Your Complex Body Made Simple
Your body is an amazing symphony of miraculous biological functions. From your uninterrupted heartbeat to breathing, from blinking to thinking, hundreds of thousands of biochemical actions occur every second, without conscious awareness.
These nearly incomprehensible complex interrelationships take years of intensive study to even partly understand. However, the truth of how your body uses nutrition can be rendered down to relatively simple roots.
The 4 Building Blocks of Functional Nutrition is a layperson's breakdown of the supremely complex into simple concepts. It offers a simple yet accurate way to understand the roots of how nutrition works in your body.
BEYOND FOODS
Scientific studies demonstrate that foods and dietary choices have a tremendous effect on our health. More and more studies are proving the links between specific foods and positive benefits on numerous health related conditions.
One example is a study done by Dr. Paresh Dadona, a diabetes specialist in Buffalo NY, who measured the body's response to a typical fast food breakfast.
"Levels of a C-reactive protein, an indicator of systemic inflammation, shot up 'within literally minutes."'
"'I was shocked,' he recalls, 'that a simple M*******'s meal that seems harmless enough—the sort of high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal that 1in 4 Americans eats regularly—would have such a dramatic effect. And it lasted for hours."'
Along with studies showing the detrimental effect of processed and sugary foods, science is proving the importance of certain key micronutrients. In fact even our genetic expression is affected by nutrients—or the lack of them. Every single function of your body, from breathing to thinking to movement, is utterly dependent on raw materials from your diet. If you are not giving your body the essential raw materials, it cannot perform those functions.
Imagine you want to build a new house. What do you need?
First, you need money to pay for materials and labor. Next you need the raw materials to create the home—framing materials, insulation, roofing, electrical lines, plumbing lines, heating and cooling, flooring and finish materials. Then you need an architect who can design a structure that can last. Lastly, you need skilled workers to build a sturdy structure.
Now, imagine that this house is your body. We are born with the architect and workers ready to go, every moment of every day, thanks to our genetic code. We have built-in blueprints for plumbing and electrical systems; built in heating, cooling and ventilation. Some of us are born with better blueprints than others—this is where genetics plays its key role.
Where many of us have system failures, and this begins in the womb, is in providing the raw materials that will allow our architect and builders to create the most magnificent home possible. We fail at providing the cash--the healthy energy--to sustain our home once it is built.
Unfortunately, many people give their body the equivalent of sand, paper and strings instead providing brick, mortar and nails. If you want to stay vibrantly healthy and age gracefully, the first thing you have to do is provide the raw materials which your body requires.
The 4 Building Blocks model will help you answer these key questions:
• Do you eat foods which provide the building blocks of your electrical system (nerves and brain)?
• Do you have the nutrients essential for a clean plumbing system which doesn't back up (constipation), spring a leak (acid reflux, Leaky Gut Syndrome), or break down (indigestion and bowel problems)?
• Are you providing the raw materials to keep your frame (muscles and bones) from tearing down over time?
• Do you have the right currency (cellular energy) to allow all these actions to occur thousands of times daily?
The 4 Building Blocks of Functional Nutrition
The 4 Building Blocks of Functional Nutrition are the four foundational nutrient groups that build and support your body's cells and systems. Each building block offers essential, specific benefits.
Each building block ties into and supports the others. Together, they support the strong cellular foundation we experience as energy, vitality and radiant health.
BUILDING BLOCK ONE: SUPERFOODS
Nourish
A Superfood is a whole food which acts as powerhouse of concentrated nutrients, offering a lot of micronutrients for comparatively few calories.
BUILDING BLOCK TWO: DIGESTIVE NUTRIENTS
Energize
Digestive Nutrients help your body to correctly break down foods into usable elements. This means that individual nutrients in foods are more effectively absorbed into your blood, where they become the fuel for all the cells in your body. Friendly bacteria and food enzymes help to efficiently and completely turn food into energy for life.
BUILDING BLOCK THREE: ANTIOXIDANTS
Protect
Antioxidants are molecules which are able to safely neutralize free radicals. This helps protect your cells from premature aging due to the wear and tear of metabolism, toxins and daily life.
BUILDING BLOCK FOUR: REGENERATIVE NUTRIENTS
Renew
Regenerative nutrients are those foods scientifically proven to enhance and support chromosomal health, healthy genetic expression, telomere length and adult stem cell production.
Nourish, Energize, Protect, Renew.