We’ve all heard quotes like the above one before – heck even The 3 Little Pigs taught us that a house made of brick was the way to go if we want to stay safe from the big, bad wolf. Nutrition and health aren’t any different. If we want to stay safe from the big bad wolf (a.k.a chronic disease and decreased quality of life) – we need to make sure our foundations are strong!
There are six factors to health that are considered to be “The Nutritional Foundations”.
- Nutrition (seems kinda obvious hey?) – A diet of properly prepared, nutrient dense, whole foods. I’ll delve more into this topic in later posts, but for now let’s just say that this IS NOT the diet that most North Americans are currently eating. Think local, sustainable, seasonal, and organic vs boxed, bagged, refined and/or provided by a creepy giant clown with red hair. You get the picture.
- Digestion – This will be our first deep dive. Without properly digesting the food we eat, balancing any of the other foundations is pretty much out of the question. We need to properly breakdown food and absorb nutrients to support ALL of the other foundations.
- Blood Sugar Regulation – The body must maintain its blood glucose level within a pretty narrow range. Too low and you get cranky, shaky, and ravenously hungry – widely recognizable (particularly by my poor hubby) as HANGER. Too high and it can damage our cells and tissues. Prolonged high blood sugar can lead to complications including heart disease, vision impairment, kidney dysfunction and poor wound healing, which we often see in diabetics. Constant cycling between high and low blood sugar (the dreaded sugar crash) also comes with its own set of issues, which is why it is important to ensure balanced energy levels.
- Fatty Acid Balance – Our bodies need healthy fats!! Fats play so many important roles in the body, from providing building blocks for our cell membranes and hormones, to providing a dense energy source, to keeping us full and, most importantly, making food taste GOOOOOD! Hellooo butter 🥰! The key word here is HEALTHY fats. There’s a lot of stigma, fear and misconception out there surrounding fat and we are going to unpack and address ALL of that eventually!
- Mineral Balance – Minerals are our spark plugs and are needed by every system in the body. In order to make healthy bones, we need minerals. To get our muscles to contract and relax, we need minerals. To transfer nutrients across cell membranes – you guessed it – we need minerals. The kicker is, we cannot make our own minerals and, therefore, we must get them from the foods and beverages we consume.
- Hydration – YES! Water is a nutrient! Probably the most important nutrient and, sadly, the most common deficiency in our society as well. Our bodies are composed of about 60% water by mass and pretty much every body process from digestion to body temperature regulation to breathing requires water. Think you are drinking enough? Here’s the thing – you can be drinking buckets full of water and NOT ABSORBING IT!! We need the right minerals (called electrolytes) to be able to absorb and utilize the water we drink. Every foundation supports the others!
So there you have it! The six foundations of proper nutrition! It’s a lot to “digest” (sorry – had to do it), which is why, in the next post, we’ll dive right into the foundation of Digestion – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly…. In the meantime, click on the post’s title and leave me a comment or question! If you are on the shy side, you can email your questions to shannon@peaknutritionandwellness.com. Thanks for reading!!