It’s Good for What Ails You

Chances are, if you are of a certain age and demographic, you might have heard the phrase, “It’s good for what ails you,” Words do have meaning, and when delivered by your mother followed by the stern directive, “Pinch your nose and swallow it, “ you did so. As a young girl, those concoctions usually consisted of a teaspoon of castor oil or apple cider vinegar in water. And did they ever do the trick. Like magic, my current malady would suddenly disappear at the threat, and I began to anticipate the cure would be worse than the cause. I learned to rarely complain. 

My mother, now 96, was a child of the Great Depression. The youngest girl of nine siblings, she grew up on a small farm in the piney woods of Louisiana. The area would later become Camp Polk. (renamed to Fort Johnson in 2023) Her family and many others would lose their land to the eminent domain law. At the age of two, her mother died, and she and her newborn baby brother were raised by their older brothers and sisters. Her father worked the farm to feed his large family, and everyone, including the youngest, had chores. “I guess we were poor,” she says. “But, I didn’t think about it. We always had food on the table, and we had each other.” To this very day, that philosophy of the importance of family shaped her life and, to a large extent, my own.  

One doctor in the entire community made house calls by horse and buggy. A visit from Dr. Jeanne was considered a luxury born only out of a case of dire necessity. There were no 24-hour pharmacies, ERs, or Minute clinics. Sustainability was not a buzzword but a way of life. You planted what you needed, and you ate what you slaughtered. Kitchen gardens sustained households without the use of chemicals or pesticides. Saving seeds from the heartiest of plants were cultivated to pass on. The debate of organic versus non-organic was unheard of, and home-processed foods involved some form of canning, curing, or fermentation.  

It was a simpler time in many ways, but life could be difficult and often unfair. To put things into historical perspective, WWI ended in 1918, not more than a decade prior to my mother’s birth. Two years after she was born, the Stock Market crashed in 1929, wiping $14 billion in assets, leading to widespread panic and massive selloffs. Times were hard, and by 1933, unemployment was at an all-time high of 25%. For the first time, urban populations outnumbered their rural neighbors, and food lines became the norm as industry came to a virtual standstill. In the meantime, farmers saw a sixty percent decline in crop prices. Many Midwest farmers suffered through the dry, dusty 1930s, fending off hordes of grasshoppers and drought, only to give up and move away from the family farm to seek employment elsewhere. Fundamentally, life in the United States changed how we viewed our food production and pharmaceutical systems.

In the post-WWII boom, the market for pre-packaged convenience foods expanded rapidly. The years of war rationing were over. Jobs were plentiful, and the American dream of a home in the suburbs, two kids, and a shiny new car suddenly became a reality. Patrons of the “Super” markets clamored for cheap, pre-packaged foods. Manufacturers of these soon-to-be iconic food brands expanded rapidly to meet high consumer demand, and our food system changed irrevocably. Big Pharma, unable to patent traditional plant-based medications, began synthesizing chemical substitutions. All with the intent of alleviating hunger and improving our health. 

But at what cost? As a society, we are twice removed from our traditional plant-based foods and medicines. In this blog, I intend to provoke discussion, reminisce, and perhaps educate you on the value of natural foods and traditional remedies. The resurgence of the farm-to-table movement and the ever-growing interest in herbal medicines gives me hope for the future As nature often does, the science behind their effectiveness might surprise you. Who knows, you might find yourself asking, “Is it good for what ails me?”

It is not my intent to dispense medical advice. Consult your physician prior to incorporating natural remedies into your medical regimen.