Food is NOT Medicine
Food Is Not Medicine
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Food is medicine.” But according to Dr. Kevin Reese, that’s not true—and it’s actually misleading.
Food Is Nutrition
Food isn’t medicine—it’s nutrition. Nutrition is the raw material your body uses to build, repair, and sustain itself. Medicine is meant to be temporary, something that helps you get over a short-term hurdle. Food, on the other hand, is long-term. It’s what makes up your body every single day.
If you’re taking medicine for more than six weeks, you’re heading in the wrong direction. Medicine isn’t supposed to be forever. It’s supposed to help you get over a hump—like using Sudafed for the flu or ginger tea with lemon for a sore throat. Once you recover, you stop.
Nourishment or Punishment
Food has only two options: it either nourishes you or punishes you. That’s why Dr. Reese emphasizes the importance of the 90 essential nutrients your body needs daily. To properly absorb them, you must avoid what he calls the Poor Four Foods:
Gluten
Bottled oils
Fried foods
Fake foods
These items block nutrition, create deficiencies, and set the stage for disease.
The Backward Medical Model
Most primary care doctors aren’t trained in nutrition. Instead of addressing deficiencies, they prescribe drugs that don’t fix the root problem. If you’re low in magnesium, chromium, copper, or essential fatty acids, the answer isn’t medicine—it’s replenishing those nutrients.
Eat Well, Feel Well
When people say “food is medicine,” what they really mean is this: food can make you or break you. Eat poorly and you’ll feel poorly. Eat well and you’ll feel well. But that’s not medicine—that’s nutrition.