Good nutrition is the basis for health . This is not just a topical phrase, that we say to seem intelligent, it is just one of nature’s laws.
Your body is made up of cells, liquids and substances that are made of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, plus minerals and vitamins. The same way that a cake is made of those ingredients too: eggs are the proteins, butter the fats, and flour and sugar the carbohydrates. Minerals and vitamins are the spices and baking powder.
Do you know what happens when you use bad quality ingredients to make a cake? Well, that it doesn’t come out nice and it doesn’t taste nice, it is not healthy. Imagine we make the right mixture, but we don’t put spices and baking powder. What do we get? Not a cake, maybe a tasteless hard cookie.
Well, the same happens to our bodies. If we put bad proteins, bad fats and bad carbohydrates into us, what we get is a bad quality body. If you eat good quality food, with enough vitamins and minerals, then you get good quality muscles and bones, skin and teeth, hormones and neurotransmitters.
But not only the quality is important, the relative proportions too are essential. Imagine that one day we decide to make a cake with one egg instead of two, and we put double the sugar and double the flour, and no fat. What will we get? Well, not a really good cake, if we get a cake at all. We may get something similar to a dry giant cookie.
Well, many diets nowadays that we eat are like this. We eat too much sugar, or too much flour, and refined besides, so that we make sure that there are no vitamins and minerals left there. Or we eat proteins and fat in a nice barbecue, with some refined flour too. In this cases we are eating too much of one or two ingredients, and too little of the others.
What is a good diet then? The perfect nutrition provides our bodies with excellent quality and enough quantities of proteins, fats (yes, fats too!) and carbohydrates, plus vitamins, minerals and enzymes, so that we can rebuild and maintain our bodies in a perfect health state.
Good nutrition makes our bodies be in perfect shape:
• Bones and muscles working properly
• Blood, lymph and other body liquids circulating properly, carrying oxygen to all parts (cells) and carrying wastes away from them
• Organs working in good order, so digestion is good, nutrients are absorbed and carried to the right places, and wastes elimination work accurately
• Nerves and brain working at their full potential, therefore we are alert and happy, thinking clearly and focused
• We are healthy, feel rested and energetic in the morning and ready to rest happily in the evening
• We feel good, in body and mind
Good nutrition is good for your mind. Our mind is a very complex and delicate living computer, it needs really first quality ingredients, with the right quality and at the right moment to work at peak performance. Our brain needs glucose as its main fuel, and certain amino acids (simple molecules that make up proteins) like tryptophan to make the right neurotransmitters. If we don’t have enough glucose, we feel slow and we cannot process information, we cannot think. We cannot perform other activities as well, like many unconscious or automatic activities that keep us alive, like breathing, feeling thirst or hunger, being conscious of dangers and many others. Our brain keeps us alive.
If we don’t have enough amino acids, our brain cannot make enough neurotransmitters, which the tiny molecules that make cells to communicate between each other, and that make nervous impulses to travel through our nervous system. That means that we get depressed, slow, non-reactive, emotional, irrational and many other characteristics that define mental illnesses. The same happens when we don’t get in our diets enough vitamins, as our brains cannot make up the right molecules. An example is stress, which depletes our organism of vitamins, specially group B vitamins, which are needed to make neurotransmitters. And after a long stress period, we may feel always tired, sad and unable to think clearly (amongst other symptoms).
Good nutrition maintains your immune system ready to fight pathogens . Vitamin C is amongst the most known vitamins. One of its roles is to keep our immune system working properly. When the immune system is healthy, we don’t get ill and we don’t have pains. As simple as that. There are several other substances that we need to have in our diets to maintain our immune system. One of those is good fats like omega-3 and 6 fats. These are found in seeds, nuts and fish, mainly. These are basic to keep inflammatory processes under control or non-existent, and our hormones well balanced. When the fat balance is not adequate, hormonal systems get unbalanced as well, and chronic inflammatory processes start building up.
Good nutrition keeps you young and beautiful . Omega 3′s and 6′s also help us in maintaining youth and beauty. These fats keep the membranes of cells in good shape. When cell membranes are healthy, they are firm and supple, like a well pumped balloon. When cell membranes are not receiving the right fats to regenerate properly, they get soft and irregular, and the cells cannot keep their shape. They would be the equivalent of punched balloons.
One very important factor that damage cells membranes, are oxidants, like tobacco smoke, alcohol, some chemicals, burnt fats, and many pollutants. This substances oxidise membrane fats, and therefore the membranes become soft and irregular, and the cell cannot keep the right balance or substances inside and out. They are punched balloons. One of the substances that avoid this damage is vitamin C, because is an antioxidant. There many other antioxidants, like selenium from Brazil nuts, vitamin E from seeds oils, and flavonoids from fruits, specially berries.
Antioxidants also keep enzymes healthy. Enzymes are the molecules that drive our bodies metabolic reactions, therefore we need them to function properly. We need them to produce energy from our food, digest foods properly, produce the right amount of hormones, store nutrients and many other functions.
These are only some of the benefits of a good nutrition, and just a few examples. If you eat the perfect foods for you, you will feel full of energy, minimize illnesses, think clearly, be focused and have therefore all the tools to live to your full potential. The right nutrition for you is therefore the most easy, amazing and delicious way to maintain health and be a happy and fulfilled human being.
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