What is Food, really?

 

Biologically speaking, food by definition is fuel. We are carbon units and use carbon as fuel. Keeping it in easy to understand terms, food, that is, vegetables, fruits, and meats in their natural form are carriers of the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other nutrients. Our digestive system is designed to break down the foods we eat into their basic molecular parts. Carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars; proteins into amino acids; and lipids into their base molecular structures. The body is then able to assimilate these base parts into the various components to form and repair our body.

 

In order for us to survive in this world we have to eat. Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you to eat your vegetables? Some of you told them that you didn’t like those vegetables. I know, because I disliked that big, orange looking squash, yuk! I would put butter and brown sugar on it just to get it to stay down. You get the picture. The only reason it should look good, taste good, and smell good is so that we will eat and not starve to death. However, the Great Designer, did make food that taste good, looked good, and smelled good. The scientists now know that the brightly colored foods are very good and full of a lot of important nutrients that will help us avoid health problems.

 

Man has taken the foods on this planet and painted them into an art form. There is nothing wrong with art, but the manipulation of that art form has caused our foods to be devoid of nutrients, addictive, and in some cases down right poison to our bodies. Man has transformed the sights, smells, and tastes to such levels that digestive illnesses such as bloating, GERD, acid reflux, constipation, colitis, Graves’, obesity, pancreatitis, and a host of others have invaded our lives and to some degree we think it’s a normal course of getting older.

 

The French are famous for their cream sauces; the Italians, their pastas; the Mexicans, their fajitas; and the Americans, their double whammy loaded cheeseburgers. The art of the chef in food preparation is the presentation on the plate followed by the smell and taste. Nutrition is not on the menu (except it is mandated by the government to show calories, fats, and etc.)

What does all this prep have to do with fuel…….. really nothing. So for good nutrition stick with the foods you like without going overboard on the preparation and processing. Don’t let the sights and smells distraction you from what is wholesome and good. Although your body might object at first, it will thank you in the long run.

 

Food is not your comforter, mother, father, pacifier, security blanket, Holy Spirit, or best friend. It is only FUEL. We can lust after food and make it more than what it is supposed to be, and that my friend, can be an addiction.

 

By the way, I really like all kinds of squash now and I only use a little real butter on it.