What's In Your (Food) Bank Account?

Maybe you have heard the saying “it only takes a spark to get a fire going”? Well, one small micro-dot of the hallucinogenic drug “acid” can be that way. The only thing about this drug is that you can never be sure if the spark will emerge as a powerful pleasure trip of fun and adventure for the body, brain and nervous system or if this drug will provide a tremendous down-side of anger, hatred and rage.

The foods that we choose to put into our system each day serve the same principle as that one small “hit of acid”. Without realizing it, we subject our kids and ourselves to similar types of drugs each day. We hurry to first one meeting then another, we stop by the local fast food restaurant to pick up something for dinner and then we gulp it down with multiple drinks in a matter of minutes so that we do not lose time on our next task. This regimen of events propels our body’s equilibrium system into a tail spin that creates confusion for our internal organs, muscles, brain and nervous system. The outcome of these types of drugs is often displayed in physical and mental disruptions, confusion, guilt, shame; all things that eventually cause a breakdown of the communication lines between the electrical circuits of the body and brain.

Our body is always trying to maintain equilibrium and homeostasis. No matter how badly we may treat the body, it will always fight to bring us back to some level of balance. But the more bad stuff or acid forming foods that we put into the system, without providing some of the alkaline or neutralizing things to go with it, the more difficult it becomes for our body to regulate our physical, mental and emotional activities.

Think of your body as an electronic bank account. Nutrients from the foods chosen will be directed into a checking account for immediate use and withdrawal. This checking account is our daily reservoir that keeps our minds focused, our energy level stable and our emotions in tact. Basically, these nutrients help us walk, talk, think and function. Any good nutrients from the foods we eat that are excess for direct use, go into a savings account. This savings account is essential for those days when our stress level is higher, when we are faced with emotional trauma or for when our “fight or flight” symptoms appear. It is the stored nutrients that help get us through the rough times. In today’s society, our reserves our becoming obsolete.

So how do we boost the reserves to ensure that we can make it through the tough times? Hard work helps, but a proper body pH level is what is important. The pH of the body indicates that we maintain a level between 6.6 and 7.4 on the acid-alkaline scale. Any deviation from this range indicates that nutrients are being taken from our savings accounts and placed into our checking account for immediate use. Processed foods, sugar, white flour/bread, sodas, coffee and caffeine are all acid forming foods that deplete our reserves, while also breaking down our body’s defenses against ailments and disease. While they may provide direct comfort for the soul, they do nothing to ensure a level of competency for the physical or emotional body.

The more acidic the internal body, the more deficient in vitamins and minerals we become. On the reverse side, the more alkaline, the greater the risk that certain other nutrients are depleted. Without proper vitamins and minerals to drive the brain and nervous system, the more our body retaliates through its showing of physical and emotional pain. Whole grains, seeds, dark green leafy vegetables and raw fruits provide the basics of nutrition that restore our savings accounts and help maintain a sense of balance for the system.

Food and our choices of it have a direct impact on our moods, attitudes, energy levels, addictions and so forth. It is our choice as to the drug we choose. Each cell of the body has the propensity to pull from other cells and provide the nutrients necessary for that day’s events. Rest and relaxation, proper nutrition and fun help stabilize the effects that our foods have on the body. The body is really an amazing machine when properly funded.

Of course it is not always as simple as it sounds. One diet will not fit every person. Our blood-type and genetic make-up provide some level of detail for the kinds of foods and nutrients our bodies need to sustain us in this life. I am an O blood type and one who tried for years to be vegetarian. O blood types can seldom accomplish this lifestyle as our body requires more protein than other blood types. But too much protein puts undue stress on the overall digestive system, the one system that drives our overall well-being. My stubborn desire to be something that I am not nutritionally adept to be, kept me on a roller-coaster of emotional ups and downs and withdrew from my own savings accounts the B vitamins and protein needed for a healthy lifestyle.

Nutrition can be a cumbersome process of understanding. The more bad food that we put into our mouth, the more craving for that bad food we may create. Our cravings speak loudly of what may be missing in our diets. We need to find our current baseline of pH (acid-alkaline) and begin with a simple challenge to change our own habits in order to replenish the savings account of our electrical fuse box. The better stuff that we begin adding to our daily diet, the more good stuff it will desire and demand. This will eventually help us to rid ourselves of the currently overused bad things that we feed it each day.

Hippocrates said “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”. Food can be like that of the acid micro-dot that can propel us to unknown new heights or bring us to unknown new lows. We can choose to save for a rainy day or deplete our electronic bank account now, the choice is ours.