Optimal nutrition

Nutrition defines the quality of cellular function, metabolic health, energy generation and has a major impact on disease prevention

From a medical perspective, optimal nutrition is transformative:

*Optimal nutrition prevents type 2 diabetes

*It improves cholesterol and lipid balance

*It reduces heart disease, kidney decline, and stroke risk

*It improves blood pressure parameters

*Optimal nutrition improves ones confidence and over emotional well-being

The 21st century challenge arises because food – particularly convenient food – is plentiful, calorically dense, and rarely physiologically satisfying.  Yet the solution is surprisingly straight forward: reduce caloric burden while maintaining balanced food choices.  Nutrition isn’t rocket science although I don’t really believe that rocket science is all that complex.  When we ingest food, it breaks down into glucose substrate, amino acids and lipid molecules.  The glucose and lipid substrate ultimately get converted into high energy potential hydrogen which ultimately combines with oxygen from the blood.  This is equivocal to rocket fuel – so maybe it is rocket science.  Nevertheless, this energy is used to make ATP which provides all the energy every cell in the body needs.  Amino acids provide the molecules needed for protein synthesis.  This concept is crucial to understanding why carbohydrates are so dangerous when one is trying to loose weight.  Carbohydrate is composed of countless glucose molecules providing terrific amounts of energy – that is, unless your body doesn’t need the energy in which case the body will make fat and store it.  By the way, fat also has lots of high energy hydrogen ready to feed the mitochondria electron transport chain with oxygen on the other end.  

Adult onset diabetes serves as the greatest optimal nutritional related threat.  It damages small arteries, weakens immunity and disrupts healing.  When the body doesn’t need additional energy, excess glucose doesn’t want to enter the cell because our bodies insulin won’t allow it to enter the cell.  This is called insulin resistance and when this occurs one now has diabetes.  The solution, avoid excess lipid and glucose – and or carbohydrate.   

Key principles include:

*Fresh, wholesome food whenever available

*Fish, poultry and lean sources of protein over dense animal fats

*Limiting high-calorie starches such as breads, rice, pasta, chips

*Avoiding ice cream, cakes, pastries, unnecessary sugars

*High use of vegetables, fresh fruits and spices

*Choose low-calorie dressings

*Avoid calorie – dense beverages