Is this a silly question: Why do we eat? The obvious answer would be to stay alive. It is a known fact that in order to remain alive and healthy one must consume a certain amount of food on a daily basis. Although this is common knowledge, many however are not aware of the fact that it is not the food the human body needs, but what is contained in the food. Our bodies are comprised of certain elements: vitamins, minerals, protein, acids, fats, apatite, carbs, gases, and water. In order to continue survival, there has to be a sufficient daily intake of certain of these elements/nutrients.

We understand that there exist many eating disorders in our present day and many eat foods for pleasure rather than to stay alive. Consuming pleasure foods may fill the belly and produce a satisfied feeling; nevertheless, it does not satisfy the nutritional needs of the human body! Natural food sources were designed to keep the body alive by containing the same elements in which comprises the human body. Comfort foods usually do not contain these nutrients and/or they may contain by-products which are harmful to the body.

Going for the gusto has produced a society on the go and a lack of planning when it comes to one’s nutritional health and the health of their families. The microwave industry has more than profited well from food companies creating complete microwave meals. Men seeking wives no longer ask: “Can you cook?” Rather it’s: “Can you microwave?” If we understand that nutrients have to be living when it enters the body in order to satisfy the nutritional needs of the human body; then we can understand that processing, freezing, and heating foods to a certain temperature kills the nutrients and destroys its nutritional value. So although you are eating, you may not be getting the nutritional value of the food item.

Comfort foods are said to be consumed to achieve some level of improved emotional status, whether to relieve negative psychological affect or to increase positive; foods such as ice cream, potato chips, chocolate, and so on. When we say that we are craving food items like cake and ice cream…it is not the hunger of the body, but rather the appetite of the wounded emotions seeking pleasure in order to feel better. The hunger of the body will always be what it needs: vitamins, minerals, protein, etc. This is the reason why when an expecting mom is building the cells of a human life she’s carrying inside her, she has these weird cravings of food combinations. It is not for emotional comfort that she desires these strange combinations, but the new life inside her is demanding the elements in these foods for its stage of growth and development.

We have become a society who prefers to eat based on the taste of our food rather than the nutritional value. We have associated eating foods with how it makes us feel. Foods rich in sugars and spices are known to be aphrodisiacs or very pleasing to the belly. Therefore, we allow our bellies to dictate what we eat, as opposed to our brain. It is either one or the other because the taste buds can only detect the five known elements of taste perception: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and savory. The remaining satisfaction of food enjoyment actually comes from our sense of smell and belly satisfaction! So when we say we have a taste for something naughty…it’s not our taste buds longing for it, but rather it is the longings of our emotions/ hormones.

Foods which have been robbed of their nutritional value are foods which have been: canned and packed with salt and chemicals in order to keep them alive, processed and packed in boxes which have lost their value through the process of changing their food structure, frozen beyond their ability to retain their nutritional value, micro waved or over heated/cooked until the nutrients have been destroyed, and genetically engineered/altered such as mixing the seed of one fruit with the seed of another to produce a brand new fruit which did not occur in nature naturally!

When in doubt as to what a “natural” food source would be, consider this: “When a person’s corpse is committed to the ground, why does the preacher say: ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust’?” It is because the human body was formed from the dust of the earth and when it returns back to the ground it begins decomposition back to the state of dust from whence it came or was “composed” of. If you were to research natural dirt, you will find that it produces the same organic elements in which the human body is comprised of. And in order for any natural food producing plant to grow and be fruitful, it must first be planted in soil and receive water. So foods produced from the soil of the earth, naturally occurring which are edible to mankind are the “natural” food sources for the human body. Ingeniously, food originally meant for human consumption in order to keep it alive and healthy are those food sources grown out of the same soil in which fashioned the human body! When you have organic (organic meaning grown in soil void of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, or any other member of the Cides Family) carrots, apples, and potatoes growing out of organic soil (not engineered in a laboratory) being consumed by organic human flesh, you have the same organic elements being transferred from one host body to another…producing life; Nutrients in Organic Soil producing Organic Foods sustaining Organic Human Bodies!

Ms. Šahíyena Cheyenne has been a freelance writer since 1989. Her articles have appeared in several local Montana Publications. She has training as a Basic EMT, a CNA, and basic training in Health & Nutrition as a Certified Active Older Adult Strength Trainer and Fitness Instructor with the Y MCA of the U.S.A. and as a Certified Personal Trainer with the Linda Evans Fitness Center . She can be contacted at www.cafesahiyena.com