Food

Food In Depth

The Importance of Absorbability

It can be easy to think that by eating nutritious food, one can become healthy.

This can be true, that is if one's stomach can absorb the food! If one cannot digest the food, then its nutrition will simply go to waste, which can create more problems for the stomach. It's much like trying to eat a piece of wood. It may be nutritious to a white ant whose stomach can digest it; but to us, it won't be!

Another example is drinking milk. Although it is nutritious in itself, it won't be nutritious to people who are lactose-intolerant—a good part of the world population! That is why it's common for people who eat an excess of dairy products to run into health problems. 

Also, a piece of bread could be nutritious for one person, but someone with celiac disease would not be able to digest the bread well.

So, realize that we are all individual bodies with our own unique constitution. Some are more suited to eat some things more than others. And this can be heavily dependent on one's lineage, on what one is raised to eat, on one's gut flora, on one's general health condition, and so forth.

For instance, it can be easier for Asians to digest rice than Westerners; and likewise, easier for Westerners to eat densely packed bread than Asians. Again, this is just a broad generalization and it really depends on the individual's constitution.   

Whatever the case, when it comes to choosing what types of food to eat for nutrition, it's important to factor in their digestibility.

For one to know whether a food is suitable, one can ask the following questions—

"Do I feel pain after eating this food?"

"Do I feel more energy after eating this food?"

"Is this food native to my diet?"

"Do I feel fatigued and drowsy after consuming this food?"

One can simply begin their journey of learning more about foods by trying out one type of food at a time to see how well one digests it.

Through trial and error, one will be able to learn how their stomach works.

Although reading about health can be very helpful, it's important to develop this awareness through actual life experiences.

And with time, one will know what kinds of food to eat and what to avoid!

Puzzle Diet

To the body, digesting a piece of food is like solving a puzzle. The less processed the food is, the less complicated puzzle will be to the stomach.

That is why if one desires greater health, one an focus on eating less processed foods. Because the more processed it is, the more difficult it will be for the stomach to understand what you are putting into it. The energy spent on deciphering and absorbing processed foods can end up being more than the energy the body gains from it, which can lead one to experience experience mental and physical fatigue. 

Naturally, the body can easily solve the puzzle if the food is from a natural source, i.e. born from the earth. Thus to the body, digesting raw fruits and vegetables will be a much more straightforward process than the process of digesting processed food, for instance, food that has been cooked, mixed with other ingredients and chemicals, and so forth.  

If you want to know how processed the food you are eating is, you can simply look for its ingredients.

 For instance, here is a copy-paste of ingredients of a fruit cake I just searched online.

Fruit Cake

 Ingredients: Sultanas (26%), Sugar, Marzipan (11%)[Sugar, Almonds, Glucose Syrup, Water, Invert Sugar Syrup, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate)], Glacé Cherries (8%)[Cherry, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Colour (Anthocyanins), Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)], Wheat Flour, Raisins (6%), Glucose Syrup, Pasteurised Egg, Butter (Milk), Humectant (Glycerol), Glace Mixed Citrus Peel (2%)[Orange Peel, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Lemon Peel, Sugar, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)], Palm Oil, Barley Malt Extract, Rapeseed Oil, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Orange Oil, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Emulsifiers (Acacia Gum, Mono-and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Sunflower Lecithins, Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose), Colours (Beetroot Red, Iron Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, Riboflavin), Thickener (Maize Starch), Spirulina Concentrate.

I think one can pretty much tell how processed food can be by simply looking at the ingredients of the food they are eating. Also, the more one eats food that do not exist in nature, the more harm it will do to one's health. 

Although the body is strong and intelligent enough to handle foods that have been processed, problems will come when it's overly processed and when one consumes them daily. Thus eating processed foods like chips, snacks, cheese, fried things every day will eventually lead one on a path towards a myriad of health problems. 

So if one wants to be healthy, either minimize the intake of processed foods or completely eliminate them from one's system. 

The Factor Of Age

The younger one is, the easier it will be for the youthful stomach to tackle processed foods. However, the older one becomes, the less capable the body will be, which means the stomach will run less efficiently, becoming more easily overworked.

It can thus pay to start developing some healthy habits early on when one is still young. Although one may not be experiencing any illness or health problems from their current diet, there may be underlying issues that have not surfaced yet, until one has hit a certain age! 

The Factor Of Quantity

Another thing one can do for one's health is to not eat too much in one sitting. Doing so will overwork the stomach. Sometimes when the stomach is overworked, it will try to flush the food out by making you run to the toilet!

When the stomach is overworked, the immune system will also become jeopardized. There's a saying that all diseases originate in the gut, and to an extent this is true. Because the worse the condition of your stomach is, the more volatile it be, reacting to foods rather than absorbing them, which over time can lead to persisting health issues such as allergies and sinus problems. 

Eat food for energy rather than to lose it!

Although the stomach is intelligent and can unravel even the most intricate puzzles, it will always be at the cost of one's energy, at the detriment of one's health. 

Remember, eating food is supposed to give you energy rather than make you tired.

So, if you are tired after a meal, perhaps you are eating the wrong kinds of foods or that you are eating too much. 

Or if you are tired throughout the day, it may mean that you are not eating enough nutritious foods. 

Thus it's important to become aware of what you are eating and whether the food you are putting in your system is working for or against your health.

Do you usually become more tired after your meals?

Or do you feel more energetic after your meals?

Naturally, we want to be in a state of feeling happier and feeling more energetic after a meal. 

But now, it has become common to experience great short-term happiness from gorging down a delicious meal followed by a food-coma. 

 Thus help the stomach by eating better foods!

So, it can be a good idea to try new and simpler foods, even different diets. Also, when one has been living in a low-energy state, one can normalize the state of fatigue and think that is the normal operating state of a healthy body.

By trying different foods, one can perhaps discover new states of body and mind, and realize that all this time they've been living with low energy!

So, the bigger puzzle is for you to figure out what foods is better for your body and mind!