YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT – LITERALLY

Would it be fair to say we sometimes ignore our bodies until they stop functioning well?

It got me thinking - What do bodies need for basic wellness, to function well?

Food       Water    Rest         Sleep      Exercise        Happiness     Breathe

Well, the last one is a bit obvious because if you don’t breathe you die – but if you don’t eat at all,  the outcome would be the same.

Let’s expand on that -  That saying “You are what you eat” is so true – There is no way you are going to get a healthy fully functioning body on a McDonalds diet.  This is because the body needs a certain amount of proteins,  amino acids, vitamins, minerals to build healthy cells. HEALTHY cells. Fully functioning ones. Not just, well, cells. As in L cells.

FOOD – there’s food and then there’s FOOD. NUTRITION. SOMETHING WHICH FEEDS YOUR BODY AND NOURISHES IT. HELPS IT BUILD HEALTHY CELLS.  I don’t like plastic food. There I said it. Plastic food: processed, salt laden, fat soaked, numbered, manufactured C.R A. P with no regard for physical health whatsoever and every regard for quick, cheap fixes which benefit the manufacturer of these products (as in revenue) but do nothing whatsoever for your body – indeed they lead to metabolic syndrome, dia-besity – new buzz word -and poor health.   Basically if it has a number your body won’t recognise it as food and if your grandma doesn’t know what it is, ITS NOT FOOD!

Our food intake is the fuel our body needs to function well.  Good quality, nontoxic food is going to make you feel pretty healthy. It’s like this – we eat and the trillions of cells in our body use those nutrients to fire our bodies -to give us energy, build new cells, help us think. What we eat, I believe, affects our mood, thought processes, metabolism, sleep and so much more. You would have to have lived on Mars not to have come across screeds of articles and research that proves this is so.

It’s interesting that in caveman times our bodies adapted to what we could scavenge for food but in our modern world everything is there at our finger tips. We are not surviving against scarcity but rather the opposite – we are in the time of plenty. We eat too many calories, exercise too little or not at all, don’t cope with stress as well as we could and all of a sudden we have some twinges, some “symptoms’ but we ignore those thinking they will just go away – and sometimes they do, but more often than not they progress into further dis-ease.

Food is not mere nutrition – it is medicine for your body. The building blocks of your body.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fish and chips at the beach sometimes and a square of dark chocolate from time to time but it is the regular care of choice which allows the little transgressions. I would rather arrive at old age in an fully functioning state with most of my faculties intact and that is why healthy eating now is a life long choice. Parents -  teach your kids that fruit and vegetables  actually taste good.  If they haven’t had food full of  sugar laden, chemical storms how will they know the difference anyway?  Parents are in control right from conception as to how they feed themselves and how they will feed their children and educate their little palates.

Eating foods high in fat, salt and sugar will lead to weight gain, obesity and fatigue.  Then, in a vicious cycle,  that weight gain leads to heart problems, high cholesterol, diabetes,  even cancer  - and a less than optimum physical and mental performance. Who wants that?

If your diet is sub-optimal  your  immune system is compromised – you are more of a target for colds, flus, tummy bugs.

We need a regular intake of all the essential vitamins and minerals the body needs to keep the systems of the body working properly.

It’s not rocket science, but I will say this:  MAKING SIMPLE SMALL CHANGES ON A REGULAR BASIS IS A LOT EASIER THAN GOING HELL FOR LEATHER WHEN CHANGING TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE  - AND THESE SMALL CHANGES WORK IMMEDIATELY.

Then before you know it all these small changes have become habits, you are feeling good, may have lost a bit of weight, your health provider is again pleased with your annual blood tests and you are getting on with your life. Your body is thanking you. I always say that symptoms are the language of the body – the body’s way of talking to us – and we need to heed that language not ignore it.

So, we would be looking for raw foods, organic foods, no pesticides or sprays, good carbs like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, easy to digest sources of protein – both animal and/or vegetable, healthy fats ( salmon, avocado, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds – that sort of thing).

Those are the building blocks of a healthy mind and body. It’s well worth doing a bit of study into this subject!

Go Well

By Joanna Vinsen Loveys  BNatMed HbT