Back in 2697 B.C., a Chinese medical text described a strange disease that left its victims suffering from depression, fatigue, constipation, a numbness or tingling sensations in the legs. Severe cases of the disease, now called beriberi, produced heart difficulties, high blood pressure, muscle wasting, and other serious problems. Some forty-five hundred years passed before a very simple cure for beriberi was discovered.

Another unusual disease, this one striking in Spain, Italy, and later spreading to other parts of the world. This disease, dubbed pellagra, caused the "4Ds": dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and eventually death. When pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the southeastern United States, a U.S. government doctor was sent to investigate. He discovered an inexpensive cure that had no side effects.

Beriberi is caused by a lack of thiamin (vitamin B₁). And pellagra results from a deficiency of the B-vitamin called niacin. Both of these serious diseases are prevented or cured by the relatively small amounts of thiamin or niacin found in common foods. And they are not the only ailments associated with the lack of vitamins, minerals, or other substances found in food: Memory difficulties, depression, weak bones, poor wound healing, nerve damage, acne, anemia, gallstones, cracked lips, cataracts, birth defects, numbness of the feet, nausea, anorexia, bleeding gums, easy bruisability, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood pressure, and even cancer have all been linked to a lack of vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, carbohydrates, water, fiber, or any of the hundreds of phytochemicals in foods.

That's the bad news. The good news is that food supply us whit hundreds of known and an untold number of yet-to-be-identified substances that act as natural medicines, preventing or relieving numerous ailments.

Good food, fresh, natural, integral, has always been, is, and will always be our "first choice" medicine. It is often appropriate for any kind of infirmity.

Para obtener mayor información acerca de cómo los alimentos nos protegen de la enfermedad, y nos ayudan a recuperar, conservar y mejorar la salud, te recomiendo leer mi libro

COMA MEJOR Y AHORRE, de la colección VIVA MÁS Y MEJOR,