Do You Want Health

Posted by monica on June 3rd, 2008 in Natural Health Articles, Natural Health Tips

Today the average duration of human life in the United States is just about 70 years for women and a little less for men. Conservative experts believe that man is really built to last about 100 years.

What good is it to add years to life if we do not also add life to years? In fact, unless people learn to enjoy life and to grow old gracefully, the extra years may be an additional burden.

What if nutritional whole foods could make a difference with aging gracefully? How would you know what foods to eat? A professor and nutrition consultant Dr. Heidi Dulay, (disclosure: she designed the whole food multi that Whole Food Nation markets) got this question:

“What foods should they recommend to their clients seeking nutritional help? And how to decide these things, anyway?”

“OK, good question”, says Dr. Heidi. “Here’s a way to look at choosing foods for yourself and your nutrition clients.

A normally functioning body uses what you eat (specifically, uses the biochemicals in the foods you eat), in three ways:

Function (hormones, enzymes, make antibodies, etc.),
Structure (bones/muscles/teeth; Cells/cell membranes, hair/skin/nails)
Storage (fuel and excess fat)”

What kind of foods does the body use to make this three things? Let’s take a look.

Function: Protein and Fat.
Structure: Protein and Fat. All except for connective tissue, which uses protein and sugar.
Storage Function: Carbs, sugars (sweets) and fat. (Not the good fat you eat. Stored fat is what the body makes from the excess carbs and sweets we feed it.

Is it about time for a quick snack fix? Are you considering . . .

Carbs, sugars or sweets: bread, rice, pasta, chips and crackers, cookies, cereal like corn flakes, corn, muffins, pizza crust, and all sweets, especially the big sweet caffeine drinks.

Right into the storage bin it goes. Uggg.

For the nutritionally and technically interested, here’s Dr. Schwarzbein’s table. The Schwarzbein Principle II.2002 p.17.

[P=Protein; F=Fat, S= Sugar]

Functional
Antibodies (P)
Cellular products (P & F)
Enzymes (P)
Hormones (P & F)
Neurotransmitters (P)

Structural
Bones/Muscles/Teeth (P)
Cells/Cell membranes (P & F)
Connective tissue (P & S)
Glands.organs (P)
Hair/skin/nails (P)

Storage
Glycogen (S) (good reserve fuel in the liver = KK)
Triglycerides (F) (fat molecules from fat and carbs = KK)

Dr. Heidi Dulay, Ed.D., N.C. is also author of “Are you Wasting Your Money on Synthetic Vitamins?”

Interested? Natural Health Tip: You can download it at My Vitamin Report Card.