Nutritional Therapy

Much like your vehicle runs on a specific type of fuel, so too does your body. It will function best when given what it is designed for. Just as you do not put windshield wiper fluid in your gas tank, and expect the vehicle to run, neither should you ignore the fact that what you eat may be causing ongoing symptoms of headaches, rashes or eczema, anxiety, low mood, weight issues, energy issues, or other chronic conditions. You cannot function properly if your brain and body do not have adequate nutrition, and it will struggle to heal if it doesn’t have the simple foundation needed.

What Does Good Nutrition Mean – Nutritional Density

In the simplest terms, he more variety and nutritionally dense food you eat, the healthier your body will be. This means consuming more clean water, avoiding processed foods, and choosing to limit, if not eliminate certain foods from your diet. By focusing on a whole food (single ingredient foods) and preparing them correctly, your body is able to utilize the nutrition being offered, and is able to reach levels of satiety and balance.

The Problem with Processed Foods

Scientific studies have shown the more processed food you eat, the more calories you consume on a daily basis. This is due to a few reasons. First processed foods have been crafted to taste like nutrition our body needs, despite not actually having those characteristics. If you eat something that tastes strawberry flavored, the body is expecting vitamin C, manganese, folate, fiber, and all kinds of other wonderful nutrition. In digesting, it realizes that the nutrition matching the taste of the food that is being eaten is missing, it creates hunger. The body is hungry for the real nutrition that it is missing!

Foods are processed in a way which involves minimal effort by the body to break down, so they use minimal calories to digest. Whole foods, require being thoroughly chewed, require the body to break them down, and all of this requires calorie expenditure. Our body is designed to break down meat, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, beets, and all varieties of non-soft food. When you think about the amount of energy is required to break down say cereal, or chips, or cookies in comparison to a T-bone steak, you understand that processing oversimplifies as makes us prone to eating more.

When you eat a meal of nutritionally dense food, you become less likely to overeat. Think of going out to a great Italian restaurant. You eat a plate of pasta, with a side of bread, and wine. With this type of meal you will be absolutely more likely to go for desert, because your body’s nutritional requirements will not have been met. Your brain will tell you that you are not full because nutritionally its needs have not been met even after seemingly eating a full meal.
Often the body does not recognize processed foods as food. When the body doesn’t recognize the components of the food as usable nutrition, it stores the unknown products to deal with later. This is incredibly important when it comes to items like trans-fats, and other chemicals, that get put into our fat stores, and become incredibly difficult to remove. Trans fats are the worst because it can take the body up to four months to process out of the stored fat. In other words, trans fats are working against you months after they are consumed.

By focusing on a diet that is primarily non-processed foods and drinking clean water, you can start to transform your body, improve your energy levels, and feel satisfied when eating a full meal.