Proper Nutrition to Prevent Disease

Sometimes when we think about going on a diet we do it with the intention of losing weight, gaining muscle and body composition changes.  Eating for health is ultra important too.  Every cell in your body is composed and structured carefully based upon what you feed them.  These tiny cells control our health in regards to our neural controls to our airways.  Properly fed cells breed healthy breathing patterns, muscle development, bone health and neurological functions.

Look at your body and compare it to a machine.  If you were to regularly add fuel to a car that made the pipes rust, caused blockages, increased swelling potential by overheating the car, and perhaps caused parts of the car to pop or completely shut down, you would need a new car sooner than later.  The thing with the body however, is that you only get one.

Let’s talk about inflammation.  Inflammation in simple terms is the body’s attempt to go into protection mode as it aims to remove damaged cells, irritants, pathogens, and other harmful additives that it comes across.  Consuming certain types of foods will cause the body to go into a state of inflammation and at this time the body can not function optimally as it is damaged.  You can probably imagine that consuming highly inflammatory foods consistently would put you at high risk for injury and/or disease.  Knowing that what you’re consuming would cause your cells to break down putting you at risk for various cancers and chronic diseases, would you continue to eat these foods regularly?  Likely not.

Knowing what foods cause the body to go into inflammation is the best place to start.  Foods high in inflammatory functions include processed sugar, grains, dairy products, corn, peanuts, refined starches, and alcohol.  The key to eating healthy is to consume organic, natural, whole foods.  There’s a quote that states the key to eating healthy is to stay away from foods that have a TV commercial.  This is a good rule to follow most of the time.  Be mindful of how you source your meat to ensure you’re eating animals that have been raised without antibiotics in humane conditions.  Consume plenty of nutrient rich produce and raw nuts rather than snacking on packaged goods.

Also remember to be human and take the time to indulge when it’s appropriate to.  Using an 80/20 rule has been proven to be effective.  80% of the time, eat for optimal health, and 20% of the time you can play around without going overboard.  For more information on how to plan out your approach to nutrition, get in touch with us.  We’d be happy to educate you about which foods will fuel your body the best and how to “cheat” effectively.

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