Dr. Dodge: Passion for Health

[In this article, I compare building a healthy body to constructing a good home. This is useful analogy, but like all analogies, it is limited. The major principles are similar, but health and the human body are far more complex than the finest home. In addition, the human body is being remodeled continuously, which makes the process even more complex. Yet, that makes the principle of choosing the finest building materials even more important. Keep this in mind as you read today's article!

Nutrition is vital to good health. Good nutrition supplies the building blocks that you use to build a sound body and mind. The quality of the building blocks you use makes a big difference in the long-term soundness of your body. If you use poor building blocks, your body may seem fine, but it will not serve you well in the long run. Choosing good building materials to begin with is a matter of key importance.

What are the best nutritional building materials? Without question, top-grade nutritional building materials include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, pure water, healthy sources of good protein and oil, and a few foods like nuts, eggs, and sea veggies. Using the best mix of one’s materials is important in home construction, and this is true in health also.

Research says nine to ten servings of vegetables and fruit daily, with similar amounts of whole grains, provide us with ideal levels of many vitamins and antioxidants, as well as much of our protein, fiber, and energy needs. These are the true nutritional powerhouse materials for our bodies. Additional protein and oil from sources like fish, nuts, eggs, and  occasional servings of lean white meat provide added value. These are the basics.

Avoiding shoddy building materials is important in good construction, and it is equally important in building a healthy body. Defective nutritional materials include sugar, white flour, white rice, trans fats, and many processed foods made with these nutritionally inferior substances. Homes built with poor building blocks may look attractive, but their long-term quality is poor. The same is true with our health.

How do we know about the quality of various nutritional building blocks? We knew a bit fifty years ago when I was in medical school. Through the years since then, thousands of research studies have given us much more solid information about the value of most foodstuffs. We still have more to learn, but today the overall picture is clear. 

Veggies, fruits, and whole grains are immensely valuable foods that boost our immune systems and help protect us from infection, cancer, and many degenerative diseases. By contrast, many processed foods are bereft of much nutritional value. Sugar, a major culprit, not only fails to improve health, but contributes to a variety of health problems. Many foods are palatable mainly because of being sweetened with sugar.  

Taste is not a reliable guide when it comes to choosing foods for nutritional value. Yet, most of us depend on our taste buds in deciding what to eat. We want something that tastes good, and that usually means something familiar. Many people today are most familiar with foods of poor nutritional value, and so that is what they prefer. 

The good news is that our taste buds are highly adaptable. We can learn to like good nutritious food. Is it worth the effort? It depends on how much you value your health. What you eat is a major determinant of your long-term health. Your choices lie among good quality or poor quality nutritional building blocks. The choice is always yours.