Can food cure illness?

Porridge with walnuts and porridge

Bulgur wheat salad dinner

Luke's portion! Not mine! Healthy shepherds pie with mountain of veg.

At the moment I am really interested in nutrition and how different foods can affect different parts of the body. And how eating the right things can boost certain functions such as the immune system or heal conditions such as acne.

When you think of your daily diet how many portions of fruit and veg do you actually eat? And be honest? Like I have said before, even if you are on a budget you can still eat healthy. We are on a very tight budget at the moment and I still make sure we eat healthy all week long. It just takes time, preparation and a little imagination.

For example - my breakfast of porridge, walnuts and blueberries is broken down as follows:

Porridge Oats - Aldi - 75p lasts two weeks
Organic Honey - Sainsbury's - £2.99 lasts two to three weeks
Whole milk - not sure how to measure this or price it!
Walnut Halves - Asda - £1.60 lasts two weeks
Blueberries - Aldi - £1.60 lasts one week

If we work out the costs of this breakfast for two weeks (excluding the milk) it works out at £8.54 which sounds a lot I know but broken down daily  over the two weeks means a healthy, nutritious breakfast costs 61 pence a day!

Not only is the breakfast cost effective but here is the nutrient content:

Blueberries - Full of Vitamin C they benefit eye sight and improve circulation. They are also a natural blood cleanser.
Oats - Full of calcium, magnesium and iron they have a high fibre content and are excellent for your bones and connective tissues.
Walnuts - Nutrient content is calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc. They strengthen the kidneys and lungs, lubricate the digestive system and improve metabolism.

I also make a batch of soup at the start of each week for me and Benjamin in the week and it costs next to nothing!

I feel if more people understood what they were putting into their bodies and how it can effect them rather than instantly thinking you need to go to the doctors and get a prescription, then we'd all be better off.

Obviously, good eating can't be done all the time and I certainly don't but I'm starting to make the right changes. Especially now Benjamin is around and learning to eat all these healthy foods (even if right now he is going through a phase where he doesn't touch the vegetables so I have to hide them in things!) he can grow up to eat a well balanced diet and feed himself lots of goodness.

I really recommend the FOOD DOCTOR and the MEDICINAL CHEF.