It can never be overstressed how important nutrition is for our survival, health and well-being. The types of food we eat define our physical and mental health, they can cause imbalance or protect us from disease and disharmony. Except for vitamins and minerals, that some are also present in animal foods, plants abound with other substances that are most important for disease prevention. Such are dietary fibre, phytosterols, bioflavonoids, carotenoids and several other phytonutrients that are necessary for our organism’s biochemical processes. This is why our nutrition should be primarily based on plants.
Changing our nutrition is the first thing doctors advise us when in need to combat ailments. The typical western diet, being too rich in animal fat, sugar, salt, processed food, and alcohol, is directly linked to all most important health problems such as cardiovascular disease, strokes, hypertention, obesity, diabetes, allergies, or chronic degenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, cancers, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis etc).
When we want to address specific problems, we need to follow a specific diet given to us by our therapist and health scientist because food plays a vital role in the body’s biochemistry. Plant extracts, drugs and lifestyle are also key players.
Nutrition is the means by which we provide our body with the necessary nutrients. Which nutrients are necessary depends on individual situations that are the result of various factors at interplay. Thus, the evaluation of what is necessary, for which individual, at which stage of one’s life and within what circumstances, is not a simple process. Combinations are also very important as different elements and compounds usually interact either in a synergistic or an antagonistic way.
However, there are some basic truths that can serve as guidelines; not easy to follow in the modern lifestyle, but if we do so, they can help us stay strong and healthy.
- The purest and the more diverse your food sources are, the bigger the array and quality of nutrients you receive. Food is nutritious when pesticide-free and fresh.
- Vegetables, in particular fresh, pulses, fruit and nuts should dominate the diet, and herbs should always be present.
- If you eat animal products, be aware that animals produced for mass production are badly fed with unnatural food, injected with antibiotics and kept in horrible conditions. Support local organic farmers and ecological fishing and avoid overconsumption – just as our ancestors did.
- Fats that artificially saturated, such as margarine from grain vegetable oils, are chemically produced and they are toxic. So is fructose and alcohol.
- Grain vegetable oils are toxic. They are chemically extracted, not the product of mechanical extraction as in the case of olive oil or avocado oil. Furthermore, they are packed with Ω6 fats, which oxidise very easily and as all polyunsaturated fats, should only be consumed when very fresh. Moreover, medical research emphasises the importance of a correct balance between Ω6 and Ω3 fats [Sim 2016]. Together with an excess of carbohydrates and grain-fed meat they are the major drive behind cardiovascular, metabolic and other chronic diseases. Our organism needs both saturated and unsaturated fats; what matters are their correct proportion and their quality. All in all, we can all be different people if we exclude toxic, non-fresh and processed food… And make sure you drink at least 2lt of water and herbal teas a day!
Our food is our life. Choosing the possible nutrition for our needs determines our quality of life. Remember the saying of Socrates and many others thereafter: ‘I eat to live; I don’t live to eat’.