What Does Nutritious Really Mean?

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art."  - La Rochefoucauld  The words “nutrition” or “nutritious” have very specific meanings. Sadly, these words have been devalued in our society. Peruse your grocery store and look at all the commercial foods boasting “nutrition”on the label. Hey, if it says on the label that these rubbery, gummy snacks are “nutritious”, it’s got to be the truth, right?  I’ve often wondered how a fruit-roll-up can really fall under the umbrella of a “nutritious snack”. Is a Pop-Tartreally a source of quality nutrition? What does nutritious really mean? Well, let’s start by examining the dictionary definition of the word nutrition. According to Merriam-Webster…

Nutrition is defined as…

…the act or process of nourishing or being nourished; specifically : the sum of the processes by which an animal or plant takes in and utilizes food substances O.K. So now we need to look at the definition of nourishment… Nourishment is defined as… …food, nutriment, sustenance. We’re going in circles. Lastly let’s define nutriment… Nutriment is defined as… …something that nourishes or promotes growth, provides energy, repairs body tissues, and maintains life. Bingo! That was a lot of work just to get at an exact definition, but very important. Now that we’ve defined the term we are left with four very important and measurable identifiers.  Now it’s as simple as looking at a food item and asking if it meets the four-point criteria…

A nutritious food should do the following:

• Promotes growth
• Provides energy
• Repairs and replenishes cells and body tissue
• Maintains life

Promotes Growth

High-quality, nutritious foods help promote growth. This is obvious. Competitive athletes are very concerned about what they eat because they want to promote the growth of muscle tissue. Why? Because when their muscles are growing and fit, they are better athletes. They burn high amounts of fat. They have more energy. They are faster and more limber. The average person should also be concerned with foods that promote muscle growth. Having lean muscle promotes overall health and wellness and helps promote a healthy metabolism.

Provides Energy

Energy is such a misunderstood word to people. (Don’t worry; I’m not going to define it right now.) Sadly, many folks think energy is achieved by visiting a Starbucks drive-thru. True energy comes from good nutrition. It comes from food the way God-intended it to be. Energy is more than just being able to run a marathon or bench-press your bodyweight. It is far more complex than even just being able to have the get-up-and-go to keep up with your active lifestyle. Everything we do requires energy. Thinking, breathing, experiencing emotion, physical exercise, a beating heart, fighting infection… all these require energy. That is why eating foods that promote proper energy is so vitally important to our overall health and wellness.

Repairing Cells and Body Tissue

This is a biggie. Don’t you find it a little too coincidental that over the last three decades degenerative disease has been sharply increasing, while the quality of our food has been decreasing? When you strip the nutrients from food, how can food be nutritious? When vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients are vacant in food, food can no longer repair cells and rebuild tissue. That means free-radical activity abounds. The white blood cells, the soldiers, are weakened and disease gains a foothold.

Maintains Life

Maintaining life can be all sorts of things; but what a perfect way to describe nutrition. In the twenty-first century, if you have looked closely, our culture is obsessed with finding the modern day fountain of youth. You see it on prime-time news shows, in newspaper articles, magazine stories, websites, and more. Remember, the most influential and largest generation –the boomers- are starting to feel their mortality. People want to live longer. Isn’t it interesting that nutrition is defined in part by the term maintaining life? When I think of the term maintaining, I think of prolonging. If you don’t maintain your swimming pool it will break down and get dirty. If you don’t maintain your car it will fail you. If you don’t maintain your air conditioner it will no longer keep you comfortable and cool. If you don’t maintain your body with quality nutrition, you will not prolong your life. In summary, because we are purveyors of exceptional nutritional solutions, Kylea is immersed in the world of health.  We hear all the buzzwords and the lingo. We watch the trends rise and fall. The plain fact is that the word nutrition is one that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. A commercial cereal company may produce a food they call nutritious,but it is in fact, loaded with life-shortening chemicals, colors, preservatives and refined carbohydrates. They obviously have a little different take on it than we do. If you want to promote healthy muscle growth, have more energy, repair cells and body tissue and maintain life, then eat nutritiousfoods. These foods are those that are nutrient-dense. If you struggle with incorporating nutrient-dense foods in your diet, then supplement with a good superfood formula like Kylea’s Total Living Drink. The next time you’re reading the label of a self-claiming nutritiousfood, don’t just accept what they say. Run the ingredients through the four-point criteria of what “nutritious” really means. "When diet is wrong medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need". – Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb Yours in Good Health,

     
Joe Costello