When looking for answers to your health issues, look to food. How your food is grown and processed is just as important as making sure you have some in your home. Considering all aspects of the food you eat is one of the pillars of health that will not only prevent disease, it will cure it.
Even though medical doctors take an oath that they “first, do no harm,” any system that doesn’t promote nutrition as one of the foundational factors influencing health and disease is a dangerous one. This can do you great harm. Of course there are other lifestyle factors including, a good attitude, exercise, access, cost and environmental (pollution) factors, to name a few. But one can scarcely intelligently argue proper nutrition can be ignored and one can still experience true health.
Most medical professions ignore or downplay the importance of lifestyle. If you go to a Dietitian at the hospital, they too are controlled by the bureaucracy of that system and can only tell you what the funding organizations tell them to tell you. And the last time I looked, organizations like Monsanto, Syngenta and other mega-corporate powers were the main funders of the medical system. I doubt they will be suggesting local community organic farms, that are run mostly by alternative energy, any time soon. It’s simply not profitable for them.
Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is the underlying offender for most disease in the modern world (industrialized countries). It’s responsible for osteoarthritis, most cardiovascular disease, skin disorders like eczema and psoriasis, and neurological disorders such as Alzheimers.
All the research I’ve come across regarding inflammation and disease points to food as the answer, whether looking for a cause or a cure. For example, hydrogenated oils are probably the highest, inflammation-causing foods on the planet yet people eat them all the time. Highly inflammatory processed foods and foods with GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are in so many items at the supermarket that it would be easier to name which foods they aren’t in (see article: GMOs Are Everywhere)!
Pharmaceuticals vs. Food
Notwithstanding the good some synthetic drugs have done in the worId, it is unthinkable that they make us healthy, clean our arteries, lower our blood pressure, or prevent disease. In other words, drugs cannot replace the power of food and lifestyle for health. What’s worse is drugs can do more harm than good.
For example, when inflammation arrives on the scene it is a blessing, not a curse, and it should prompt the person to pay attention to what is going on. It is the body’s way of fighting for its life! When you suppress symptoms of inflammation, such as fever or a cough, you are stopping the best weapons you have for staving off disease. The inflammation is the body’s way of metabolizing foreign substances with the end result being to get rid of the waste (broken down metabolic substances), and when allowed to do this its own way, will result in feeling your best, and render your immune system strong and capable for the rest of your life!
Macronutrients
The intestinal tract is made up of your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (colon) and rectum. It can be thought of as being outside your body since it is in contact with the outside at both ends. It is in the digestive tract from your mouth to your small intestines that the food you eat is digested (broken down) into its smallest possible building blocks.
Carbohydrates
When you digest carbohydrates, you break them down into sugar. Sugar is small enough that it can pass from the small intestines (outside the body), through the intestinal wall and into the blood system (inside the body). This process is called absorption; therefore, the purpose of digestion is absorption.
The area of the bloodstream where sugar enters is called the portal vein. Though its name is not important, it is important for you to know that the portal vein links your small intestines directly to your liver and not to any other organs or cells. This path is a one-way highway.
Fats
Fats are the most concentrated form of energy in food, and are required for nerve function, hormone formation, strong immune system and maintaining the integrity of all cell membranes. The kind of fat we eat is very important since some fats can be extremely damaging to your health.
Fried foods, margerine and hydrogenated vegetable oils are all harmful to your health because they impede liver function, which creates a host of problems, and initiate inflammation. So-called good fats include coconut and flax oil, expeller-pressed olive and other oils, and foods like avocados, nuts and seeds, and certain animal products.
Protein
Protein is essential for life. It is an integral part of every cell in the body and is needed to build and maintain skin, muscle, bones and organs. Proteins are also used to make hormones, transports nutrients, act as enzymes, maintain water balance and support immune function through antibodies.
In order for your body to build or maintain tissue your food choices must contain essential amino acids, in sufficient amounts. Animal proteins contain all the essential amino acids in proportions needed. Sources of animal proteins are: meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese & milk. Animal protein is of higher quality than vegetable protein meaning, it is more easily digested.
Micronutrients
Vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and other trace elements are needed for numerous metabolic actions, the prevention and treatment of various diseases, and optimal physical and mental functioning.
Nutritional Balancing
A comprehensive health-restoring program considers the following 3 tenets:
- Lifestyle
- Diet
- Nutrient Supplementation and/or herbal preparations
- Detoxification
- Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis *
- A holistic approach
Most people are exposed to constant stress, and are not well nourished. In addition, we are bombarded with chemical and toxic metal pollution and contamination, and the soil our food is grown in is depleted of essential nutrients.
Poor diet, chronic stress, microbes, toxins, and allergens all contribute to our state of health and our metabolism. If stress continues for any length of time, the toxins in the body start to accumulate. Unless the body is brought back into balance and is able to eliminate these toxins, they will interfere with functioning, and a disease state follows.
Nutritional balancing focuses on the underlying stress response patterns in the human body, rather than symptoms.
*See more information on Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA)
