with discussion lately mentioning the battle of organic and genetically modified foods and also nutrient content, one can easily get caught up or confused in reading the nutritional facts labels on the back of foods. but more often than not, these do not even cover a fraction of what you're actually taking in from these foods. so i want to go more in depth on the nature of what makes a ones diet "balanced".
to be more specific, the most common thing left out is what vitamins and minerals are in your foods. and really, unless you are an athlete, or obese, the "nutrition information" on packages is very limiting and misleading, (calories, fat, carbohydrates, etc) and has little application in maintaining a properly balanced diet. generally a package will cover a small handful of nutrients: calcium, sodium, potassium(if you're lucky), vitamin c, vitamin a, but never consistently any more than that. if you saw more precisely what all was in your food, EACH foods nutritional list would look like a vitamin bottle's. no joke. this is something i've really only been found to be remedied by internet searching "nutrients spinach" (or whatever food) and visiting a couple links. but the downfall of this is that it does require some knowledge of what healthy levels of certain vitamins and minerals are. for instance it's really hard to take in TOO much vitamin c. however vitamin a, if taken too much, can cause serious health problems. fortunately, i've found out that combinations of vitamins and minerals produce different colors, so a good short term remedy would be to try and take in a rainbow of food colors throughout the day/week, until one understands where to get certain nutrients from what foods, and also the proper amounts to eat (as i am doing now).
but there is more to it than just that, and it's a view that can be an amazingly easy to grasp when compared to researching pages of information for individual foods in ones diet. not that this should be avoided, but, sometimes we don't have time for these better understandings. im still doing research on it, so ill have more to say later in the thread im sure, but for now, here's an easier way to balance ones diet, with little more than simply identifying the physical aspects of food, and how these translate (mirroring similarly) into corresponding energy in the body. this ancient practice is called "the energetics of food", or "food energetics".
this is a good overview of food energetics, to give you an idea of the concept, and further in, goes in depth into the characteristics of foods, and how those transmute directly(similarly) into the type of energy you get from them
http://www.stevegagne.com/2004/09/
(scroll down to the third post which says "understanding food energetics" or click below for only the article on food energetics)
http://www.stevegagne.com/2004/09/under ... nergetics/
if you ignore the overly "oriental" take on this, it's a great guide to understanding the more fundamental aspects of the "language" of food, and some basic common food combinations, but also why these combinations always seem to be present.
http://www.meridianpress.net/intro.html
this one has points to consider before going out and deciding to "broaden ones diet" and also (below it) explains the "cooling effect of raw foods" (for all you vegans out there)
http://www.stevegagne.com/2008/07/
to be more specific, the most common thing left out is what vitamins and minerals are in your foods. and really, unless you are an athlete, or obese, the "nutrition information" on packages is very limiting and misleading, (calories, fat, carbohydrates, etc) and has little application in maintaining a properly balanced diet. generally a package will cover a small handful of nutrients: calcium, sodium, potassium(if you're lucky), vitamin c, vitamin a, but never consistently any more than that. if you saw more precisely what all was in your food, EACH foods nutritional list would look like a vitamin bottle's. no joke. this is something i've really only been found to be remedied by internet searching "nutrients spinach" (or whatever food) and visiting a couple links. but the downfall of this is that it does require some knowledge of what healthy levels of certain vitamins and minerals are. for instance it's really hard to take in TOO much vitamin c. however vitamin a, if taken too much, can cause serious health problems. fortunately, i've found out that combinations of vitamins and minerals produce different colors, so a good short term remedy would be to try and take in a rainbow of food colors throughout the day/week, until one understands where to get certain nutrients from what foods, and also the proper amounts to eat (as i am doing now).
but there is more to it than just that, and it's a view that can be an amazingly easy to grasp when compared to researching pages of information for individual foods in ones diet. not that this should be avoided, but, sometimes we don't have time for these better understandings. im still doing research on it, so ill have more to say later in the thread im sure, but for now, here's an easier way to balance ones diet, with little more than simply identifying the physical aspects of food, and how these translate (mirroring similarly) into corresponding energy in the body. this ancient practice is called "the energetics of food", or "food energetics".
this is a good overview of food energetics, to give you an idea of the concept, and further in, goes in depth into the characteristics of foods, and how those transmute directly(similarly) into the type of energy you get from them
http://www.stevegagne.com/2004/09/
(scroll down to the third post which says "understanding food energetics" or click below for only the article on food energetics)
http://www.stevegagne.com/2004/09/under ... nergetics/
if you ignore the overly "oriental" take on this, it's a great guide to understanding the more fundamental aspects of the "language" of food, and some basic common food combinations, but also why these combinations always seem to be present.
http://www.meridianpress.net/intro.html
this one has points to consider before going out and deciding to "broaden ones diet" and also (below it) explains the "cooling effect of raw foods" (for all you vegans out there)
http://www.stevegagne.com/2008/07/