The Truth About Chronic Illness—Why Whole Foods Matter
Did you know that 93% of Americans suffer from high cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, or have had a heart attack, stroke, or are overweight? Despite trillions spent on healthcare, chronic disease rates aren’t declining. Why? - The answer is simpler than you think: the modern diet.
My home style “clean” fast food!
When I first moved to America, the health crisis was impossible to ignore. At church, prayer requests were filled with names of people—young and old—battling serious illnesses. At the grocery store, I was shocked by the sheer number of people relying on motorized carts. My children’s classmates were on medications I had never heard of at their age. This was not normal.
Yet, chronic illness is treated as an inevitable part of life. But it’s not.
The Role of Diet in Chronic Illness
We’ve all heard the saying, "You are what you eat." But in today’s world, where sugar is hidden in everything—from bread to bacon—many of us don’t realize just how much our food choices impact our health. The reality is that ultra-processed foods loaded with artificial additives, unhealthy fats, and refined sugars create the perfect storm for metabolic dysfunction.
The connection between diet and chronic disease isn’t new. Twenty years ago, while studying physiology in medical school, I researched inflammatory bowel disease. What struck me was that patients with gut disorders didn’t just have gut problems—they also suffered from arthritis, anemia, osteoporosis, and skin conditions. It became clear that the gut wasn’t just an isolated system—it was central to overall health.
Fast forward to today, and functional medicine is proving what I suspected all those years ago: poor gut health leads to widespread disease.
The Root Cause of Disease: Metabolic Dysfunction
Listening to a recent interview with Dr. Mark Hyman, a leading voice in functional medicine, his guest summed it up perfectly:
Bad food leads to
Bad metabolic health, which leads to
Chronic illness.
When we flood our bodies with processed, nutrient-depleted foods, our metabolism suffers, leading to inflammation, insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalances. Instead of addressing the root cause—our food—mainstream healthcare focuses on medications that mask symptoms rather than fix the underlying issue.
So, if diet is the problem, what’s the solution?
