Our whole health is something that we unfortunately often take for granted, not having enough emphasis on why and how certain aspects of our health are so crucially important. There is something to be said about stepping out of habitual patterns and taking leaps towards a healthier life, and sometimes that takes some serious redrafting of specific aspects of one’s life to get there. Whether it is something as simple as buying and consistently taking vitamins and minerals from companies like Douglas Labs to bridge small gaps in our physical health, or going to therapy sessions for weeks, months, or even years consecutively to work through mental health struggles, it is all important.
When it comes to our physical health, there are several things that we should be actively and continuously doing to ensure that we are giving our bodies the best care possible. Exercise is one of the two biggest impactors, but the other is diet. It is a fact that continues to become increasingly obvious, that diet has the most profound impact on the ways our bodies look, feel, and operate. You can exercise as much as you want, and you will notice significant improvements, but if you couple that exercise with a healthy diet, you will get the most incredible results.
What we fuel our bodies with literally becomes us, and so it is so important that we eat and drink foods and fluids that are not processed, filled with artificial colours and flavours, and unhealthy fats and sugars. This is not to say that you need to cut out unhealthy, processed foods entirely, but it has been proven time and again that the more you eat them, the more negative kickback your body will feel and take on. Our bodies need sugars and fats to operate, but it is about the quality of those sugars and fats.
Healthy fats include avocado and fatty fish like salmon, while unhealthy fats are all about processed items like chips and chocolates. The same can be said for sugars. Fruit and even some vegetables provide natural sugars, but lollies, chocolates, and doughnuts (to give a few examples) are not only unhealthy, but they tend to clog up the functions of our bodies as we try to digest and expel them. In short, this means that processed, unnatural foods and fluids take longer to digest and work through, because they have added preservatives, processed fats, and sugars.
It takes our bodies longer to burn through unhealthy foods and fluids because they are not designed to ingest them. We are designed to be hunters, gatherers, and foragers, but we were not created with the goal in mind for us to be able to easily consume processed foods. The best diet is a diet that is as natural as possible, that makes us feel the best, and that makes our bodies able to perform at their peak. More than anything else, diet has the most substantial impact of all.