Can Food be Our Medicine?

The Father of Western Medicine, Hippocrates of Kos, a Greek physician of the age of Pericles thought so when he advised us to "let food be thy medicine and let medicine by thy food"!

JoBarie D. Townsend of Chesapeake, Virginia recently put Hippocrates' concept of food being medicine to the test while continuing to follow his doctor's orders as he experienced an amazing recovery process from a life altering medical diagnosis.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. My intention is that we can learn from your journey.

LLB: Please tell us about your life changing event.

JDT: I had been self-diagnosing myself according to what I thought I may have had and my treatment plan wasn't getting the results I needed. I was getting sicker and my pain was increasing so finally I couldn't take the discomfort any longer and went to the emergency room for a professional diagnosis. I learned I had kidney cancer! Immediately, I began thinking all sort of thoughts as I went over my lifestyle trying to figure out how could this be! I'm healthy, happy, have a beautiful wife, and a young son why would life deal me a hand like this! 

LLB: How did this make you feel?

JDT: My emotions went into shock! I wanted to cry, but couldn't find the tears I needed at that moment to release. Then, I thought this has to be a nightmare, because it definitely wasn't my life! I was telling myself to just wake up everything is going to be okay until the doctors began talking to me snapping me out of my daydream of being in a nightmare and I realized this was happening in real time! This was my life!

Then silently I started asking God the usual questions of "why me"? On one of the occasions of me asking God "why me" He allowed me to see a small child about 4 years old suffering from a critical medical condition and on another occasion I saw a little boy about 8 years old happily pushing his brother in a wheelchair, but not a temporary wheelchair this was they type of wheelchair that this child would be in for the rest of his life!

LLB: So seeing those young children dealing with their diagnosis caused you to perceive your diagnosis from a different perspective?

JDT: Yeah it did. I felt like God was saying to me "then who? if not you"! It was like, I heard God say to me "do you realize what those children's parents would sacrifice for them to enjoy 32 healthy years that you have enjoyed" and suddenly I got it! I had to immediately change my perspective in order to improve my life! I wasn't comparing my life to those children's young lives, but the contentment of their young faces taught me to be thankful for the time I've had on this earth. Now I tell everyone make sure you are who you think you are by making sure you do all that you can to be healthy and happy and to remain healthy and happy and by all means be grateful!

LLB: Explain to us how you have used food as your medicine:

JDT: When I was home recovering from having my kidney removed I began to watch documentaries, I got some wise words on the topic from my mom, my friend Simon and his wife Daneika. They all spoke about the connection between food, cancer, and overall health or the lack thereof. I converted my beliefs on how the types of foods we eat can make a difference in our lives and can determine our state of health; literally! I began eliminating certain foods and increasing certain foods, drinking water, juicing, eating vegetables, and trimming fat from meats and poultry. 

LLB: Do you view life differently now?

JDT: Knowledge is key and I am armed with a better base knowledge of what certain foods can and will do for me. I don't always make the best food choices, but I am aware and I have self talks to keep myself on a proper, healthy food path, because the foods we eat will usher in illness or health!

(Before Surgery)

(After Surgery)

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