I’ve been a food medicine maker for quite some time now, but it never dawned on me until I started this new therapy to share what that entails.
While I think that all of us who are mindful, health conscious food preparers and eaters are truly food medicine makers, it takes on a whole new meaning when you are prepping and eating food to heal serious illness versus maintain good health.
Food medicine is eating in a way that fully supports the need(s) of our body in order to function properly, thrive and maintain optimal health. When you eat based on what your body needs rather than on what you want to have for purposes of pleasure alone, eating takes on its intended purpose…to sustain our body and give it the energy needed to perform properly.
However, food medicine takes on a whole new role when you are sick. Once your body has reached a state of dis-ease it is no longer functioning properly. In many cases, one part of the body will work to compensate for another in effort to keep functioning. At some point, however, the whole system begins to break down and serious illness manifests.
This is where I am at today: with dis-ease of serious magnitude. Food medicine, at this stage, becomes an intricate dance of nourishing the body in such a way that it can repair, rebuild and heal. So while a general food medicine maker will typically make three sound meal choices to fuel their body on a daily basis, a wellness warrior takes food medicine all throughout the day. You can liken it to taking pills from the allopathic world. Your prescription may read: take two pills, three times a day, for two weeks. To comply with the instructions you know that every eight hours for the next fourteen days you need to take two pills.
In my world right now every hour on the hour (for fifteen hours a day) I have food medicine to take (using very specific types of food and food based supplements). This is what a day in the life of a healing food medicine maker looks like:
□ 7am coffee enema (yep, you read that right)
□ 8am Breakfast – 8oz fresh pressed orange juice, oatmeal (made a certain way), specific supplements
□ 9:00am Green juice and specific supplements
□ 10:00am Carrot Apple juice, specific supplements and coffee enema
□ 11:00am Carrot juice and specific supplements
□ 12:00pm Green juice and specific supplements
□ 1pm Lunch – Carrot Apple juice, ½ potato, 8oz Hippocrates soup, fresh fruits & veggies, specific supplements
□ 2:00pm Green juice, specific supplements and coffee enema
□ 3:00pm Carrot juice
□ 4:00pm Carrot juice and specific supplements
□ 5:00pm Carrot Apple juice and specific supplements
□ 6pm Dinner – Green juice, ½ potato, 8oz Hippocrates soup, fresh fruits & veggies, specific supplements
□ 7:00pm Carrot Apple juice, specific supplements and coffee enema
□ 10pm coffee enema
It’s an INTENSE (full-time at the office of healing) therapy. Each item of food, with its unique nutritional properties, plays an important (and very specific) role . When we follow our body’s very precise blueprint the natural forces within us can heal us, which is exactly what I am aiming for!
I’m still adjusting to life on this new therapy. All I can say is it’s a good thing I am a Type A Virgo ’cause never have my OCD tendencies been more useful [lol]!
Oh, that reminds me of a little Pinterest humor I saw this week!
Does anyone else have CDO? 
In the next coming posts I’ll share recipes, the rationale behind the food medicine, and yes I will get to the bottom (pun intended) of coffee enemas!
’till next time…
All love,
Treesa
I guess I do have a touch of CDO, hahaha. Wow your schedule is grueling. You’re not kidding when you say you are a food medicine maker. I just know it is going to serve you well. It has to.
Thank you for the vote of confidence, Samantha, it means a lot to me! It seems there are quite a few of us in the CDO club. At least we keep good company!
I think of you often and continue to wish you well Treesa. Looking forward to learning more about the coffee enemas…really? Did I just say that? =)
Thank you. I think of you too, Denise, and look forward to visiting you in your neck of the woods. The video you shot for me last year is still fresh in my mind and I look forward to hiking with you there!
I promise not to reveal anything other than information about coffee enemas. You’ll no doubt want to give it a go!
HaHa, yep you said it!
Treesa, you amaze and inspire me. Heidi and I are pulling for you. Even though we’ve never met face to face you feel like a little sister to me. You are couragous and so likin smart! I know you can do this.
BTW (1): Heidi is the one with CDO around here. She’s just informed me that I should catch it, but I think I’ll leave it to you two.
BTW(2): Bri says, “wa (where) og (frog) [then throws hands up in the air - looking].” He does this multiple times a day now. Why did I ever show him [just kidding, sort of]!
You live up to your name, Cool Dad. Thanks for all of your encouragement, support and kind words!
Well, Heidi and I can just hang in the CDO club without ya then!
We got some more pics just for Bri, will pass them on soon!
Your are close to my heart and daily in my prayers. You are wise beyond your years. I wish I would have had half the mind you do when my Nil was sick. Fear takes the best of us sometimes. Stay the course however long. You have the strength and knowing to show us how its done. Your family must be proud. I am proud, if it’s ok to say it?
You’re so sweet, Rizena. I appreciate your kind words and loving support so very much.
Sounds like a load of faith based healing to me. Good luck with that.
If you understand biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology and nutrition than you know it is far from faith based. However, you’d never see me standing in the line to discount faith. People heal when they are on placebo’s just because they BELIEVE they are taking the ‘pill’ that will make them better. Faith in its own right is strong medicine, and most certainly has a prominent place in my life.
Our bodies don’t recognize broccoli from a fig. Your body doesn’t rejoice when you eat a fig saying, “yeah a fig!” It rejoices when it breaks down and uses the calcium, iron, B complex, et al., that is contained within the fig.
Food, when taken in a certain way, is only different from your chemically laden, man-made pill in that it is natural, organic and in a pure form that our bodies recognize and can more easily assimilate. Once the body breaks it down and assimilates it for use all that matters is what makes up a fig, not the fig itself.
All that said, I respond to your comment not in defense of my choice for healing as it is none of my business what anyone (other than those closest to me) thinks of me. I respond only to share a bit of food for thought. I hope that you, and or anyone reading this post and or my website in general, will take what is helpful and ‘compost’ the rest. I am sharing my life/my path not because it is easy, but because I might have something to offer that someone else is seeking. Sharing is caring…that’s just the way I roll.
I like your explanation of food medicine. You surely are dedicated to caring for your body and supporting its ability to heal. Your drive and knowledge will get you far. Look forward to seeing where it takes you!
Thank you, Mel. I appreciate your kind words of support!
You rock! I really would love to do this to see if it helps me. Seriously thinking about it! You inspire me!
You know who to come to for some love and support if you do, although you have my love and support regardless.
I just stumbled onto your website, I have a very sick daughter with an auto immune disorder and would love for her to get started on the Gerson Therapy but can’t afford the trip to Mexico and would prefer to do it from home. Question, do you have to take the juices in the manner described or can you say do all the apple/carrot one’s in the am and greens in the pm?
I too could not go to the clinic, so I’ve been doing it from home. I think the only exception they make in adjusting the juice schedule is if you absolutely have to leave the house for any extended period of time; if that is the case take carrot juice with you as it will last longer than the green. Other than that there is little room for leeway by Gerson standards. My guess is because with nutritional healing they are purposefully flooding the body with specific nutrients, at specific intervals throughout the day. To deviate may be ok to some extent, or for some time, but may compromise the program over the long-run. This, of course, is my understanding of the process and should only be taken as such. While it is an intense and percise therapy I too feel like perfection should not be the enemy of good. I am sure however you proceed on this nutritional healing therapy you will be doing a great deal of good for your daughter! I wish you all the best…
I too just stumbled across your blog.
When on the Gerson.org site, under ‘Get Started’ and scrolling to ‘Order Supplements’, they list B12 injections or oral. I’m guessing that this is because there is not meat on the program. Are you doing this? Do you do the injections or oral?
When can you start the dairy; as it is in alot of the dressings and salads.
I have a coffee sensitivity, so I am concerned about doing the enemas, have you heard of using teas instead?
I was prescribed B12 injections, but opted for the patches (from Healthy Habits) instead. I am happy with the results I am getting by using them. I have used oral in the past, but not all oral B12 supplements use methylcobalamin (the form best absorbed by the body).
I’ve opted out of dairy altogether as it creates inflammation in the body and there is plenty of research indicating it alone contributes to the creation of disease in the body. You can successfully get through the program without it. I think it is well over eight weeks into the program before it can (potentially, given your circumstances) be introduced. The Gerson guide-books outline the process for introduction of ‘other’ foods.
Also, their guide-book highlights options for using tea enemas. Keep in mind that the body uses coffee very differently when given as an enema as oppossed to taking orally. So while you may have a sensitivity drinking coffee, you may or may not have problems doing enema. Of course you know best and should proceed accordingly. Herbal enemas are an option, although it stimulates the body differently so you will not get the exact effect as you would using coffee. I highly recommend you get Healing the Gerson Way, if you don’t already have it. It lays out the process exactly.
Wishing you all the best on your healing journey.