Back to Basics: You Can Understand Nutrition

Nutritional Overview For The Man in The Street

1.    Protein (get enough).

2.    Vitamins (get a full basic complement).

3.    Minerals (get a full, basic complement).

4.    Key Minerals (even after the basic complement as in point 2 are seen to).

These are in two sets of two:

• Calcium and Magnesium – probably deficient in a large majority of people.

• Potassium and Salt (sodium is often oversupplied if you consume conventional refined table salt and potassium is usually deficient – use only sea salt that has not been stripped of all its nutrients such as Himalayan or Celtic Salts).

5.    Fat/Oil Utilization (seeing that it is correct).

6.   Carbohydrates (most people overdo them. Drop refined ones, see that you get vegetables.)

7.   “Stress” – understand and handle as defined nutritionally.

Protein –Why and How?

(Protein: To give you some idea how important it is, the word protein comes from the Greek word “primary” or “first”.)

Why?

1. Almost all you see looking at your body is protein, your skin, nails, hair and so on. Your digestive enzymes are proteins. Without enough, you can’t digest your food so your body can’t build or repair itself.

2. Proteins are a complex of 22 amino acids in different combinations. Just like you can make thousands of words from the 26 letters of the alphabet, so there are thousands of different combinations and quantities of the 22 amino acids in the different foods, eight of which are essential.

3. What that means is that your body can make 14 of them but it can’t make the eight essential ones so you have to get them in the food you eat. Most animal proteins contain all of the amino acids in sufficient amounts whilst cereals, grains and vegetables may contain some or all the essential amino acids but the amounts in them is less than ideal.

4. The protein requirements varies for different age groups, size and growth stage. Adults obviously need more than children and men need more than women.

5. Protein is primarily used in your body to build, maintain and repair body tissues. Your digestive enzymes are also made of protein so it’s important that you consume enough if you want a healthy body.

How?

1. Get at least the equivalent of 10 eggs daily from the usual sources: meat, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese, beans. If you have been lacking or ill, use a supplement like whey protein or our raw protein powder which digests well.

Rule: quantity first, then adjust quality.

VITAMINS – WHY AND HOW?

The word vitamin comes from the Latin word vita for “life” and “amine” for amino acid because it was originally thought that they contained amino acids. Your body needs several of these vitamins: A, B, C, D, E etc. They are all complexes made up of a combination of substances.

For example, most of us know that the B group of vitamins includes B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (Pantothenic acid), B6 (Pyridoxine), biotin, Choline, inositol, B12 (Cyanobalamin), Folic Acid etc.

Some of the B complex consists of water-soluble vitamins whilst some consist of the fat-soluble ones, like Choline and Inositol.

What many don’t know is that vitamins A, C, D and E etc are also complexes made up of a combination of substances.

Why?

1. Over several decades, scientists have isolated the nutrients vital to life and this includes vitamins. Skip any one of them for long enough and it will affect you. Marked, prolonged shortages cause death.

How?

1. The more-effort way: Eat only preservative-free, fertilizer-free food from the very best soils that is “yesterday-fresh” (Do this if you can).

2. A practical way: try to get the freshest, best quality foods within your time and budget.

3. Keep vitamin C very high: 1000 mg is rock-bottom.  Linus Pauling, Double Nobel prize-winner, recommended and took ten times that. We live in a toxic society and Vitamin C is the most important “de-toxer” – See section 3 below for more about vitamin C.

4. Take a natural source of B vitamins: The B’s are difficult to balance no matter how good a supplement seems.  A natural source lessens the chances of artificial shortages being created by imbalances. The two most readily available sources are liver and brewer’s yeast. The easiest to work with is brewers’ yeast.

Minerals – Why and How

Why?

1. A mineral is any element or inorganic compound needed by the human body for proper growth and functioning, such as iron, phosphorus, calcium, tin, zinc, etc. Besides the major minerals, there are dozens of trace minerals needed by the human body and this includes tin, molybdenum, cobalt, etc. Trace means exactly what it says: traces only.

2. Minerals are found in every life form and are needed in different combinations by your body. They are the “spark plugs” that spark the chemical reactions of your body so are very important in the production of energy and every single body function, including your nervous and digestive systems and, in fact, all your body’s systems.

3. Properly grown vegetables in mineral-rich soils provide minerals and trace minerals. Modern farming methods, however, have destroyed most soils, leaving food grown on it barren of these valuable nutrients that are vital to life.

4. Everything around us is composed of chemical elements. They are the basic building blocks of our lives. By combining with one another in different proportions they form everything, from the air we breathe to the wood with which we build our homes, even our bodies.

5. Our bodies use different chemical elements for different functions.For example, calcium is used to build strong bones, teeth and nervous systems.  Another mineral, sulfur is one of the most abundant of all the minerals in our bodies and is important in maintaining cell flexibility or suppleness, energy production and a good nervous system. As we use up these minerals, we have to constantly replace them through our food or dietary supplements. All the minerals play a role in good health. Without them, your body cannot start any chemical reactions.

6. There are many minerals but some of more commonly known ones include:

7. •    Calcium

8. •    Chromium

9. •    Iodine

10. •    Iron

11. •    Magnesium

12. •    Manganese

13. •    Molybdenum

14. •    Phosphorus

15. •    Potassium

16. •    Selenium

17. •    Silicon

18. •    Sodium

19. •    Sulfur

20. •    Zinc

How?

1. The more-effort way: Eat only preservative-free, fertilizer-free food from the very best soils that is “yesterday-fresh” Other soils are mineral depleted and cannot support life. (Do this if you can.)

2. A practical way: try to get the freshest, best quality foods within your time and budget.

3. Water: try and drink water that is as close to nature as possible as that contains minerals. Use only real Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt as they are mineral-laden.

4. Mineral Supplement: Use a good quality mineral supplement.

CALCIUM, MAGNESIUM, POTASSIUM AND SALT – WHY AND HOW?

Why?

1. About a third of your body protein, by weight, is collagen, a jelly-like substance that holds the cells together. Calcium is needed for this jelly to set, along with vitamin C, which is probably the most important factor in its formation. Both are necessary for building firm, disease-resistant tissues. Calcium is difficult to absorb (large molecules) and must have magnesium present in an exact ratio. Magnesium itself is vital for digestion and coats the nerve-ends – shortages leave you “jumpy”.

2. Potassium is vital for muscle contraction. The heart is your busiest muscle and a lack of potassium is a frequent cause of its failure. It works along with salt.  By salt is meant a good quality whole salt like Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt. These salts have dozens of trace minerals that are vital for good health.

How?

1. Calcium and magnesium: the only sure way we know of currently, in the modern life-style is by taking a properly formulated, easily absorbable calcium and magnesium supplement. Only a few of the commercial formulas fit this standard.

2. Take potassium after each meal that has added salt and eat plenty of vegetables. Only use Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt as the white table salt is refined and has no life in it. It consists only of one element of salt, chloride, that has been bleached white with chlorine, which is toxic besides which your body needs all the other minerals in real salt so don’t use anything else.

FATS/OILS — WHY AND HOW?

Why?

1. Oil soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) are nullified by poor oil utilization.

2. There are certain oils or fats that your body needs to manufacture hundreds of hormones, maintain a strong nervous system, improve your immune function, build a strong cardiovascular system, strengthen your cell walls, prevent or reduce inflammation, build and maintain good joint function, etc. Some of these oils are what is known as essential fatty acid (EFAs). They are also known as vitamin F or Omega 3, 6 or 9. No matter what you call them, your body needs them to function properly.

3. Most people are very oil/fat deficient. The main reason for this is that their bodies are unable to utilize oils/fats. Frying foods can be dangerous too if the oil or fat is rancid from being heated more than once. Rancid fats are toxic. This type of “food” is best avoided as it breaks down good health and creates disease.

4. Too much of the “bad” fats clog the liver so it can’t do its job of filtering out toxins, manufacturing ingredients for your hormones, like cholesterol, helping to maintain a normal blood pressure or fight off allergies.

5. Vitamin E enables efficient use of available oxygen (it oxygenates the body) and protects oils in the body from oxidization (oxidization makes oils rancid and thus toxic). Vitamin E deficiencies will often be felt as shortness of breath.

6. Without quantity and quality of oils, vitamin E doesn’t work well so deficiencies of the other oil-soluble vitamins are very likely. A low/no fat diet can block the oil soluble vitamins as surely as bad oils and, of course, the essential oils will be missing to that degree.

7. Vitamin A deficiencies: some likely symptoms are poor eyesight, or an inability to tolerate bright lights and sunlight, see properly at night, improper mucus production leading to sinus problems, kidney problems through blockages of its fine tubes, bladder infections, lung infections, etc.

8. Vitamin D deficiencies: some likely symptoms include poor calcium absorption leading to dental and bone formation problems such as poorly developed bones or osteoporosis later in life, insomnia, depression, easily get infections due to a depressed immune system.

How?

1. Take the right oils: Cold-pressed vegetable oils including all the essential fatty acids need to be taken. They have different types of molecules which need to work together – several different oils are needed to provide these.

3. Enable the oil soluble vitamins: Western diets are high in heated oils which will gum up the blood vessels — cholesterol, a key nutrient for building nervous-system and brain tissue as well as being an ingredient needed to make hormones, then clings to these oils and stays in the blood vessels.

4. Cholesterol is the wrong target for attack, poor or insufficient oils the correct target. Your body produces more cholesterol in a day than you can easily ingest but we must allow it to get from the blood to the tissues where it belongs by emulsifying it with choline and inositol –B vitamins found in lecithin. Two tablespoons of lecithin daily will do it; more lecithin is wise if the situation has been neglected (up to 6 tablespoons daily).

5. Protect the oil soluble vitamins: Keep Vitamin C and E high to protect the oil-soluble vitamins and the essential oils from oxidisation.

More on oils:

1. Some people get their oils from cod or other fish oils whilst others get them from vegetable sources like flax, olive oil, pumpkin seeds etc.

2. As part of your fat intake, it is important to ensure you get enough lecithin so that your blood is kept flowing smoothly. Lecithin protects your cells from oxidation and is largely found in the protective sheaths surrounding your brain and nervous system. It is composed mostly of the fatty components of the B vitamins: choline and inositol.

3. Although it is a fatty substance, lecithin is also a fat emulsifier. Hence, it supports the circulatory system. Choline is useful for making acetylcholine, a chemical compound (often abbreviated ACh) which is a neurotransmitter in your body’s central nervous system. It helps to unclog your liver so that it can work properly and break down the fats you eat. Gall bladder attacks are very often brought on by the liver’s inability to break down the fats in a person’s body. When this happens, you become very oil deficient and can have “heartburn” or burping after eating a fatty meal. (Paint manufacturers use it in the manufacture of paint to make it smear.)

VEGETABLES VS REFINED CARBOHYDRATES – WHY AND HOW? Why?

1. Bodies have been using vegetables for centuries. They provide bulk for transport and elimination in the digestive tract and provide key minerals and trace minerals.  They also aid the immune system in some ways that have not yet been fully understood but are seen to work in the presence of vegetables, especially green, leafy vegetables.

2. Refined carbohydrates (Sugar, white flour, refined pastas, etc)

3. Cane sugar (sucrose) is quite recent in our evolution, so is large-scale refining of starches.  In a few hundred years bodies may be able to cope with these – if we survive them.

4. Sucrose gives a fast energy boost and then lets you down by causing reactions that push blood sugar below normal 60-90 minutes after ingestion.  It by-passes the body’s energy production set-up, which becomes lazy like an injured limb does if you immobilize it which, in the long term, can lead to serious disease like diabetes, etc .

5. Refined starches have a similar effect and also tend to stick in the digestive tract and clog it.

How?

1. Get the freshest, best quality vegetables you can. Organic is best (no pesticides, no fertilizers, no preservatives – all toxic). Raw is best.

UNDERSTANDING STRESS?

Per world-famous nutritionist, Adelle Davis:

“Any condition that harms the body or damages, breaks down, or causes the death of few or many cells is defined as stress”…

“The nutritional needs increase tremendously at the very time eating is most difficult; and a diet adequate for a healthy individual becomes markedly inadequate for an ill one.”

At times like this it is important to ensure you are getting the basics plus additional to help your body with the additional stress.

NOW WE ARE READY TO TUNE THAT SPORTS CAR!!!

Get all of this right, keep it tuned and you may well find poor health has vanished and good health has returned.

We wish you and your loved ones good health!!!