Nutrition: How Food Works

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT:

The first thing to understand about nutrition is to understand your body. The abused saying "you are what you eat" is such a truism that it is often overlooked. I am going to draw out the relationship between your body and the food you eat. This is a vital perspective for one who wants to Look Good Naked(TM).

You probably know that your body is nearly all water. I have learned different percentages for this statistic, so let's say, 65 to 90 percent water (fruit is 65 to 95 percent water also...as if it's made for us ;). Because of this stat being repeated to us we begin to imagine a gooy body of liquid. For example, how do you imagine your blood? ...A red liquid that is thicker than water, juicy and stains white shirts? I can't deny this view of blood, it acts just like any liquid, however blood cells are very different than water.

Everyone knows what protein is, at least they see the word 'protein' splattered across a lot of different food and health advertisments. Proteins are long stands of amino acids. There are twenty amino acids which build countless proteins. Nine amino acids are NOT produced by your body, therefore you must injest these nine amino acids. (Now I could delve into protein and what it means and does and how it helps your body, but that is for a later blog, this one is to change your perception of foods function). SO, what are amino acids?

Amino acids are molecules that are the building blocks of life. Lets digest that sentence (haha). 'Building blocks of life' is more than a play on words.  At the macro scale where you experience blood it is a liquid.  But at the microscopic size of the blood cell, these amino acid molecules are not liquid but literally blocks. After you digest and assimilate your food the remaining molecules move into your blood stream where individual blood cell absorbs the 'food' it needs.

Here is where a break in normal perception is needed.  Most people seem to hold the image of a blood cell absorbing this molecular 'food' with a type of osmosis.  The amino acid spills into the cell or is drank into the cell.  This fluid image is probably a result of the macro-liquid-blood that we encounter.  However, when your cells (not just blood cells) take these amino acids it is more accurate to imagine a Kinex-like solid structure that is grabbed hold of and moved mechanically into the cell.  

This is a more accurate image of what happens, because if you think about it, at this micro-scale an amino acid is a very strong and fairly large structure when compared to individual cells. (Perhaps: imagine grabbing hold of a piece of wood and placing it on a conveyor belt).  Therefore, the amino acid is very much like a building block (or lincoln log) for you cells and of course these cells ARE you.

So ask yourself what type of building blocks you are feeding your trillions of cells (your body) next time you eat.  Do you think that the building blocks of the food are the same building blocks that your cells need?  How hard does your body have to work to produce the right kinds of building blocks?  Are you comfortable knowing that you are what you eat?  

Please do not fret if you are not happy with the answers to these questions.  Your body is the most amazing machine known to man, but if you want to take immediate action you can; eat five to ten pieces of fruit everyday (and I don't mean one banana or one apple I mean three apples and two oranges throughout the day).   Here's to Looking Good Naked(TM)