Smart investing isn’t limited to your bank account. Transactions occur within your body when you eat food.
You credit your account (your body) by depositing vital nutrients from whole foods. And you debit your account when the digestive system uses these nutrients in doing its job of breaking down the food you eat. Therefore, what you eat can overdraw, balance or collect in your health account.
Sadly, many of us are overdrawn. In our fast-paced lives, the convenience of processed, refined foods is what many of us choose. These nutrient-depleted foods don’t contribute to your “bank” account. Instead, they withdraw nutrients from your account to fuel the process of digestion.
The body is designed to slowly and methodically process and refine a whole food after we eat it – not before. Contrary to belief, highly broken-down foods (like refined sugars and other processed, refined foods) are not digested more efficiently. However, they are absorbed very quickly. This creates hormonal confusion because stages are skipped in the structured, orderly chain of events in the digestive process.
Our food supply has changed drastically, especially in the last few decades, but our digestive systems haven’t changed at all. Our designer foods of today are far too advanced for the unique simplicity of the human digestive system.
Dieticians say our wide selection of “convenience foods” is a contributing factor to the rising rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Twenty years ago, sugar-coated breakfast cereals were about the only convenience junk food found in most households.
Today, for every meal there are hundreds of choices of processed foods that didn’t occur naturally, like wieners and deli meats, breads and crackers, cookies and cakes, quick-cooking rice, margarine, ice cream, potato chips, snack bars and soda pop.
Eating these poor food choices won’t credit your account because they provide few nutrients to repay the debit your digestive process makes.
Infrequently eating them won’t put your account in the red; you’ll at the very least stay in balance. However, many of us make poor choices at nearly every meal, withdrawing continually on our good health.
To keep your account in credit, choose foods more often that aren’t as tampered with or changed by humans – foods that are as close as possible to how they were created in nature.
Choose an apple instead of a sports bar. Serve fresh fruit and natural nuts at tea time instead of cookies. Munch on a whole bell pepper or a handful of cherry tomatoes. Try to eat more fresh fruit, vegetables and root vegetables, cooked whole grains, and natural meat choices.
Save the processed, refined “fast foods” as an occasional treat and you’ll be a wealthier and healthier investor.
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Eve Lees has been active in the health & fitness industry since 1979. Currently, she is a Freelance Health Writer for several publication and speaks to business and private groups on various health topics.