How does Food Work?

The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful body. Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and impaired tissues. This renovating material must be supplied through the medium of food and drink.

Foods and the myriad ways that foods act in our body has been a constant learning for mankind. In the early developed civilizations many effects of foods were observed, recorded and passed on through cultures as The Grandmother's home prescriptions for common problems. Food science has now taken cognizance of the fact that foods have many mysterious ways of acting on the human body. These ways are being slowly unraveled. Some of these actions can be:

• Action through Calories: We all know that food gives us energy, helps in tissue construction. This occurs through the breakdown of carbohydrates in the body. The muscle and tissue regeneration use the amino acids of the protein based foods. The act of metabolism, digestion and assimilation all uses calories which are called ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) in the medical language.

• Action through the Vitamins and Minerals: There are many vitamins found in the foods. Some are Water Soluble vitamins like vitamin B-complex made of vitamin B1, B2 etc. Some are called Fat Soluble vitamins like the vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins are required at different levels of body construction like hormone production, for the skin regeneration, for powering the eyesight, for digestion etc. But incidentally during processing of the grain all these vitamins are lost. To give an example:- Unpolished rice contains 45 times the b-complex and 11 times the iron than the white polished rice we eat. Over eating these processed food leads to a chromium deficiency which leads to insulin imbalances.

• Action through the Hormones: Many foods like soy have the capability of exerting hormonal effects on the body as they contain Phytoestrogens. Hence these foods have been extensively used to treat the hormonal dip in women in the postmenopausal phase.

• Action through the Enzymes: Many Foods and particularly raw foods contain many enzymes. The Papain (found in Papaya) and Bromelain (found in Pineapple) are of a great benefit as they increase the vitality of the food and enhances life giving property of the food. In fact Cancer grows in a body which is subsisting on diet of 100 % cooked foods and here the relevance of fruits and salads comes into play.

• The Post Digestive effects of foods: A recent addition to the understanding of the food mechanisms is the different ways the same food can behave in different constitutions. For example: when different people drink milk; in some people it translates into better calcium for the bones, better growth and higher energy levels. But the same milk product consumed by another person may lead to the build up of phlegm leading to a choked airway passage or Sinus problems or Asthma. Hence in order to achieve optimal nutrition you need to find foods compatible with you.

• The Acid and alkali content of Foods: Many skin diseases are the result of the imbalance between the acid and alkali ratio of the body. There are many foods which post digestion produce an acid effect on the body and similarly there are many foods that lead to an alkali effect on the body also. By correctly eating the right mix of the acid and alkali generating compounds, one can effectively treat many of the intestinal and skin disorders.

It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection and combination of food materials. Such knowledge is of first importance in the education of cooks and housekeepers, since to them falls the selection of the food for the daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand what foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in accordance with physiological laws.