Hippocrates, in 400 BC: " Let medicine be your food and food your medicine ." Naturopathy and nutrition have never stopped going hand in hand, starting with the sentence of the father of natural medicine. Today this phrase takes on a value that time has corroborated. Nutrition significantly affects human health . We are re-discovering it at our expense. In fact, the data of the World Health Organization and reported by EUFIC (European Food Information Council ), are disturbing: obesity and food imbalances are clearly on the rise even among children and seriously affect mental and physical health already at a young age.
What can we do besides frighten us? Consider the comforting aspect: food heavily affects our health also in a positive way. The gaze of naturopathy on nutrition can help us feel better.
Definitions between nutrition and naturopathy
Let's start with a few basic definitions, going to explore the meaning between naturopathy and nutrition:
Feeding: it is the intake of food in response to physical and mental stimuli (hunger and appetite)
Diet: it is the diet adopted by the human being.
Nutrition science : it is the discipline that studies the relationship between nutrition (diet) and the state of health or illness.
Foods : substances introduced into the body to be assimilated and distributed; they are necessary for maintaining the vital functions of the body and have different functional properties, linked to the nutritive principle:
They give energy ( fats and sugars )
They are the building blocks of the body ( proteins )
Regulate the functioning of the body ( vitamins and mineral salts )
I'm the energy ( fat ) tank
Nutrition in naturopathy
The na turopathy promotes the most suitable lifestyle for everyone to maintain and improve his state of health and overall well-being . Let's see a few simple rules to make our diet more healthy:
Choose for your diet simple and natural products, from organic cultivations, to reinvigorate the body energies, to favor the "healthy" approach to life .. What? Seasonal vegetables and fruit. These foods are rich vitamins that help strengthen the immune system, regulate the intestine and also give the skin a brighter appearance.
Avoid or limit stored or already prepared foods . In fact they contain added products to improve their smell or taste or to prolong their conservation. If taken in excess they can cause imbalances, allergies and limit the body's natural drainage and purification system.
Introduce new foods into your diet: in fact, the variety allows you to take all the substances our body needs.
Moderate the consumption of refined sugars or sweets, which over time could increase the risk of diabetes. Prefer integral alternatives
Limiting the use of salt (excessive consumption of sodium, may increase the risk of heart attacks), of animal fats (butter, lard or lard, to reduce possible increases in cholesterol)
Reduce the consumption of milk and dairy products and take, eat less sausages. Choose a diet based on vegetable proteins (soy, legumes) to those animals. In the case, prefer white meat or fish to red meat.
The naturopathy in feeding goes to root itself on the perfect balance of the nutritive principles to be taken every day for the maintenance of the well-being is given by the percentages: carbohydrates (or carbohydrates) 60%, proteins 15% and lipids 25%.
