Dr Deepthi. B.S.
Dr M. Harsha Priya
Abstract:
‘Diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight management. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in the quality of life, health and longevity’.
‘A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients, micronutrients and adequate calories. A healthy diet can promote overall health of a person and is an important part of leading a healthy life style’.
Nowadays unhealthy/junk food has become so popular that people, even though they are aware of its effect on health, they choose it over healthy food. More than just taste, it has become a trend and they have a false image of being modern.
Here we are giving a brief idea, on how homoeopathy helps in managing the problems occurring due to modern food trends.
Keywords: homoeopathy, junk/fast food, healthy food, repertory, poetry
Introduction:
Pizza, French fries, panipuri, burgers, donuts. Bet the thought of having these has you salivating. Many people enjoy having these foods, as they excite our taste buds. But at what cost…?
The food of the past is very different from food of today. Junk food has always been there, but was less accessible. In the recent times we can find at least one panipuri/pav bhaji vendor in one’s locality. In the current world, with the people living fast life, they want everything to be fast, even when it comes to food.
What is Junk/Fast food??
Food that is high in calories but low in nutritional content [1]. Food that is unhealthy, but is quick and easy to eat [2].
Junk/fast food causes a variety of health problems which can range from a simple upset stomach to serious health conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
While healthy diet (good food) that contains nutrients, minerals and vitamins in a balanced manner, junk (bad) foods contain no or less nutrition and are high in fat, salt and sugars (HFSS) (fig.1), which can cause:
- Excess fat (deep fried food)- acne, greasy skin,
- Excess sugar (candy, juices)- tooth caries, diarrhoea,
- Excess salt (chips, fries)- frequent urination, mild headaches amongst others.
Homoeopathy has a good scope in treating various types of disease. Repertory is an aid which helps us to know the indicated remedies. In many repertories we find rubrics which are about aggravations from different foods. And given below are some rubrics, followed by a different approach to some common homoeopathic medicines for gastric complaints.
KENT’S REPERTORY: Chapter Generalities
- FOOD, bread agg.
- FOOD, butter agg.
- FOOD, cheese, old agg.
- FOOD, farinaceous food agg.
- FOOD, fat, agg.
- FOOD, pastry agg.
- FOOD, rich, agg.
- FOOD, salt agg.
- FOOD, sweets agg.
BBCR: Chapter Aggravations and ameliorations in general
- Food and drink, bread and butter, agg.
- Food and drink, butter, agg.
- Food and drink, cake, (warm) agg.
- Food and drink, condiments, agg.
- Food and drink, farinaceous, agg.
- Food and drink, fat, agg.
- Food and drink, pastry, puddings etc., agg.
- Food and drink, salt, agg.
- Food and drink, sweets, sugar, etc., agg.
MURPHY’S REPERTORY: Chapter Food
- BAKED, food, agg.
- BREAD, general, agg.
- BUTTER, general, agg.
- CAKES, general, agg.
- CHEESE, general, agg.
- FARINACEOUS, food, agg.
- FATS, general, agg.
- ICE CREAM, general, agg.
- OILY, food, agg.
- PASTRY, general, agg.
- SMOKED, food, general, agg.
- SUGAR, general, agg.
- SWEETS, general, agg.
COMMON HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES
Nux vomica:
- He has mental strain
- And work is his life
- He is rude to everyone
- Let alone, his wife
- When the temperature drops
- And the climate becomes chill
- The hot headed person
- Will start to feel ill
Indications:
- loves fats and tolerates them well
- nausea in the morning after eating
- weight and pain in the stomach, worse sometime after eating
- difficult belching of gas
- wants to vomit but cannot
Pulsatilla:
- She looks very pretty
- Blue eyes and blonde hair
- All her symptoms are better
- In fresh, open air
- She can’t make decisions
- She changes real quick
- Eating rich, fatty food
- Always gets her sick
Indications:
- Taste of food remains a long time
- Aversion to fatty food, warm food and drink
- Dyspepsia with great tightness after a meal, must loosen clothing
- Flatulence
- Water brash, with a foul taste in the morning
Arsenicum album:
- He is worse from 12-2
- Mid-day and mid-night
- He would always close his eyes
- If it gets too bright
- Anxiety makes him restless
- He can’t sit in the chair
- He lacks courage to do the things
- He’s always in despair
Indications:
- Cannot bear the sight or smell of food
- Great thirst; drinks much, but little at a time
- Dyspepsia from vinegar, acids, ice creams, ice water, tobacco
- Heartburn; gulping up of acid and bitter substances which seem to excoriate the throat
- Craves acids and coffee
Lycopodium clavatum:
- He’s the intellectual kind
- You can call him the ‘big head’
- Going onto the stage
- Is his greatest dread
- All his complaints
- Are worse 4 to 8
- Desire for sugars
- In him is very great
Indications:
- Dyspepsia due to farinaceous and fermentable food
- Aversion to bread
- Bulimia with much bloating
- Eating ever so little creates fullness
- Incomplete burning eructations rise only upto the pharynx, where they burn for hours.
Antimonium crudum:
- She has a sad and woeful mood
- Wants to drown and die
- She can get very ecstatic
- When the Moon is in the sky
- She has a rough and scaly skin
- Often compared to swine
- She has a really weak stomach
- That won’t agree with wine
Indications:
- Desire for acids and pickles
- Eructations tasting of the ingesta
- Constant belching
- Sweetish water brash
- Bloating after eating
Conclusion: Apart from the above mentioned conditions, there are many more health problems caused by unhealthy food, but just a few lifestyle changes like, proper exercise and balanced diet can help us stay healthy and it also helps the homeopathic medicines to act more quickly.
References:
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/junk%20food
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/junk-food
- Boericke W. Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica & Repertory: Comprising of the Characteristic and Guiding Symptoms of All Remedies (clinical and Pathogenetic [sic]) Including Indian Drugs. B. Jain publishers; 2002.
- Phatak SR. Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines. B. Jain Publishers; 2002.
- Allen HC. Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of The Materia Medica with Bowel Nosodes. Reprint ed. New Delhi; B.
- Clarke JH. A dictionary of practical materia medica. In A dictionary of practical materia medica 1982. Health Science Press.
- Murphy R. Homeopathic Cinical Repertory: A Modern Alphabetical and Practical Repertory. Lotus Health Institute; 2005.
- Kent JT. Repertory of the Homeopathic material medica. B. Jain Publishers; 1992.
- Boger CM. Boenninghausen’s characteristics material medica & repertory with word index. B. Jain Publishers; 2002.
Dr. Deepthi. B.S.
PG Scholars, Father Muller Homoeopathic medical college, Mangaluru, Karnataka.
Dr. M. Harsha Priya
PG Scholars, Father Muller Homoeopathic medical college, Mangaluru, Karnataka.
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