Food is medicine.

From B.J.:

A few months ago I was surprised to hear one of our herbalist mentors turn an unfamiliar phrase. He said, "If I choose to use a peach," meaning if he were to eat a peach. Certainly everything we eat is going through the exact same pathways that medicine would if we took it, and sometimes comes to more benefit. I do not know whether he was trying deliberately to demonstrate the concept or if he just thinks (and therefore speaks) that way, but since he said it, I've been thinking more along those lines.
The funny thing is, every single medicine comes from somewhere, but only pharmacists seem to be very familiar with this. Aspirin? It contains salicylic acid, which used to be extracted from Willow bark to cure headaches. You can still take a willow bark decoction to cure a headache. Capsaicin, a popular metabolism booster, comes straight out of chili peppers (the hotter the pepper, the more capsaicin, generally). Yes, you can get the same benefits from just eating the pepper, but most people don't want to.
And therein lies the rub. Most people don't want to decoct willow bark or eat a hot pepper, but they do want the benefits of having done it. So we pay other people to make it as convenient as it can be. And I don't begrudge anyone that choice--I take medicine as often as I have to--but there are some things you can do just by choosing to "use" the right foods right from the start.
For example, I have unusually healthy nails. This comes to my embarassment more than I'd like to admit. There was a fellow in one of my college classes a few months back who said, "You wearin' clear nail polish?" I said, "No, I just have really healthy nails. I'm mostly vegetarian, so I eat a lot of vegetables." He began to tell me about the human need for protein and that I probably should have at least some meat. I told him I get plenty of protein and that while it might not be enough by some standards, "here I am with healthy nails." It was a weird experience, but it reinforced my belief in natural health.
Hair, skin, and nails benefit very much from the Vitamin A found in orangey foods like carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes. Dark. leafy green vegetables like Spinach, Romaine, Green Leaf Lettuce, Chard and Kale also make a big difference, if you know how to eat them. And that's been part of our journey, but on the way we've learned a lot of things. One of them is juicing. We started this one recently, but it's a really easy way to get your vitamins A & C:


REALLY Orange Orange Juice


Juice one or two carrots with five or six oranges. Or you can just use orange juice and blend the carrot in.

We like to use a VitaMix blender to make juice because you get to keep the pulp. This is exactly what turns some people off to the idea, but we like fiber. :)

*****Just two important add-ons by the gabby wife-
You can get all the protein you need without meat(I must say, HamakerLove enjoys meat in moderation), you just need to be smart about it. For instance, a whole grain and legume together make a protein, like rice and peas.

Also, while Aspirin, and many other synthetic drugs on the market, originated from natural sources, like willow bark, they do not contain those things anymore. They are made from similar synthetic, man-made sources that our bodies do not recognize as food, and therefore do not process the same. So if there is something in them that your body does not need, it may not get rid of it through the body's elimination processes(bowels, etc), it will deposit itself in various places in your body. This can be dangerous, and hard on your system. Which is why we should be very careful what goes into our bodies always. :)