What is Food? - Healthy Living Lesson

What is the definition of food? It is that which supplies the raw materials to the body
and at the same time does not poison you. That is an important addition to the definition.
It will supply the raw materials that you need for nutrition for growth and repair but
it is not going to poison you at the same time. That is essential. You might say, well
you know this has lots of B Vitamins in it. I have heard that a thousand times. Eat liver,
it’s loaded with vitamins; it has lots of iron. But, is the food poisoning you at the
same time?
By definition it is not food if it is poisoning you. Okay? Every single animal in nature has
a food that it is biologically adapted to eat. Would you agree with that there is a
normal diet for all animals? However, we can’t take a human in nature and determine what
is normal. Why can’t we do that?
Dr. Andrea: We have taste buds!
Dr. Jeff: We have taste buds. Well, it’s because there are no humans in nature. No
humans that are really living in their natural environment; none that we can observe, and
especially in the United States. Is there anyone in the U.S. living in their natural
environment? Of course not. Many of you live underneath artificial lighting; you don’t
get a breath of fresh air the entire day; and you’re eating foods that you have purchased
in a supermarket out of a package. So, when we talk about animals…let’s take a cow
for instance. What is normal food for a cow? If left alone a cow will eat grass. Do you
think the cow is perfectly adapted to finding, obtaining, eating, and getting the nutrients
out of grass? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, a cow can grow to be 1500 pounds on grass
alone!
So, how about a lion? What does a lion eat? Meat. The primary diet of a lion is meat or
flesh foods. Do you think that a lion is perfectly adapted to obtaining meat, catching it, eating
it and getting all the nutrition out of it and it supplies its body’s needs? Absolutely.
By the end of this evening we will have figured out what the human body is perfectly adapted
to eating. Now, we will not take the same approach like observing and seeing that a
cow would eat grass, we’re going to go backwards and find out what works in the human body
and determine what the best diet is.
When you get the right food it is going to supply the raw materials the body requires,
it will be physically obtainable, and physiologically available. That means that you can obtain
the food, you can go get it, you have the attributes to get it and your body is set
up to get what it needs out of it. Do you understand that? If you get the right foods,
if you’re selecting the right foods, you will be able to digest, absorb and to assimilate
the food. How many of you have heard the phrase you are what you eat? Do you think that is
true? It is actually not true! [everyone laughing] The phrase should really be you are what you
assimilate.