Vitality embracing Nutrition
I often get the question/answer: “Why should I bother with all the fuss of selecting special foods and taking pills? I believe in staying healthy naturally by healthy eating”.
The answer to this conundrum is why our clinic exists. Nutritional medicine is all about endeavouring to restore the body’s natural balance that has gone “out of whack” due to poor mineral content in the water supplies to major cities and overall poor nutritional content in foods that we are buying. Let me explain.
You see… so-called “fresh food” suppliers often store theie foods for long periods before you are able to purchase it. It may have been frozen, refrigerated, gassed or dried. In those cases, vitamins break down at varying rates on storage.
Not only that but also chemical preservatives, antibiotics and hormone growth promoters can be added to food that can affect your body’s health.
But there is the big question regarding food in today’s society. Is it convenient?
Inconvenient food
We used to live by the credo of “three square meals a day” when I was a boy. We seemed to have an abundance of food at our disposal and all the time in the world to prepare it. Of course, things were tight and food was plain – but is was “solid” and nutritious. Mum cooked breakfast; we had a cut lunch or a tuckshop lunch consisting of hot food choices – always with a piece of fruit – usually an apple. And dinner was always wholesome.
The food was still mainly grown free of pesticide, although some farmers had started using DDT. And mum was mainly a dedicated home carer. She seemed to find that life interesting – seemingly more so despite – or because of – the absence of television. Her day used to be filled with visits to her mother, sister, friends, golf, children and family.
So, cooking breakfast for us was no trouble. Today, it is inconvenient. This, despite all the “mod cons” to make life easier and routine tasks quicker. We know why we don’t have cooked breakfasts any more of course – we are too “time poor”. It seems ludicrous in the extreme that society has advanced to such a point that we no longer have time to enjoy life during the course of a normal working day. And the enjoyment of food has been such a casualty. And with it, the element of nutrition.
So, what are we eating for breakfast these days, how nutritious is it and how can we “go back” to eating healthily again?
A Healthy Breakfast
A healthy breakfast is a rounded breakfast. That means it should have three major elements – nutritious density, variety and balance. I can’t see a bowl of breakfast cereal doing that.
Protein
Protein must comprise about 30% of your calorie intake. No cereal reaches this target. You need denser foods – like eggs, mushrooms, meats or fish or legumes.
Fat
Most cereals contain enough fat but is it the right type? About 50% of your fats should be omega-3 fats – either from vegetable or fish sources. Only about 1% of cereal fats are omega-3 fats – if that. So, I am afraid that you need a couple of teaspoonsful of mixed-omega oils for that.
Carbohydrates
You might assume that cereals give you the carbohydrates that you need but you would be wrong surprisingly often. The grains contain too many lectins, phytates and salicylates when used as a staple food. So do the legumes, for that matter. Not only that, but the overload of starch means cramming with carbohydrates and that is now a well-known, one-way trip to insulin resistance and obesity.
The bottom line is to take time to prepare your meals, especially breakfast – that is the most important meal of the day.
Compatible foods
You might also become allergic – or at least sensitive – to certain foods, causing your immune system to regard them as foreign toxins and cause problems.
There are many general principles of health that related to adults as well as health in your children and the growing child, there are also specific health priciples for the onset of puberty and prevention of juvenille illness.
Wade’s Multivitamin & Mineral plus powder helps maintain wellness and body mineral content.