By Heidi Kutzelnig
In lieu of March being Nutrition Month, I wanted to help educate you about some key nutritional concepts in order to help you take charge of your health and become a skinny bitch (or bastard) all in one go.
Firstly, I want you to take a second and think about how much we have done to contaminate our environment. Now think of the effect that has had on our food supply. It is now nearly impossible to obtain all of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals necessary for optimal health from our food supply. That means that you are most likely deficient in one or more vital nutrient(s), vitamin(s) or mineral(s). The scary part about this is that most of us are unaware of that fact.
Now let me briefly introduce you to the most important function of your body. Our bodies are continually striving to maintain a healthy internal balance called homeostasis. In order to make this as easy as possible for yourself, you will need to keep the most important organ system in your body happy – Your digestive tract. A deficiency in one area of your body will in turn adversely affect another area of the body, and another, and another, setting off a chain reaction throwing off the delicate balance of homeostasis. I believe that improper digestive function is a key player in this chain and it is the main cause of the epidemic of chronic diseases we find ourselves riddled with today.
So what does this all mean to you? Do you find yourself feeling sick after meals? Gassy? Bloated? Are you suffering from unexplained weight gain? Do you find yourself doing the dance? You know the dance I’m talking about, don’t play coy: Nausea; Heartburn; Indigestion; Upset stomach; Diarrhea. Yay! Don’t even think of saying Pepto Bismol. That’s a band-aid solution.
If you suffer from any of the above symptoms on a regular basis you are most likely suffering from improper digestive function.
So how did we get to this point where nearly everyone is suffering from a deficiency and/or improper digestive function? Environmental changes aside, one of the main reasons we have gone so far off track are because of the foods we love so much.
· Fast food
download americanizing shelley dvdrip
· Too many carbs (the bad guys such as white starches, breads, pastas, stick with whole grains instead)
· Sugar (natural and artificial, sadly, are not great for you in excess)
· Refined foods (these are foods that have been altered, bleached or messed with in some other way to make them look prettier or help package them)
We all crave them and I’ll tell you why – these are all addictive foods. That’s right like drugs. You are not imagining things – you actually build a dependency to them. And the worst part is these foods are high in and packed with empty calories. You need to eat twice as much to feel satiated, and fuel your body for the same amount of time as you would a healthy food. That explains the North American ever-expanding waistline phenomenon, huh?
These problems shouldn’t be happening and they can be cured once and for all with proper diagnosis and treatment. The craziest part about all of this is that once you manage to optimize your digestion and continue to make the right food choices, you can get to the point where calories no longer apply to you. Yes, you read that right. Since the act of eating is literally the intake of food to be converted into usable energy, the importance of making wise choices to fuel yourself are crucial.
I urge you to start pumping your diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, limiting or cutting out refined foods, sugars and bad starches, and moderating your portion sizes (sorry, but the 1Lb of food in a Hungry Man dinner is just not right no matter how you try to justify it). I promise you will feel exponentially better if you change your eating habits and take better care of your poor battered digestive tract.
Happy Nutrition Month!
Heidi is a self-proclaimed Health Guru and author of the blog Healthy Heidi (http://healthyheidi.blogspot.com) your one-stop health and wellness information center.
Great article!