Diet
Whenever we hear the word "diet" the immediate reaction by my patients is "Yea I have been trying to shed some pounds." Or "My weight is pretty stable right now." It is as if when we hear the word, we immediately jump to the conclusion that "diet" and weight loss or gain are one in the same.
But nutrition is different than "diet". "Diet" in a contemporary sense is quantitative evaluation of what we are consuming. We measure the carbohydrates, calories, amount of protein, number of milliequivalents of minerals and then we have a "diet". But nutrition implies a system which encompasses more than what we have measured before we put in our mouths.
Nutrition must encompass the entire spectrum of nourishment. The evaluation of nutrition should include an assessment of appetite, bowel habits and patterns, the rituals around the eating process as well as what is eaten. Furthermore from an energy perspective some foods are incompatable with others such as fruit with any other food. So we can see that there is more to nutrition than "diet" and that a quantitative analysis can be lacking in giving us guidance toward the complete picture of nourishment.
A quantitative "diet" approach also misses the primary connection of nutrition to disease. Yes it is true that there is a correlation between the number of calories and the amount of fat in the "diet". But from an energy perpective, more important are lifestyle choices around the nutritional process. For example, eating late at night is sure to put on weight. Eating foods that don't resonate with the body's energy pattern will definitely create imbalance that will lead to not only weight gain but fatigue, lethargy and apathy. These latter psychological consequences make it difficult to get to a good place to make the appropriate changes to weight loss.
And lastly the concept of "diet" has no room for the possibility of understanding how foods can be inflammatory or degenerative in nature. These are concepts that separate out the matter field approach to "diet" and the energetic approach. We can take all the medicines or herbs in the world, but if we are ignorant about how our own nutrition is causing us imbalance, no medicines or herbs will help us. I look forward to your comments and grateful for your reading DrBill
