Variety, The Spice Of Life: The Virtues of a Full & Varied Diet

Variety, The Spice Of Life: The Virtues of a Full & Varied Diet: Truth Serum. An intelligent overview—knowledge of Nature’s principles—is a truth serum. It immediately reveals if a new diet book, biohack, or dietary assumption is in accord with the body’s fundamental design and innate functions. Here, we’re building our truth serum.

Ancient Wisdom.

In the prior blog, we considered the importance of our predecessors’ principles and practices. Historical knowledge helps us to avoid repeating past mistakes. It can also help steer us through cleverly-rigged scientific studies, specious interpretations, and hidden agendas that make nutrition so confusing.

Modern Science.

Here, we also examine modern science’s findings from micro- and cellular biology; genetics and epigenetics; and physics. THEN we’ll draw practical, state-of-the-art conclusions that end dietary confusion.

Varied Diet—The Spice Of Life.

Let’s examine the modern trend of dietary restrictions and the importance of variety. Soon, we’ll have simple, practical applications to enhance our dietary health and well-being.

Varied Diet: Horse Sense.

Variety in diet is a survival practice. Just like the admonishment against incest. It explains how people can get tired of eating the same thing over and over. People have an inborn desire for variety. (Pets do to … just a point of consideration for our furry friends.)

Energy is survival. The cells’ energy producers—the mitochondria—are innately flexible. They can burn sugar, fat, and the body can even convert proteins into sugar to stoke the cellular life-fires.

Genetics/epigenetics, and innate cellular metabolic processes all point to the variety principle as being necessary for health. Nature’s horse sense validated.

Varied Diet: Bounty Awaits.

Simply put, we all need to reach out and eat a new (organic, of course) vegetable, fruit, nut, meat, and herb or two each week. This is a foundational natural health principle. So, what’s with all the restrictions health pundits are preaching?

Seems everyone wants something external to blame. When wholesome foods are put on the exclusionary chopping block, it behooves us to examine why they bother us, and “correct the cause,” rather than commit the sin-of-omission and delete another important food.

Nature’s Law of Economy is getting the most done with the least amount of energy expenditure. There is alchemy in the body’s life processes—the transmutation of molecules—, especially in the liver. Molecules are constructed, deconstructed, reconstructed, recycled, used, and discarded according to the body’s design.

A variety of nutrients, and avoidance of deficiencies, best supports the body’s innate biochemical milieu. Variety provides easy access to a wide range of ready raw materials. This economy of labor conserves ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate)—the chemical energy of life.

Varied Diet = Wide Nutrient Availability.

It’s always great to have the right tool when needed. Available nutrients help spare the body’s back-up systems.

For example, the body can withdraw calcium from the bones to buffer the blood pH (alkalinity). This need to withdraw calcium becomes elevated by the phosphoric acid in sodas.

Reciprocally, a simple improvement in diet such as eating organic bok choy (rich in nascent calcium) puts ionic calcium on the plus side. This is important, not only for bone health. Calcium ion channels are part of the cellular electrical system.

With an abundance of plant-calcium, the body is less likely to raid the bone’s calcium bank account.

Such a positive dietary adjustment also serves the gut microbiome, bones, and cellular calcium ion channels necessary for heart and muscle functions. It also helps avoid calcium deposits in the joints, arteries, breasts, heart, brain, etc. Many benefits to Nature’s calcium.

Varied Diet For Adaptability.

The body’s innate ability to transmutate molecules is a survival trait. It helps in times of famine and nutritional deficiencies. It helps cellular detoxification.

The body requires fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, water, and other nutrients to perform its duties. Simple fact. We need a rich array of nutrients to support the body’s cellular functions.

A varied diet is “exercise” for overall digestive, microbiome, and immune system balance. It exposes the gut microbiome, immune system, and cellular epigenetic responses to many variables. Strength in numbers.

Despite the liver’s amazing ability to manufacture enzyme systems and molecules for cellular life processes, it needs raw materials. Many such nutrients are “essential.”

6+ Classic Categories Of “Essential.”

Essential nutrients in a varied diet include: 1) Amino acids, 2) Vitamins, 3) Minerals, macro- and trace, 4) Fatty acids, 5) Water and 6) Carbohydrates/fibers.

Plus One.

Here’s a unique, seventh category, an original thought – “Certain Plant Nutriments.” These molecules are enzyme complexes, rare vitamins, and amino acid chains.

You can find these mysterious essential nutrients in plants (vegetables, fruit) and herbs. Plant nutriments impact the gut microbiome, not only with fibers and nutrients but with source messenger molecules and nascent vitamins such as folate.

The gut microbiome renders CPNs (Certain Plant Nutrients) into important molecules and compounds. This plethora of unique, nascent molecules are cell-ready. They serve the self-purification, membrane repair, and balanced immunological functions.

Cooperation between the innate and humoral (acquired) immune systems is important. Proper balance prevents sensitivities, allergies, and provides quick resolutions of normal inflammation processes.

Varied Diet: Immunological Diversity.

The repetition of the same foods can cause immune system hypersensitivity. Frequent exposure to the same foods can cause the intestinal secretory IgA antibody system to overreact. Histamine increases. As a vanguard immune antibody, secretory IgA also alerts other immune reactions. The collateral damage is food sensitivities.

If there are inflammation and a leaky gut, intestinal reactions start a cascade of ballistic responses such as fatigue and brain fog after eating

As immunological concerns rise, so does inflammation. A varied diet teaches the immune system to not get riled up about the many varied molecular structures of dietary intake.

This concept is part of the Feingold Diet (1970) promulgated to help children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). It featured avoidance of food additives and trigger foods; variety by the necessity of restriction; and food rotations.

For example, if a person who is mildly sensitive to avocado eats avocado on Monday, there is no adverse immune reaction. The gut microbiome says, “Holy guacamole!” and flourishes on the healthy fats.

If this person eats avo again on Tuesday, then the immune system says, “Hey! Is this an attack of the killer avocado? I better up my game and play the inflammation card.”

If avo is eaten again on Wednesday, the immune system (probably an avid Ian Fleming reader) quotes, “Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” 

But if after the Monday guacamole, the person waits until Friday to eat another avo, then no reaction. The immune system had time to relax its vigilance. So, in rotation, people eat certain foods every 4th day.

Varied Diet: Food Rotations

Food rotations inevitably increase variety because after eating carrot on Monday, a person has to discover that there are other crunchy veggies to enjoy—jicama, celery, raw asparagus, bell pepper, snow peas, radish, kohlrabi, water chestnuts, and avoid hammering the immune system with repetitions that might set off immune reactions. Once bitten, twice shy.

Trend Warning. The general trend today is toward fewer fresh foods and less variety in grocery stores. Why stock rutabagas if no-one buys them? Most people would not know a rutabaga if one stood up and said, “Howdy”.

Buy the doggone rutabaga. Have at least one bite—just to let your brain know that those molecular structures exist.” A small token toward variety.

Fast foods predominate many people’s diets with inferior quality (CAFO-produced animals, farmed frankenfish, GMO-glyphosate corn), damaged molecules (fried oils), and a dearth of variety. It’s fair to say that humanity is drifting away from Nature’s “variety rule.”

Varied Diet: Take-Aways.

If you are looking to have your nutrition plan in accord with Nature’s wise counsel, here’s our second Golden Ticket.

• Add variety each day.

It can be a fresh basil leaf added to your salad, or some jicama slices for dipping in fresh salsa. It can be a few bites of your “not so favorite” veggie to remind your system about why you don’t like it so much.

• And don’t forget that dogs and cats need variety. Horses eat a variety of grasses. And your pet squid would really enjoy some lobster.

The flip side of variety is restrictions. In our next visit, we’ll see what Hippocrates, The Father of Natural Medicine, had to say about restriction. Can’t wait!

More soon.

WellnessWiz Jack