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You Are What You Eat

The food that you eat goes into your stomach where it is digested and then absorbed into your blood. Your blood is what creates your cells, which create your tissues, which create your organs, your brain, and even your very thoughts. When you eat junk food, you have junk thoughts! When you eat whole, healthy food, you feel like a whole, healthy person. In other words, we really are what we eat.

 

The Paradox

If we consider the above to be true, how can a fast food patron or “junk food” junkie sometimes be highly motivated, vibrant, healthy, and a true life-force? On the flip side, why can a person who eats whole, complete, nutritious and healthy food suffer from illness, a lack of energy, inspiration, or sense of true living? From the perspective of Holistic Nutrition, the key to understanding this paradox comes from understanding the meaning of primary and secondary food. Although the benefits of consuming whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, high-quality meats, and healthy fats are undeniable, they are only part of the picture. The food you put into your mouth each day is your secondary form of nutrition. Primary food does not come on a plate. Primary food includes career, relationships, physical activity, sleep, creative expression, touch, spirituality, hobbies, nature, music and much more.

Primary Food

Remember when you were a child, playing outside with friends and your mother or father called to you, “come in, it is time to eat.” So often you responded, “I’m not hungry.” Can you recall falling in love for the first time, your excitement, the freshness of each new day, the butterflies in your stomach? You felt alive and thought little about food. In both instances, you were filling up on primary food.

 
 

Now think of a time when you have been in a rut, lonely or depressed. You feel tired, low on energy, and hungry. You often scan the fridge and kitchen cabinets for some form of energy and relief. Yet, no amount of food can make you feel alive or energized. What you hunger for is primary food -a hug, someone to talk to, a warm bath, or an exciting project.

In other words, the healthy “junk food” junkie is relying on high quality primary food to support their mind, body, and spirit, while the unhealthy and unhappy “health food” guru lacks sufficient primary food. Consuming healthy secondary food alone is not enough to bring about health and wellness. You must also be a consumer of excellent primary food. Each of us is a unique being with individual needs. The primary and secondary food that nourishes you is going to be different from that which nourishes and supports another.

Integrative Diet

When we lecture about optimal health and nutrition, the question we are most frequently asked is about the latest diet. Many want to know what's best: Is it The Zone? The Blood Type Diet? What do we think about Dean Ornish's Diet (high carbohydrate/low fat) vs. Atkins (low carbohydrate/high fat)? How about Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast, or L.A. Weight Loss? Which do we choose?

The simple answer is that we don't choose! We at Discovering Wellness, believe in an integrative approach to diet. One that combines the strengths of all the different dietary theories together, to create a personalized diet for each individual. Just like there is no one best race, profession, ethnicity, and gender, there is no one perfect way of eating. It all depends on who you are.

 

  

As Holistic Nutritionists, we look at age, gender, race, lifestyle, health status, environment, occupation, season, money, relationship status, and many other factors. Think about it, two people might have the same metabolism and blood type, but one has an office job and the other is a construction worker, so they need different diets. You must eat differently if you are 60 than if you are 20.

It is convenient to put people into categories and hand them a protocol to follow. Unfortunately when dealing with issues of health and nutrition it is never that simple. Because we are complex and unique beings, we must stop trying to fit ourselves into diets and start to create diets that fit us. We at Discovering Wellness work with all different types of people. By integrating various dietary theories we create a personalized way of eating for each one of our clients. If you have struggled with different diets or are just confused, we can help you clear up your specific health concerns.