Does Food Directly Relate To Health?
You don’t have to be the doctor to be smarter than your doctor—by all means, go ahead and indulge your passion for reading facts, figures, and science!
As a medical student, I suspect I should be flattered that students are spending time poring over scientific papers. However, the conclusion they often draw from all that time reading “facts” is not so comforting. After all, the days of medicine are coming to an end, isn’t it? Even our most brilliant doctors now have to hold down day jobs and earn salaries. Perhaps there’s no need to confine themselves to attending lectures on anatomy. Maybe they could provide a peek into the mind of the next generation by patronizing local science museums. Their outlook might surprise you.
Perhaps we can cut short this indulgence in scientific facts by inviting other senses into the mix. We have come to refer to the L-shaped relationship of sight, sound, touch, and smell—and I am happy to see that my students are incorporating these senses when discussing science. Why not consider food?
Indeed, there are many ways in which food is a way to experience the universe. Obviously, every student must understand and interpret the parts of the body that would be involved in the nutritional aspects of a particular food. It is also of use to know how to recognize specific foods in order to make informed dietary choices, as well as to recognize the senses through which food is eaten and perceived.
In general, for example, the taste of food is the first response to it, although there are a few occasions when the physical appearance of a food also plays a role.
Finally, the way food is eaten must be recognizable and understood. The feeling of breaking open a bag of strawberries and smelling their scent after sitting at the bottom of a box may go beyond taste. A student’s reaction to the sight of a pile of spuds turned “off” into something akin to disgust can be the first insight to be gained into the meaning of the food.
The beneficial effects of nutrition in improving your health and quality of life should not go unnoticed. However, food itself does not provide the answer—only the awareness of its role in what you are eating and how to eat can provide the way forward. Nutritionists know that your choices, or lack thereof, are a result of your relationship with food, which is a fundamental relationship in our lives.
We should try to be aware of what we eat and how it is prepared. Did you know that the pH level of the food you eat is at least ten times higher than the pH level of your body? To paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes (1907-1975), the acidity of your stomach will affect your pH level, thereby impacting the acidity of your whole body.
Germs are another factor that play a major role in the way that you feel about your food. A greater awareness of food preparation and eating can reduce the possibility of transferring certain gastrointestinal ailments from the external environment to your internal body.
Take time to see these food-related concepts as truly encompassing a holistic view of human health, instead of as just a one-dimensional idea. When you build a relationship with food, this attitude becomes your reward. Your knowledge and understanding of food, as well as your capacity to say yes and no to foods, will add to your own sense of well-being.
You can use this meal as an introduction to your new way of thinking. With your understanding, you may also develop a deeper understanding of your relationship with the world around you and a far greater ability to appreciate and appreciate the simple pleasure of food. And that, my friends, is an important part of life that will never be lost.
