Good food is the root of good health. It’s also been the root of FRESH Medicine, the company co-founded by "Dr. Rob, the Chef" to transform healthcare.
Robert E. Graham, MD, is not your average physician. He’s blended his fellowship training in integrative medicine, his master's degree in public health, with a focus on nutrition, and formal culinary training to promote patients’ good health, rather than just treat their diseases.
A FRESH Start
With his wife, Julie Graham — a certified health coach, registered yoga teacher, practitioner of positive psychology and a certified meditation and aromatherapy practitioner — Graham started FRESH Medicine. Based on the foundations of integrative medicine, the company combines the best of conventional medicine with complementary therapies.
"We practice medicine, but we deliver health care," he said. "Over the last 50 years, we have focused more on the medicine part and have forgotten the meaning of what I think good medicine is all about: health and care."
FRESH is an acronym for a five-pillared approach to health that may potentially lengthen life:
F represents healthy food, preferably in the form of a plant-predominant diet.
R stands for relaxation and following a lifestyle where we are not constantly in a rush.
E is for exercise — ideally 30 minutes every day.
S is for sleep, especially high-quality restorative sleep.
H represents happiness.
"People often ask me, 'What's the most important pillar?' I think they're all equally important and that the power is in their synergy," noted Graham. "When it comes to good health, it starts with food. When you eat well, you sleep well. When you sleep well, everything else kind of falls into place. And then when you're happy, you do all the other things."
He advocates for a life where we each live "north of neutral." "I'm fascinated by the field of positive psychology," he said. "So many people just live their lives saying, 'I'm good I'm OK.' But I think that's where the base should be. Life could be a lot more than that."
Food as Medicine
On his journey to learning more about integrative health approaches, Graham studied everything from acupuncture and Ayurveda to yoga. "I am a new messenger of a very old story," he asserted. As far back as 5,000 years ago, Ayurvedic practitioners espoused the benefits of good nutrition, contending, "When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is right, medicine is of no need." And 2,500 years later, Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
When someone visits a traditional healer, the first question they are asked is "what do you eat?" Yet Graham noted that most physicians today start a visit by asking a patient about their chief complaint.
"Asking someone about their diet is the last question doctors usually ask," he said. Instead, he asks his patients, "What is your chief concern?" The FRESH Med intake form surveys patients thoroughly about their diets.
Eighty percent of chronic diseases may be prevented, and some reversed, with a dietary approach, Graham explains. But it can be difficult to keep up with what seems like a constantly changing array of nutritional recommendations.
Graham promotes healthy eating characterized by:
75 percent fruits and vegetables on every plate of food you eat (more than the 50 percent stated in national guidelines)
Avoiding ultra-processed foods, including minimizing synthetic "meatless meats"
Staying away from foods that make you feel unwell, either due to food allergies or sensitivities
Considering medically tailored meals designed for people with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and kidney disease, which can reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes
Limiting foods high in omega-6 fatty acids (found in high amounts in animal protein) and increasing intake of omega-3 fatty acids (found in nuts, seeds, plant oils and cold-water fatty fish)
"Getting more plants is good for you and good for the planet. We can't talk about our health without talking about the impact on our planet," Graham explained. "We eat way too much meat."
Paying Attention to the Microbiome
An unhealthy microbiome — the microorganisms that should happily co-exist in our guts — is being linked to many ills today, including food allergies, some autism behaviors and digestive complaints. Some 70 percent of the immune system resides in the intestines and 95 percent of hormones, particularly serotonin and dopamine, are made there, Graham explained.
He pays particular attention to enhancing proper absorption of nutrients in the small intestines of his patients. "I've always believed that you are what you eat. But you really are what your bacteria, your viruses and your fungi eat," he noted. "If you fix your gut, you'll start the process of fixing yourself."
Genes and Longevity
Of course, much of our health is rooted in our genes. But epigenetics is also a vital force, giving us the power to rechart some of the course of our future health.
"When I was in medical school, the thought was that our genes influence everything," Graham recalled. "Over the past 25 years, we have realized that our genes only influence about 30 to 40 percent of expression. That means 60 to 70 percent is modifiable.
"I'm trying to go upstream," he continued. "Your telomeres are very important — the little snippets at the ends of your chromosomes that determine how long you're going to live. There are very simple ways to increase the lengths of those telomeres. We have to start getting away from talking about downstream effects, such as illnesses, and go upstream to achieve change."