Food as Medicine

1-Siddha maruthuvam , siddha medicine ,Paatti Vaaiththiyam or Tamil Medicine is one of the oldest system of medicine.Siddha medicine is the oldest and the foremost of all other medical systems of the world. Siddha maruthuvam practiced by the Dravidian society and was believed that they were founded by Siddhars(men with high knowledge - supermen) several centuries ago.Siddhars knew that the only way of stopping the cycle of rebirths was by making the body as strong as a stone, unaffected by diseases, old age or even death. Thus the Kayakalpa System was formed.
One of the best-known Siddhars was Agasthyar or Agasthya, who is believed to be the founding father of Siddha culture.
Siddha System of Medicine also known as Siddha Vaidya in India, is the oldest among the Indian Medical Systems namely Ayurveda, Siddha & Unani & its also the oldest medical system in the world.
siddhars' manuscripts written in their mother tong - Tamil. The manuscripts contain spiritual, philosophical, social or scientific essays both in prose and poetry. These essays are usually written on the palm leafs and just small part of them have been published up to now.
Since number of people, preferring natural health remedies and herbal health remedies are increasing day by day and Indian medical systems like Ayurveda is gaining popularity all over the world .
This was the Siddha system. The term 'Siddhi' means 'achievement' and the Siddhars were men who achieved certain results in medicine, as well as in yoga or tapas. The results in medicine were achieved by the Siddhars through their mental powers, they bequeathed to their 'Chilas' or pupils, who preserved and propagated the science. Eighteen siddhas seem to have existed. They should have lived at different periods and bequeathed their experiences in medicine and yoga to posterity. The basic concept of Siddha system of medicine is " Food is Medicine - Medicine is Food
SIDDHA TREATMENT :
Using medicines like Choornam, Kudineer, Vadagam etc. made of herbs.
Surgical methods like incision, excision, heat application, blood letting and leech application etc.
Physiotherapy - Thokkanam and Varma, the Siddha way of Touch therapy, Medicated Oil application , Fomentation, herbal steam bath etc.
Using medicines like Parpam, Chenduram, Chuxnam etc . made of minerals especially of metals.
The Siddha System is capable of treating all types of chronic diseases especially arthritis, skin problems urinary tract disorders, infertility , degenerative disorders like osteo arthritis , Senile Dementia,disease of the liver, medicinally treatable Spinal disorders ,general debility ,diarrhoea and intractable allergic disorders.
Siddha maruthuvam or Siddha vaithiyam is the process of using herbs and minerals as prescribed in the Siddha manuscripts to treat various diseases.
Siddhar Thirumoolar have defined the siddha medicine by these words:
Medicine is that which treats the disorders of the physical body;
Medicine is that which treats the disorders of the mind;
Medicine is that which prevents illness;
Medicine is that which enables immortality.



The following is the list of eighteen Siddhas according to one recension:
1. Nandi 2. Agasthiyar 3. Thirumular 4. Punnakkeesar 5. Pulasthiyar 6. Poonaikannar 7. Idaikadar 8. Bogar 9. Pulikai Isar 10. Karuvurar 11. Konkanavar 12. Kalangi 13. Sattainathar 14. Azhuganni 15. Agappai 16. Pambatti 17. Theraiyar and 18. Kudhambai.

Paatti Vaaiththiyam :
Grandmother's natural remedies - Paati / Kai Vaidhyam is one of the simple home medicine.
India-Ayurvedic treatment home remedy,” patti vaithiyam” ie., grandma’s handi,homely cure .
Those day grandmother make her home medicine .Herbal curry powder,suran,laheyam.
Every home has his own family medicine.This Grandmother natural remedies are very need to helpful and it very comfort and simple medicine and no side effects.
The simple home herps are ginger,pepper,lemon,aloe vera,cuminseeds,basil,curry leaves,saffron,aniseeds,omom,garlic.Turmeric ,Grass,ammla,Tulsi,Fenugreek,poppyseeds and more.
The oil are mostly coconut oil ,til oil,caster oil .
I know my Grandma ,my mother ,and my mother in law mostly use there home madicine .My mother and My mother in law are still living very healthy .
Mostly they are use herbs like kizhanelli, jathigai, kaddukai,Adathoda,Ginger,Garlic,Lemon, ,peper, coriander leaves,,curry leaves,Oridhazh Thamarai, Akkirakaaram,Aloe Vera,(kathalai)Karisalankanni,Cumin seeds,keerai,green vegetables,Kumkum ,Kizhanelli,Kuppaimeni,Jaadhikkai,Siriyanangai, Amman pacharisi, Amukkuragelangu,karunai ,Thoothuvalai,Sirukurinjan,Seenthil,Nanjaruppaan,Nilaavaarai,Vallarai,Vettiver,nanari var and more herbs,green leaves vegetable and spice.

NATURAL REMEDIES: FOOD AS MEDICINE

While there is Fruit there is hope
While there is life and fruit there is hope. When this truth is realised by the laity nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand professors of the healing art will be obliged to abandon their profession and take to fruit-growing for a living.
Many people have heard vaguely of the “grape cure” for diseases arising from over-feeding, and the lemon cure for rheumatism, but for the most part these “cures” remain mere names. Nevertheless it is almost incredible to the uninitiated what may be accomplished by the abandonment for a time of every kind of food in favour of fruit. Of course, such a proceeding should not be entered upon in a careless or random fashion. Too sudden changes of habit are apt to be attended with disturbances that discourage the patient, and cause him to lose patience and abandon the treatment without giving it a fair trial. In countries where the “grape cure” is practised the patient starts by taking one pound of grapes each day, which quantity is gradually increased until he can consume six pounds. As the quantity of grapes is increased that of the ordinary food is decreased, until at last the patient lives on nothing but grapes.[1] I have not visited a “grape cure” centre in person, but I have read that it is not only persons suffering from the effects of over-feeding who find salvation in the “grape cure,” but that consumptive patients thrive and even put on weight under it.
The Herald of Health stated, some few years back, that in the South of France where the “grape cure” is practised consumptive patients are fed on grapes alone, and become quite strong and well in a year or two. And I have myself known wonderful cures to follow on the adoption of a fruitarian dietary in cases of cancer, tumour, gout, eczema, all kinds of inflammatory complaints, and wounds that refused to heal.
H. Benjafield, M.B., writing in the Herald of Health, says: “Garrod, the great London authority on gout, advises his patients to take oranges, lemons, strawberries, grapes, apples, pears, etc. Tardieu, the great French authority, maintains that the salts of potash found so plentifully in fruits are the chief agents in purifying the blood from these rheumatic and gouty poisons.... Dr. Buzzard advises the scorbutic to take fruit morning, noon, and night. Fresh lemon juice in the form of lemonade is to be his ordinary drink; the existence of diarrhoea should be no reason for withholding it.” The writer goes on to show that headache, indigestion, constipation, and all other complaints that result from the sluggish action of bowels and liver can never be cured by the use of artificial fruit salts and drugs.
Salts and acids as found in organised forms are quite different in their effects to the products of the laboratory, not withstanding that the chemical composition may be shown to be the same. The chemist may be able to manufacture a “fruit juice,” but he cannot, as yet, manufacture the actual fruit. The mysterious life force always evades him. Fruit is a vital food, it supplies the body with something over and above the mere elements that the chemist succeeds in isolating by analysis and so is essential when using food as medicine. The vegetable kingdom possesses the power of directly utilising minerals, and it is only in this “live” form that they are fit for the consumption of man. In the consumption of sodium chloride (common table salt), baking powders, and the whole army of mineral drugs and essences, we violate that decree of Nature which ordains that the animal kingdom shall feed upon the vegetable and the vegetable upon the mineral.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] This was the original treatment; now other food is added, although excellent results were obtained under the old régime.

Fruit and the Teeth

I mention the above because one of the objections that I have heard cited against the free use of fruit is that “the acids act injuriously upon the teeth.” Until I became a vegetarian I used to visit a dentist regularly every six months. I had done this for ten years, and nearly every tooth in my gums had its gold filling. The last time I visited the dentist I told him that I had become a vegetarian, and he replied that he rather thought my teeth would decay quicker in future on account of an increased consumption of vegetable acids. But from that day, now nearly six years ago, to the present time, I have never been near a dentist. My teeth seem to have taken a new lease of life. It is a fact that the acids in fruit and vegetables so far from injuring the teeth benefit them. Many of these acids are strongly antiseptic and actually destroy the germs that cause the teeth to decay. On the other hand, they do not attack the enamel of the teeth, while inorganic acids do. Nothing cleanses the teeth so effectually as to thoroughly chew a large and juicy apple.
Fruit is a Food

Until quite recently the majority of English-speaking people have been accustomed to look upon fruit not as a food, but rather as a sweetmeat, to be eaten merely for pleasure, and therefore very sparingly. It has consequently been banished from its rightful place at the beginning of meals. But fruit is not a “goody,” it is a food, and, moreover, a complete food. All vegetable foods (in their natural state) contain all the elements necessary to form a complete food. At a pinch human life might be supported on any one of them. I say “at a pinch” because if the nuts cereals and pulses were ruled out of the dietary it would, for most people, be deficient in fat and proteid (the flesh and muscle-forming element). Nevertheless, fruit alone will sustain life if taken in large quantities with small output of energy on the part of the person living upon it, as witness the “grape cure.”[2] The percentage of proteid in grapes is particularly high for fruit.
Those people who desire to make a fruitarian dietary their daily régime cannot do better than take the advice of O. Hashnu Hara, an American writer. He says: “Every adult requires from twelve to sixteen ounces of dry food, free from water, daily. To supply this a quarter of a pound of shelled nuts and three-quarters of a pound of any dried fruit must be used. In addition to this, from two to three pounds of any fresh fruit in season goes to complete the day’s allowance. These quantities should be weighed out ... and will sustain a full-grown man in perfect health and vitality. The quantity of ripe fresh fruit may be slightly increased in summer, with a corresponding decrease in the dried fruit.”
FOOTNOTE:
[2] Recent years have witnessed a modification of the original cure. Other food is now included, but I have not heard that the results are better.

Objections to Fruit

Some vegetarians object that it is possible to eat too much fruit, and recommend caution in the use of it to people of nervous temperament, or those who seem predisposed to skin ailments. It is true that the consumption of large quantities of fruit may appear to render the nervous person more irritable, and to increase the external manifestations of a skin disease. But in the latter event the fruit is merely assisting Nature to throw the disease out and off more quickly, while in the former case the real cause lies not in the fruit but in some nerve irritant, tea, for example, the effects of which are more acutely felt under the new régime. The nervous system tends to become much more sensitive upon a vegetarian, especially fruitarian, diet, and people often attribute their increased nervousness and irritability to the diet when it is simply that they now react more quickly to poisons. This is not a bad thing, on the contrary, it shows that the system has become more alert. Under the old régime we tend to store up poisons and impurities in the body, but the effect of a vegetable diet, especially when united with the use of distilled water, is to cause all our diseases and impurities to be expelled outwards and downwards. Tea is a slow poison, and so is coffee except under exceptional conditions when it is used as a medicine, and then it should always be pale-roasted.
Fruit should always be eaten at the beginning of a meal. Again, when the diet consists of a mixture of cooked and uncooked foods, the uncooked should always be eaten first. Also when the meal consists of two courses, a sweet and a savoury dish, sufferers from indigestion should try taking the sweet course first. I have known several cases where this simple expedient has resulted in a complete cessation of the discomfort of which the patient complained.

A Pioneer of Food Remedies

When it comes to food as medicine the pioneer, in England, of the treatment of all sorts and conditions of disease by means of a vegetable (chiefly fruit) dietary was Dr. Lambe, a contemporary of the poet Shelley. His last book appeared in 1815, and in it and the one preceding are recorded some wonderful cures, especially in cases of cancer. It is only fair to add here that in Dr. Lambe’s opinion no system of cure is completely efficacious so long as the patient is allowed to drink the ordinary tap or well water. Distilled water was the only drink he advised. But he held it better still not to drink at all if the necessary liquid could be supplied to the body by means of fresh, juicy fruits. He contended that man is not naturally a drinking animal; that his thirst is a morbid symptom, the outcome of a carnivorous diet and other unwholesome habits. And I think that anyone may prove the truth of this for him or herself if he or she will adopt a fruitarian dietary and abstain from the use of salt and other condiments.
I have cited so out-of-date a personage as Dr. Lambe for two reasons. The first is that I know many of the so-called new and unorthodox ideas are more likely to appeal to some readers, if it can be shown that they originated with a duly qualified medical practitioner who recorded the results of his observations and experiments in black and white. The second is that the principles and practices of Dr. Lambe are incorporated with those of the Physical Regeneration Society, a large and ever-increasing body of enthusiasts having its head-quarters in London, to whose annals I must refer those readers who desire up-to-date instances of the efficacy of the use of fruit in disease. Lack of space will not allow me to quote them here.

The Simple Life

We hear a great deal about the “Simple Life” and “Returning to Nature” nowadays, but most of us are so situated that the proposed simplicity simply spells increased complexity. The “vegetarian chop” costs the housewife more than double the time and labour involved in preparing its fleshly namesake. And when it comes to illness some of the systems of bathing and exercising prescribed by the “naturopath” are infinitely more troublesome to the patient and his friends than the simple expedient of sending for the doctor and taking the prescribed doses. I do not want to be misunderstood here. I am not condemning treatment with water and exercises. On the contrary, I hope to pass on what I have learnt about these methods of treatment. But so many people lack the time, help, and conveniences necessary to carry them out successfully. It is to these that I would say that the patient’s cure may be effected just as surely, if more slowly, by means of fruit alone.

Fruit or Fasting

With regards to using food as medicine; Treatment of disease by fasting has come into fashion of late, and there is really no lack of proof as to the benefits to be obtained from abstaining entirely from food for a short period. I know of an elderly man who fasts for a fortnight every spring, and gains, not loses, weight during the process! He accounts for this by explaining that certain stored up, undigested food particles come out and are digested while he fasts. Whether this is the correct explanation I do not know, but the fact remains, and it is not by any means a solitary case. Of course, the majority of people lose weight when fasting, but this is very quickly recovered. Now I do not think fasting should be undertaken recklessly, but only under competent direction. But an excellent and safe substitute for a fast is an exclusive fruit diet.

Acute Illness

The simplest and quickest method of recovering from attacks of acute illness, fevers, inflammatory diseases, etc., is to rest quietly in bed in a warm but well-ventilated room, and to take three meals a day of fresh ripe fruit, grapes by preference. If the grapes are grown out of doors and ripened in the sun so much the better. I have found from two to three pounds of grapes per day sufficient. If there is thirst, barley water flavoured with lemon juice should be taken between the meals.