Jun 08 2009
Good Nutrition is More than Healthy Food Choices
One of the most important concepts in this site is that a quality diet alone is not enough to support good health. Certainly, it will be better for you than the typical American diet, filled with sugar and processed foods. But good food can support good health only when it is properly digested. Good food poorly digested is not desirable, and poor food well digested is also not desirable. In fact, poorly digested food—even good food—can actually further stress your body and compromise your immune system. Therefore, you should never equate good nutrition simply with a selection of good foods. You must always address the quality of your digestion as well.
The definition of nutrition in Webster’s Dictionary reflects this important connection between diet and digestion. Webster’s defines nutrition as the sum of the processes by which an animal or plant takes in and utilizes food substances. This definition includes the processes of assimilating food and converting it into tissue. To talk about nutrition without even mentioning the digestive processes of absorption, assimilation, and conversion is incomplete at best. As we shall see, advising people what to eat without educating them on how to properly digest that food can actually be harmful to their health. At the very least, such advice misleads well-motivated people into thinking that only choosing the right foods ends their personal responsibilities in their pursuit of optimal nourishment for their bodies.