You are what you eat
All my life I have been confused about food choices. Bad food? Good food? What is bad food? how is food bad or good?
Along my journey of self-discovery, especially when I look at skin from a beauty therapist's point of view I have come to some conclusions.
The human body is always repairing itself, this is a fact.
The more familiar times are either when we cut our finger or when we work out. The body has its own internal healing and repairing system so when we cut our finger, the brain sends signals to the blood to start the healing process thus our blood clots forming a defence against any bacteria from the outside world entering our body. Ok so far so good.
When we work out or do any strength training we strain our muscles causing our muscles to break and tear a little, when we rest in between workout days our muscles repair and come back stronger because they need to be ready for when we workout again and then we go through the cycle again and again.
What is less commonly known is that most of our body is repairing itself in this way on a daily basis, usually during the night when we are resting.
So now we get onto food, what part does food play in our repairing? well, our body is primarily made up of proteins, fat and water. Proteins are needed for the repair and health of skin, hair, nails, muscles and almost every cell in our bodies uses protein.
Fats and carbohydrates are also essential for the healthy functions of our mind and body.
So food is food, right? well not really. Imagine we have only eaten junk food all day long and when we are sleeping our cells need to start repairing, so where do they get the proteins, fats and carbohydrates needed to repair themselves? well, the only source they have is the junk food you ate during the day, so your cells are repaired using anything found in your daily food, therefore you are being repaired using the junk food. You are essentially the food you ate.
I’m not saying we should eliminate all junk food, where is the fun in that? But what I have realised is when I incorporate better food choices into my life my skin, nails and hair feel and look so much better. If I was going all out I would say look at your food sources as well, organic is best whenever possible but we don’t live in an ideal world, so the best thing is to do your best whenever possible and be mindful of what you eat, try and incorporate your 5 a day and also plenty of water because we are 65% + water as well. But that is a story for another day!!