Update: Amazed at how hard this is in most restaurants, even after years of talk about America's obesity crisis! Just back from a week of traveling and was struck about how bad my diet got in a hurry and how "big" everyone was.
Sorry this post has taken so long, but let's get going, since a healthy diet is hard to explain and this post is going to be long.
How should we eat? We should eat foods as close to the way God made them, in the great variety He made them, seasoned with herbs that are natural and limit salt, sugar and anything processed.
Done. Could I go on with lots of details and suggestions? Of course, (hey, I'm from Mississippi, home of writers like Faulkner, Welty and Grisham, who must have been paid by the word!) but it really is that simple. Lots of fresh colorful vegetables, fresh lean meats-even wild game/fish, whole breads with minimal processing, and variety, and you generally have a healthy diet. While I don't follow them strictly, the kosher dietary laws work out to a large variety of foods, and if you look at where it was "applied" you see an abundance of olive trees-one of the healthiest oils possible for cooking and seasoning.
So go eat from the abundant variety God provided, watch those portion sizes, and be healthy!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
The purposes of food
Did you know there are three "uses" of food? God created food to have at least three uses by us but we have corrupted or abuse them like all things after the Fall. To be truly healthy we have to get back to the real uses of food and minimize our misuse of food.
The first use of food is as Fuel. Our body primarily uses glycogen as fuel, both for our cells and our brain. I'll leave the exact chemistry to others, but our bodies can convert carbohydrates, fats and protein into glycogen to keep us alive. It is easiest to convert carbohydrates into the form of glycogen we need since it is already sugars, and fat is a very well designed "glycogen storage device" (see Covert Bailey's books, for example). In extremis, the body breaks down protein to keep glycogen headed to the brain. The problem here is our body stores excess calories (fuel) both when we are not stressed, and as a survival mechanism (at least at first) when we cut calories too far.
The second use of food is as building blocks. This is primarily proteins, but we also have to have fats for certain bodily functions. These building blocks come from the food we eat, even if our body breaks food down and re-synthesizes what we need. This is where extremely low protein or low fat diets have a harmful effect-our body can't replenish itself. We must balance our fuel needs with our building block needs to ensure we get the right amount of calories and the right types of calories.
The third use for food is the pleasure and satisfaction of eating. We eat with almost all our senses. The feel of a ripe piece of fruit compared to a spoiled one, the satisfying "crunch" when biting into an apple or a carrot stick, the smells of food, and the great variety of tastes-all part of the correct enjoyment of food. But we fall into two opposite extremes-eating mindlessly and not appreciating it's taste, textures and smells, or becoming addicted to tastes, and eating excessively beyond what we need for health.
In most cases, everything we need to be healthy exists in fresh, quality foods. Supplementation is not required for most people with the exception of a quality multi-vitamin, mainly as cheap nutritional insurance. Meals over the day or two should mix fuel needs with building block needs and should be eaten consciously, enjoying the tastes, smells, sounds and feel of good food.
Om nom nom nom....
The first use of food is as Fuel. Our body primarily uses glycogen as fuel, both for our cells and our brain. I'll leave the exact chemistry to others, but our bodies can convert carbohydrates, fats and protein into glycogen to keep us alive. It is easiest to convert carbohydrates into the form of glycogen we need since it is already sugars, and fat is a very well designed "glycogen storage device" (see Covert Bailey's books, for example). In extremis, the body breaks down protein to keep glycogen headed to the brain. The problem here is our body stores excess calories (fuel) both when we are not stressed, and as a survival mechanism (at least at first) when we cut calories too far.
The second use of food is as building blocks. This is primarily proteins, but we also have to have fats for certain bodily functions. These building blocks come from the food we eat, even if our body breaks food down and re-synthesizes what we need. This is where extremely low protein or low fat diets have a harmful effect-our body can't replenish itself. We must balance our fuel needs with our building block needs to ensure we get the right amount of calories and the right types of calories.
The third use for food is the pleasure and satisfaction of eating. We eat with almost all our senses. The feel of a ripe piece of fruit compared to a spoiled one, the satisfying "crunch" when biting into an apple or a carrot stick, the smells of food, and the great variety of tastes-all part of the correct enjoyment of food. But we fall into two opposite extremes-eating mindlessly and not appreciating it's taste, textures and smells, or becoming addicted to tastes, and eating excessively beyond what we need for health.
In most cases, everything we need to be healthy exists in fresh, quality foods. Supplementation is not required for most people with the exception of a quality multi-vitamin, mainly as cheap nutritional insurance. Meals over the day or two should mix fuel needs with building block needs and should be eaten consciously, enjoying the tastes, smells, sounds and feel of good food.
Om nom nom nom....
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Diet, part one
It's been awhile, and an e-mail request from my Pastor motivated me to get back to posting. Yes-I'm my Pastor's personal trainer, while he's my spiritual trainer!
Diet-"Die with a T" as Garfield used to say, will be the topic of the next few posts. I'll try to get them posted up over the weekend so I don't lose momentum and you don't lose interest. Our diet and how we should eat is one of the reasons this blog is titled "Creation Fitness". I am a staunch creationist, and believe God created this world with great wisdom and design. He created all the world, and created us to be in this world. What is here physically is good for us to use and enjoy, and we are to be stewards of the physical world. I am not a "Gnostic" at all (but I love gnocchi, so maybe I'm a "Gnocchist") Just as I believe we are most fit and healthy when we use our bodies in all the ways they were created to be used, we are healthiest when we eat the foods God created, not some laboratory, and in the great variety God gave us.
So starting at the beginning, here are two verses from Genesis that will be the basis for the next few posts:
1:29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
9:3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Time to go use that body God created for me to use in full body compound movements, but that's a whole other topic!
Diet-"Die with a T" as Garfield used to say, will be the topic of the next few posts. I'll try to get them posted up over the weekend so I don't lose momentum and you don't lose interest. Our diet and how we should eat is one of the reasons this blog is titled "Creation Fitness". I am a staunch creationist, and believe God created this world with great wisdom and design. He created all the world, and created us to be in this world. What is here physically is good for us to use and enjoy, and we are to be stewards of the physical world. I am not a "Gnostic" at all (but I love gnocchi, so maybe I'm a "Gnocchist") Just as I believe we are most fit and healthy when we use our bodies in all the ways they were created to be used, we are healthiest when we eat the foods God created, not some laboratory, and in the great variety God gave us.
So starting at the beginning, here are two verses from Genesis that will be the basis for the next few posts:
1:29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
9:3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Time to go use that body God created for me to use in full body compound movements, but that's a whole other topic!
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