“You are what you eat”. A well-known statement with a meaning that is not clear to everyone. Yet it is a valuable saying. If you think about it for a moment, it can provide important insight and help you to deal with food and your body in a good way. As a result, you will live healthier and probably live longer. When we say you are what you eat, we obviously don’t mean that someone who eats a lot of apples will start to look like an apple. Whether someone who only eats beef is more like a cow than someone who also eats other types of meat. That is too literal an interpretation. But the actual meaning of the saying only becomes more important in our present day. That is precisely why it is good to cherish the thinking behind it.
Not too literal
You should not take the statement ‘you are what you eat’ too literally. We all have a body that we have to live with for the rest of our lives. Primarily, our body needs oxygen to survive. But after that, the nutrition you get is the most important thing to stay alive.
Our body is a fantastic machine. In many ways, the human body is the most extraordinary thing you can find in nature. But to keep that body alive and healthy you have to throw the right fuel into it. In that respect too you can compare our body with a machine.
Our body can do anything
There’s a lot going on in our bodies. For example, just think about the renewal of cells and our immune system. To perform all functions properly, it needs the right substances. For example, vitamins, fiber, minerals, antioxidants, energy, and so on. Our entire body must maintain itself with the nutrition it receives. All kinds of processes take place to turn these substances into the right things that our body can use.
The right nutrition
But you could say that your body is made up of the food you eat. So you literally are what you ate. That’s why it’s even worse to put bad food into your body. Certain things are simply bad for you and your body and should therefore be avoided. In addition, there is a lot of food that in moderation does not cause any problems, but an excess of it will have bad consequences. Usually in the longer term.
Here too you can make the comparison with a machine. All kinds of things go into your car: petrol, gas or diesel as fuel. But also coolant, engine oil, brake oil, windshield wiper fluid, freon (air conditioning) and so on. Everyone understands that you should not change these fluids. You don’t put brake fluid in your coolant reservoir and vice versa. It is not difficult to understand that this will have bad consequences. In fact, it is not much different with our bodies . Even though we often don’t consciously think about it. Strange, because our bodies are a lot more valuable than any car.
Our flexible digestive system
There are of course some differences. In our body, all food enters our digestive system through the mouth. There are no different places for the minerals, vitamins and other important nutrients. On the one hand, that would be useful, because then you know exactly what you need/don’t need and what to do with it. But in reality you will not find pure building materials in nature. In most food you will find a combination of all kinds of nutrients. It is therefore especially useful that we can simply eat our food and that our body itself extracts the right substances from the food. And remove the unnecessary items and waste.
On a long term
Another important difference with a car is the consequences of incorrect fuel. If you do the wrong things in your car, you will quickly run into major problems. However, our body is much more tolerant and able to cope for a very long time. As a result, the consequences of poor nutrition are not immediately apparent. You can eat relatively poorly for years and still have few problems. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems. Slowly but surely it will deteriorate, but unfortunately it will not be noticeable that quickly.
Tasty or healthy?
The primary function of food is to nourish our bodies. Everyone will understand that. Yet in practice it seems to be more and more about eating tasty things. How healthy the food is is secondary. Many people still pay attention to calories and carbohydrates to prevent obesity. But a slim body is not yet a healthy body.
What are the consequences of poor nutrition?
These days it often seems like there are more and more cases of cancer and other serious diseases. There are not very good explanations for many of these diseases. But a connection with poor nutrition is not so far-fetched. If you consistently eat poorly and your body does not get the nutrients it needs, it is obvious that things will go wrong in your body in the long term. And that certain functions will no longer work optimally or even at all. So be very conscious of your diet and know that you are what you eat: eat healthy and be healthy!
read more
- How healthy is fruit: About vitamins, calories and fiber
- Is our food being spoiled by the food industry?
- E621 or vetsin: dangerous or healthy flavor enhancer?
- How many eggs is good to eat: about cholesterol and nutrition
- Caffeine: healthy and useful or better avoided?
