Homesteadication: new paradigm shift from sick care to healthcare
- Dr Jean Pierre Kabongo , MD, CCFP, IME,
- May 3
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
As a Family Physician practicing in Canada for over 14 years, I’ve witnessed a profound shift in how we approach health.
More and more, I see patients—and even entire healthcare systems—relying heavily on medications while overlooking the basic, vital elements of wellness: nutrition, movement, sleep, community, and life purpose.
I didn’t always start in medicine. My journey began in agriculture. I graduated from high school with a diploma as a general Agronomist and went on to veterinary studies before eventually transitioning to human medicine.
Gardening, teaching, healing, and being in nature continue to ground and renew me. Throughout this journey, one constant has remained: my passion for working with the land and my high sense of observation.
Talking about observation, a few years ago, my wife brought home some grapes from our local grocery store. Though they looked very fresh like straight from the local farm, they were imported from California. On their packaging, a bold red warning caught my eyes:" WASH THOROUGHLY BEFORE EATING". In fine prints was the name of a chemical that was used to treat the grapes. Curious, I searched it up and what I found shocked me: a fungicide banned in US for its risk of destroying the thyroid gland and causing hypothyroidism, yet still legally used on produce exported to Canada.
Food we consume in North America has not always been the safest. It is not accepted in other countries given the amount of additives and preservatives that are addedd during the production chain. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ( TTIP), a proposed trade agreements by the US to the Europeen Union in 2013 was refused by Europeens who feared to lower their food environnmental standards with GMO, hormone-treated beef, chlorinated chicken...
It’s through this blend of medicine, nutrition and agriculture that a new idea began to take root.
The Problem with Sick Care
In our modern healthcare system, especially in Western societies like Canada, USA…, there is a growing trend toward what I call sick care rather than health care. Our systems are structured to intervene after diseases have developed, rather than empowering people to stay well in the first place.
Physicians remuneration model plays as well a role into this drift. Very few provinces/healthcare systems remunerate doctors through capitation—the system that rewards doctors to keep their patients healthy through prevention.
However, most physicians are paid based on fee-for-service model—a system that rewards volume of visits, consequently compromising the quality of care in many circumstances.
The result? We spend our days reacting to diseases rather than preventing them. We tend to prescribe more, refer more, and treat symptoms while often leaving the root causes untouched.
Chronic diseases, such as hypertension, type two diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, anxieties, depression…, all of which potentially reversible through healthy lifestyle, are now being accepted by our patients as life sentence. Family physicians'role on their part has become more of managing these chronic conditions rather than seeking for a cure.
On the other hand, our healthcare system have become so fragmented that we tend to treat people according to their organs, rather than managing them as a whole.
People begin to see themselves as passive recipients of treatment, rather than active participants in their own health. Even simple ailments are now medicalized and medicated, despite the known side effects of many pharmaceuticals. Patients themselves have become so conditioned that they believe medications can solve every health problem.
We physicians have been reported for refusing to prescribe antibiotics to treat common cold.
Lifestyle, nutrition, sleep, and emotional well-being are too often afterthoughts. This is worrisome as we know that 80-90% of conditions that we manage in primary health care stem from our ( defaulted ) lifestyle, therefore avoidable / preventable.
This system not only costs a lot to governments, it burdens healthcare providers while disempowering our patients.
I'm afraid it might soon become non-sustainable.
Introducing: Homesteadication to restore healthcare
To respond to these challenges, I have created a new concept—Homesteadication.
This neologism merges two powerful ideas:
Homesteading – a lifestyle of self-sufficiency caracterised by subsistance agriculture, home preservation of food, cooking of own meals from scratch, moving and living naturally and intentionally...
Medication – the tools of modern medicine, often necessary, but too often overused.
Therefore, Homesteadication is a philosophy and practical approach to health that emphasizes prevention, self-reliance, and wholeness.
In short, it is the judicious practice of homesteading principles in order to prevent, treat and cure diseases and other health conditions.
It invites people to return to the rhythms of nature, to nourish their bodies with real food, to cook meals free from additives and ultra-processing, to move with purpose, to sleep in rhythm with the sun, and to reconnect with their community.
Why Now?
Our food supply is increasingly from non natural sources: usually man-made in laboratories, genetically modified, contaminated with pesticides, preservatives, antibiotics, hormones..., by big multinationals with the ultime goal of maximizing profits, while overlooking consumers health.
Our daily lives are filled with stress, screens, and sedentary routines. And our children are growing up in environments that disconnect them from the natural sources of health: soil, sunlight, and shared meals.
We cannot continue down this path.
Homesteadication is my response—a return to what works, grounded in science and inspired by ancestral wisdom.
What Homesteadication Looks Like in Daily Life
- Growing and naturally preserving your own vegetables—even on a balcony
- Cooking meals from fresh, natural, non-contaminated seasonal ingredients
- Using herbs, teas, and fermented foods to support digestion and immunity
- Walking, gardening, lifting, and stretching as natural movement
- Creating simple routines that support rest, connection, and joy
-Reclaiming your home as the first clinic, your kitchen as the first pharmacy, and your food as the first medicine.
A Call to Empowerment
As a physician, I am not turning away from medicine. I am expanding its definition. I want to help people move from being passive recipients of prescriptions to active stewards of their own health. I want to see families, schools, and communities shift from reacting to illness to cultivating wellness. I hope to see Family Physicians and other primary care providers shifting from being managers of ( chronic ) diseases to real healers of health conditions. I look forward to seeing Health Care managers opting for physician remuneration models that foster ( proactive ) prevention rather than ( reactive) cure... I long for Governements strict regulations on food industry, given its direct impact on our health...
Homesteadication is more than a concept. It is a movement. It is a shift—from over-dependence on medication, toward a vibrant, natural, preventative lifestyle rooted in the earth and guided by common sense.
Let us take back the responsibility—and the joy—of taking care of our own health.
Thank you for reading.
If this message resonates with you, stay connected as we explore this philosophy through future posts, workshops, and resources on living a homesteadicated life.
— Dr. Jean-Pierre Kabongo, MD
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