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| Diet & Nutrition |
 Holistic
Nutrition - The Other End of the SpectrumBy J. Mark Taylor of Arcady Holistic Clinic Until just a few years ago, when ever I was invited to speak to a group interested in health matters, I would buy a small jar of baby food for potential use as a talk-prop during my presentation. Baby food would typically have the ingredients: modified protein, hydrogenated oil, converted starch, and artificial flavouring. In essence, according to nutritionists, a balanced, nutritional meal with flavouring of choice. It did not matter that the ingredients were largely wastes reclaimed from other industrial food processes. The science of nutrition dictated that such products were to be considered as healthful - at least until proven otherwise. Holistic nutrition, by contrast, would never purport such products to be nutritious. Holistic health is the knowledge that the body is more than simply the sum of all its parts. And holistic nutrition is the knowledge that there is more essential goodness in whole, unprocessed food than there is in an equivalent consumable built-up from extracted food elements. If the planet was free of illness, then the concept of holistic nutrition would be little more than one of spiritual gratification. However, there seems to be no shortage of disease to go around. It is only natural that people should wish to explore ideas and methods in the maintenance of good health, and one of the rapidly growing fields of populist thought is the holistic approach to health care. Holistic nutrition is becoming interesting to many people these days because it is an integral part of the emerging alternative health paradigm, which states that disease may be overcome by improving the health of the body as a whole. More health, almost by definition, implies less disease; and vice versa, less health invites disease. There are no magic bullets or cures per se in alternative health. Holistic nutrition then, and the only thing that separates it from just plain old nutrition, is the idea that food is used deliberately to help the body fight disease. Ideas such as natural food quality, food dislikes or desires, availability of food, eating habits, the look of food... all have potential impact upon our health from the holistic point of view. A holistic nutritionist will be concerned with how food interacts with your body. Almost irrelevant will be the quantity of protein, fat, or carbohydrate; but the ‘quality’ or ‘source’ of such elements is of paramount importance. The better quality of food we ingest results in a better ability of the body to build or repair itself. Whole foods, such as raw nuts, fruit and vegetables, are least diminished in their original form. Processing reduces form and nutrients. The maxim, “you are what you eat”, is very true, yet perhaps of even more relevance is that “whole foods equals whole health”. The rich ecology of our food helps to preserve the natural, dynamic equilibrium of our body, which is itself very much an ecosystem. In France, health is beginning to be described in terms of the body’s terrain; replacing North American Germ Theory dogma. This is in obvious reference to the application of naturalistic, environmental thinking to our body’s internal health dynamics. As for that jar of baby food that I used to buy as a talk-prop at seminars, I cannot do that any more. At least not around here. It seems populist environmental groups protested so loudly and publicly about the potential health hazards of baby food that the manufacturers improved the quality of their ingredients. The baby food manufacturers did this despite the fact that standard health nutritionists employed by industry and government stated that the original formulas were perfectly nutritious. Healer J. Mark Taylor, Alberta’s only practicing Medical Herbalist, works at the Arcady Holistic Clinic, a dynamic new clinic in Inglewood (Calgary’s coolest community). For more information on Arcady & their services, please call 403.263.6568 or visit them at www.arcadyholistic.ca |