Someone’s Superfood Is Someone Else’s Kryptonite
Real food—as close to as-nature-intended, like organic fruits and vegetables and quality-sourced animal products—is healthy. But does that mean all healthy food is right for you?
We Are All Individualized
Other than gender differences, our bodies’ anatomy and physiology—from molecules to bones, and body parts to the body as a whole function—are basically the same.
What is different in every individual is our biochemistry—how our body uses nutrients to create chemical reactions that take place in biological (metabolic) processes at the cellular and molecular level. Our body’s biochemistry turns genes on and off, repairs DNA, and creates the chemical reactions that allow our bodies to thrive.
Our Body Is Fluid
So what make biochemistries unique from one person to another?
Our genetics and lifestyle—our environment, what we eat, and even what we think—impact our biochemistry makeup. Our body is changing constantly because internal and external factors influence our metabolic state in order to maintain homeostasis and protect what our brain perceives as dangerous.
Some of these influencers include: sleep quality and duration, emotional/mental stress levels, physical stress levels and frequency/quality of movement, dietary intake, quality of relationships, exposure to environmental toxins, and inherited dirty (mutated) genes.
Making a Connection
Our body will not function long without sufficient water and nutrition. Nutrients we need include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fats, and non-vitamin phytonutrients; a single nutrient can be used for hundreds of different activities in the body. Therefore, nutrient deficiencies from our diet can disrupt biochemical function and cause symptoms that don’t always seem connected unless analyzed through the lens of our body’s biochemistry, i.e. hormone imbalances due to low functional fat levels.
Dysfunctional body systems also have direct adverse affects on our biochemistry. An example of this would be someone who suffers with frequent symptoms of anxiety, brain fog, and/or irritability, and who regularly eats dairy products and has an undiagnosed condition of poor gut health; when ingested, dairy crosses the blood-brain barrier and can interfere with opioid receptors; casein, a protein in all dairy, is a significant influencer in behavior, mood, and even addictive tendencies.
Looking Deeper
Symptoms are our body’s language for telling us something’s wrong. You’re your most important health advocate—assess your health by looking deeper than your symptoms!
Some ways to do this are to discuss with your healthcare provider options for diagnostics, such as thorough labs and tests, to identify the root cause(s) and facilitate proper treatment(s); if you know emotional, physical, or mental stress is the cause of your ill-health, you can implement relaxation techniques into your daily routine, seek guidance from a therapist, or find ways to divert your thoughts and elevate your mind to a happy and creative space. These strategies will influence your biochemistry to have a positive impact on your health.
Conclusion
Our bodies exist in a web of interactions among biochemical pathways and body systems. Our environment, diet, and even what we think are constantly changing, altering our biochemistry and impacting our individualized expression of health—in this context, nothing is right all of the time! When experiencing unhealthy symptoms, find the root cause so that you can meet your own unique biochemistry needs and have a life of vitality and longevity.
Check out my free eBook, Seven Actions To Kick Start Fat Burning Without Going To The Gym, for simple and effective Primal-aligned strategies to help you thrive on your unique health journey. You can find the free eBook by clicking Free Fat Burning Offer.
I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to respond to this blog with your comments, or contact me with questions or feedback. Be well and live awesome!
Sources
All of the information in this writing is for educational and informational purposes only. We are passionate about leading a healthy lifestyle and aim to share that passion with you through coaching, blogs, readings, chats, social media, etc. Primary sources to ensure accurate and current content, including studies, scientific references, and statistics, are found below:
John Neustadt, ND, Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD. (2007) iUniverse, A Revolution In Health Through Nutritional Biochemistry.
Primal Blueprint Podcast (Nov 4, 2019) Ali Miller RD, LD, CDE