You Are What You Eat

Scientists and nutritionists all agree that there is a direct relationship between your health and the quality of your diet.

In a perfect world, you would provide your body everything it needs to flourish by drinking eight to ten — 8 ounce glasses of water, eating five to seven raw, fresh, ripe differently colored vegetables and two fruits everyday; two to four ounces of muscle meat two to three times each week.

 It is easy to get bogged down in the minutia contained in the endless volumes of self-help books; or confused by the terminology used by professionals; or overwhelmed by clap-trap advertising that bombards us everyday.  For the most part, these traps mystify the relatively straightforward issue of staying healthy.

Current estimates are that the body is composed of 750 trillion cells operating in perfect harmony.  Each and every day of your life, while you are sleeping, your body produces more than 300 billion cells, converting the food you eat into components to sustain, mend, defend and energize itself.

 

 Framework for Health

These basic concepts have helped many people establish a framework to use as they establish a program to protect their most valuable asset – their health.

 

Processes that Feed the Body

Ingest:  The balanced diet recommends the quantity and type of foods your body needs to stay healthy, youthful and vibrant.  Meeting or exceeding these thresholds through diet or a combination of diet and dietary supplements pays you dividends.

Digest:  The body uses enzymes, caustic acid and friendly intestinal microbes to convert the food you eat into the nutrition your body requires to stay healthy, vibrant and youthful.

Assimilate:  Nutrients must be delivered where they are needed and passed through the cellular membrane into the cells. The old saying, “You are what you eat.” should really be “You are what you assimilate.”

Eliminate:  The body accumulates cellular waste, toxins and undigested debris over the course of the day. Timely, efficient and complete elimination of waste, shortly after each meal, stops the drowning in cellular waste, lessens the impact of environmental toxins, parasites and other infective organisms.

 Functions that Maintain Health

Sustain:  The body depends on a minimum level of nutrients, called the threshold, to stay healthy.  If you stay at or above this threshold, you reduce the risk of experiencing chronic diseases or decline in health.

Mend:  Millions of cells wear out each and every day; others are damaged through the process of living.  If you stay at or above the threshold, the body has all of the components it needs to renew itself at optimal levels—healthy, youthful and vibrant.

Defend:  The body is constantly under attack from the environment, microbes, parasites and other forces.  Staying at or above the threshold provides needed protection from the ravages of everyday living.

Energize:  The body depends on fuel from your diet for mental clarity, endurance, energy.  Staying at or above the threshold helps you feel and do your best.

 

No One is Perfect

Sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world. There are consequences when you choose easy over nutritious—relying on a diet of fast, cooked, processed and preserved foods. Simply stated, your body depends on a reliable, diverse whole-food diet to stay healthy. If your diet doesn’t provide sufficient amounts and in the proper ratios to accommodate your body’s needs, your body, and your health, begin to decline. 

• If you’re not eating enough colorful vegetables, you are creating a deficiency in: Phytonutrients:  the substances that keep you strong, disease free and so darned healthy and Trace Minerals: essential components of physical fitness, mental fitness and endurance. 
• If you’re eating mostly cooked food, your diet is missing Enzymes:  the workforce of your body. 
• If you use alcohol, take medicine or eat mostly preserved food, the friendly intestinal microbes, that keep you alive, are out of balance.  Probiotics (reintroducing living friendly microbes into the intestinal tract) help restore the balance.

You, like thousands of others, may benefit from making better choices, then filling the gap in your diet with dietary supplements to help right your ship. Remember, the healthiest people provide their bodies with the nutritional resources needed to function efficiently.

 It’s Your Life—It’s Your Choice