It’s time for “essential” #4 for healthy living: diet.

I’ll start by clarifying a common confusion. There’s diet and there’s nutrition … and they aren’t the same thing.

They are both related to eating, and often used interchangeably. However, their meanings are distinct and different.

In a nutshell:

Diet refers to all the food that you consume throughout the day

Nutrition refers to the fuel that your body requires to function optimally and maintain good health ( quality plays a big role here)

A subtle, but important difference. They do share one thing in common:

Diet should be personalised (more on this later)
Nutrition equally needs to be personalised, as we do not all run as efficiently on the same fuel
Diet and nutrition are my number 4 & 5 essentials of healthy living!

Today’s post is all about diet. And, the NUMBER ONE principle to keep in mind when you consider your diet (what you eat) is:

What you eat is what your cells become. The cells make tissues, tissues make organs, organs make systems, the systems make…?

They make: YOU

So then, the old cliché “you are what you eat” makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Yet, for too many people, the food they eat is not at all what nature intended for us. Instead of being natural and whole, it’s processed and filled with unnatural chemicals. What does that mean for us? It means we are becoming completely disconnected from nature and from what we are meant to feel like!

More than 2,000 years ago (yes, that’s right, 2,000!), Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine and a major advocate of natural medicine said:

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.”

I hope you get my point by now; what we put into our mouth directly influences the state of our health.

But so many of us are confused about what we should really eat. There’s so much noise about food and health out there. It is difficult to see straight. And what are the rules? What is right and what is wrong? Is there a right and a wrong?

Let’s set some ground rules.

Diet needs to be personalised according to your:

• Age
• Level of activity
• Gender
• Geographic location
• Season
• Constitution
• Blood type
• Metabolic type
• Current state of health

In naturopathy we work from the basis that these five specific food groups are what our digestive system is best adapted for:

1. Fruits
2. Vegetables
3. Nuts
4. Seeds
5. Protein

Why these 5 groups? Because the digestive system of homo sapients is adapted to process these five groups of foods.

When we start feeding our pets processed and denaturalized foods or foods that their digestive systems are not designed for (dry and canned foods with added starches and fillers, bread, dairy), they start having the same 21st century health problems that plague we humans: behavioural problems, arthritis, weight gain, kidney failure, tumours, cancers. (Do you see any animal in nature with a pot or a pan? With ketchup? With a side of fries?)

Unlike our primate cousins, however, we don’t consume only what we need, nor only food in its purest form, nor are we constantly active! We’ve evolved and we are different.

But, in terms of your digestion and therefore your health, you aren’t that different when it comes to the impact of a diet that regularly includes denaturalised foods you weren’t designed to eat.

Your body will thrive and function the way it was meant to, if you fill it up with the right foods.

So, in practical terms, I would say this is the order in terms of priority:

1. Vegetables
2. Fruit
3. Nuts
4. Seeds
5. Protein

(Remember, fruit is better consumed on its own.)

In the next Health Guide I’ll share a 1-day menu plan that lays out exactly what I think an ideal day looks like.

Until then, aim to fill up your body with the food that most benefits it. Fill your plate with 50% of your plate filled with veggies and build up over time to a 70-80%, as an ideal scenario. If you’re a breakfast eater, try this delicious smoothie from Dr. Mark Hyman, a doctor and pioneer in the food-as-medicine.

Love, light and healthy living✨ 

Dejana 

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