOUND impact on our health. I met someone this week during a lunch meeting who frankly told me that the advice I give patients is a lot of common sense. I didn't disagree. Many of the changes I recommend to patients are simple and 'common sense.' However, many people don't even have these simple suggestions on their radar because they aren't aware of the impact or power of food as medicine.

Did you know that you can treat blood pressure with food? Did you know consuming the right foods can aid in reversing coronary artery disease? Did you know that you can reverse adult onset diabetes with dietary & lifestyle changes?

Once you know what your body needs, food can certainly be your only needed medicine! Woah, I know. It is such a powerful idea. The idea that you don't need pills (pharmaceutical or supplemental) is probably a difficult concept to swallow for most Americans because we live in a culture of 'quick fixes.' We want that headache that started fifteen minutes ago to dissipate in an instant without looking at the cause of that headache. But what if we looked at that headache, high blood pressure or high blood sugar as signal from our body that nutritionally something is out of balance & then used food as one tool to help correct it?

Food as medicine. Just so cool.

Be Radiant,

~Dr. Dimpi