Introduction To Basic Holistic Nutrition

What is health to you?  To some it means not being sick, some say it’s being able to do what they want to do.  Some equate health with energy, whilst others say that health is longevity.

To me, health is not just the absence of diseases, but it should also mean a life full of energy and vitality.

Where does our energy and vitality come from?

Our body is made up of about 100 trillion cells which need to be treated with care in order to feel energized and stay healthy. We should treat our body as 100 trillion cells and not just as flesh, blood and bones.

We all learned in school about cells and the tiny mitochondria within our cells which are the power source that give us our energy.

Here is what a mitochondrion from our cell looks like. There are many of these within one single cell. This is the power source of our energy.

By knowing this, we now have a choice of how we want to grow old. We can choose whether to grow to 70 but feel and look like 50; or we can choose to grow to 50 but feel and look like 70 (assuming you’re not there yet).

Having said that, I want to tell you that there is no such thing as aging. There is only the degeneration of our cells — either our cells are damaged or they die prematurely because of our ignorance and careless eating.

You are what you eat

What we put into our bodies will directly determine the health of our cells. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food that we eat will either choke and kill our cells or allow them to flourish. Even prolonged emotional stress can cause havoc in our body.

A poor diet and lifestyle results in:

• An acidic environment
• Build up of toxin within our tissues and cells
• Oxidation within the body and build up of free radicals

This causes our cells to deteriorate and die and creates the ideal environment for disease.

The Stages of Cellular Degeneration and Disease

Below is a chart graph showing the stages of cellular degeneration. Most disease starts from a simple inflammation or a discharge that you may often ignore (Stage 1 in the chart).

Stage 2 marks the beginning of poor health. You may feel fatigue, constipated, have a headache, lower backache or develop simple skin blemishes. If at this stage you can acknowledge the onset of a problem, take action and start eating and living healthily, you are often still in time to reverse the problem.

When the doctor tells you that you have high-blood pressure or cholesterol, you have asthma or worse, tumors, you are at Stage 3 where you chronically encounter very poor and weak health.

Don’t wait till you reach Stage 3 or 4 before taking action – it may be too late.

Help is available. The answer is in nourishing and caring for your cells with correct diet, hydration and exercise, as we shall discuss shortly.

How Our Cells Die

Consumption of too many acid-forming foods creates an acidic environment in our body causes cells to die. As cells die, the body becomes even more acidic, creating the perfect environment for bacteria and parasites to breed and diseased cells to spread.

Then we fall sick and we see the doctor who prescribes more acid-forming drugs. The drugs create other side effects because our body is already acidic. It becomes a downward cycle and it goes on and on until our body starts to break down and degenerative diseases set in.

We need to break the cycle by cutting out harmful foods and nourishing our cells fresh fruit and vegetables.

Basic Holistic Nutrition: The 4 Cornerstones of a Healthy Body

Our 100 trillion cells require these 6 nutrients and four essential factors to stay healthy and happy. If we take the trouble to adhere to these four cornerstones of a healthy body, our cells will keep us healthy and full of vitality.

1. Effective Waste Elimination

There is no drug in the world that can heal your condition. Your body was made to self-heal so you need to give it a chance to heal by itself.

To allow our body recover we need to first reduce our intake of harmful foods. This will take the workload of our system and allow the body to more effectively eliminate toxins.

You simply cannot continue to feed your body with junk and expect it to heal.

There are many ways to detox, but whichever detox program you choose, ensure that it is safe and natural. Try juice fasting, or go on total fast for a few days to let your body rest, detoxify and heal. Always drink plenty of water to flush out the toxins.

A colon cleanse is an important part of detoxification. A congested colon (constipation is a symptom) may be carrying as much as 25 pounds of dried fecal matter – the perfect environment for bacteria to breed and multiply by the millions every day.

A congested colon leads to generally unclean blood that is toxic and harmful to your 100 trillion cells which will quickly dwindle in number from damage.

Colon cleansing with herbal fiber is a gentle approach that requires patience, but provides a thorough and effective cleanse. Most fiber cleanses take from 2-3 weeks to reach maximum efficacy; but the wait is worth it.

For extreme cases, one has to consider doing a colonics.

2. Improve Oxygen Delivery to Your Tissues

Our cells need oxygen to function. Our blood cells transport oxygen to where ever it is needed. The following improve the delivery of oxygen to our tissues:

• A correct detox will clean up the colon and liver that in turn encourages cleaner blood.
• I bet you’ve heard this one before — exercise is important! Exercise encourages the heart to pump blood and encourages circulation throughout our body. When blood circulates, it stirs up stagnant blood which otherwise would cause a host of health problems.
• Deep breathing is also therapeutic. Take a walk outside, early in the morning when the air is still fresh and try some deep breathing exercises. This alone does wonders and helps generate energy that can last you for hours.

3. Drink Pleanty of Water – to Stay Hydrated

I can’t stress enough the importance of drinking enough water.

Dehydrated cells can’t talk, but they do send signals to the body. When they are dehydrated, they cause pain and when we give them enough water, the pain often goes away.

Don’t just assume that you’re drinking plenty of water: check if you are drinking enough water.

I recommend drinking the purest form of water, distilled water. Hard water and so-called mineral water will deposit inorganic elements in your body that your body cannot assimilate, thus should be treated as toxins.

4. Replenish Your Body With Nutrients

Nutrients are what this site is all about. Once you have done a proper detox, removed the unhealthy food from your diet, drink sufficient water and exercise daily, then you are ready to feed your cells with proper nutrients from live food.

Poor “modern day diets” of processed foods that are high in fat and low in fiber and nutrition deprive the body of the nutrients we need. Juicing is the most effective and fastest way to get large amounts of concentrated nutrients to our deprived cells.

The body needs these 6 essential nutrient groups for good health: carbohydrates, protein, fat, water, minerals and vitamins. Here is handy list of nutrients essential to basic holistic health:

• Amino acids (protein)
• Complex carbohydrates
• Essential fatty acids (EFAs)
• Vitamins
• Minerals and trace minerals
• Phytonutrients
• Anti-oxidants
• Bio-flavonoids
• Chlorophyll
• Enzymes
• Fiber
• Healthy colon flora (friendly bacteria)