Why is nutrition so important?
All this nutrition business is just a fad, right?
Turns out, it could not be further from the truth. It is more important than ever to be mindful of what we are putting in our bodies. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the extreme uptick in obesity, heart disease, metabolic diseases, anxiety, depression and hormone dysfunction and disease.
But what does that have to do with nutrition? Everything.
Our bodies are some of the most complex sciences we could imagine, and require a great deal of proper chemical and metabolic processes to take place in order to live a long and healthy life. These processes are affected by our environment, stressors, genetics, traumas, activity, internal dialog and you guessed it, our diet.
Food is composed of both macro and micronutrients, both of which have vital roles in these internal functions. We need a balance of all of these nutrients to run an effective mission of daily life. This is called homeostasis. When our body begins to be impacted by these extrinsic factors, there becomes an imbalance, and that imbalance has a ripple effect.
For example, our body requires magnesium to function properly. In fact, magnesium is a cofactor that is involved in over 300 processes in the body including blood sugar regulation, blood pressure control, protein and bone synthesis, muscle function, nerve function and more. Sounds pretty important, right? The foods that contain the most magnesium are found in whole foods such as vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Processed foods and high fat/high sugar diets include little to no magnesium, making many of these vital processes decrease significantly and even cease. Long term deficiencies in magnesium lead to devastating side effects.
This is only one small example of the many vital nutrients the body needs to thrive. Food has the ability to have positive or negative consequences on the body. Remember, when something is happening 3-5+ times a day, such as eating, it would make perfect sense that there would be an impact on our bodies.
We have the power to control so much of what goes on in our bodies simply by what we feed it.
I’m here to tell you that there is no perfect diet. There is no perfect ratio of nutrients. There may even be times where we need to additionally supplement certain nutrients to get back on track. We are never meant to operate out of fear or strive for perfection. We cannot always control what happens in our genetics or environment, but we can control what we put into our bodies. We are in the driver's seat!
I always encourage eating REAL food, as close to the way it occurred in nature, and finding preparations of those foods that make you happy and feel good. That is the ultimate balance!
As Hippocrates states “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.
Let us help you find balance, increased love for nutrition and begin to feel your healthiest.
