Obtaining Optimal Nutrition

Categories: Blog Nov 06, 2016

Often when we think about nutrition, we think about eating healthy foods like kale, avocados, grass-fed meats, quinoa, etc. Well, maybe we think about foods like those, some of us may have a whole other idea of what healthy foods are. Anyway, none of us would argue that "healthy food" is essential for obtaining optimal nutrition leading to optimal health.

Yet, when it comes to obtaining optimal nutrition, most of us miss the mark; not because we disagree on what healthy food is, or because we don't try to consume it, but because we esteem food as the only source of nutrition. There is more to obtaining optimal nutrition than the foods you put into your mouth. Yes, we feed our cells with the foods we eat, but we also feed our nervous system with the movements we make.

Movement is essential for optimal nutrition because it is movement that nourishes our nervous system, and it is our nervous system that regulates everything else about our bodies, our minds and our emotions. No matter what nutritional diet or lifestyle you subscribe to, without good, consistent movement, you will never be able to obtain optimal health.

Yes, vitamin C found in citrus fruits is good for your immune system, but so is walking, playing and laughing. Yes, iron found in spinach is good for transporting oxygen to your cells, but so is skipping, running, and rolling on the floor. You've heard this at one time or another, "use it or lose it" - this is how the body works. Another way to think of this could be "use it and nourish it," or "neglect it and starve it."

The brain and nervous system thrive off information. Movement is the vehicle that generates information through the millions of receptor cells in our skin, facia, muscles, joints, and tendons. All the information we generate, and the information we receive from things around us, is routed through the vestibular system and into the brain. This information actually feeds the brain. It creates neural pathways, it nourishes these pathways and make them more efficient, it also creates a better movement map, or movement response map, of the body inside the brain. With this movement response map, the brain can determine the best, optimal output and response for the body to make. The more information we give the brain through movement, the more "outformation" the brain gives the body. This "outformation" helps us actually move better. It also helps us think better, digest food better, maintain optimal hormone levels, and function in the world with calm, "healthy" emotions.

If we want to be healthy and achieve optimal health, we simply have to feed our bodies well, with optimal nutrition. This goes far beyond simply putting nutritious food in our belly, it is also putting nutritious information in our brain.

What is nutritious movement? Well, it is moving the way we were designed, consistently and often. It can be breathing with our diaphragm. It can be moving our head. It can be rolling, rocking and crawling. It can also be walking, skipping, laughing, and playing. The better we move, the better we can move and the more all the movements we make can feed our nervous system. If we are really good at feeding our brains with the simplest of movements, we can become really good at feeding our brains with the most complicated of movements.

The point is, to be healthy we have to "eat", we have to move consistently and often. We must not starve ourselves and lose our health because we don't flood our brains with information because we spend most of our days motionless, in chairs, on-line or however it is we don't move.

You were made for absorb optimal nutrition through the foods you eat and the movements you make. You were made to be healthy and strong. Eat your veggies. Move your buns.

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