Natural foods are making a comeback in the marketplace in the last 10 years. The term "natural foods" has been tossed around lately as somewhat of a marketing gimmick, a trendy choice, or legitimate selection in our eating lifestyles. The reason for this is an identifiable movement that is both encouraging and alarming. The encouragement comes from the fact that people are looking at their health not from a perspective not of "How long can I live?", but also "How well can I live if I do live long?" We are looking at health and wellness from a quality perspective more so than in the recent past. This is important from the standpoint of the rising costs of health care in the United States. The alarm has been sounded with the 25 year track record of rising cancer rates, Type II diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, heart disease and many others.



Allow me to draw some parallels between immune function and eating habits. We must understand that illness is as a result of not having the nutritional firepower in food to ensure immune firepower of the body that is required to keep unheatlhy state at bay or eliminating them if they arise. Imagine not changing the oil in your transmission fluid in your car for 5 years or putting low grade fuel in a high performance engine. Imagine no brakes checks, tire rotations or tire wear checks (basically no maintenance whatsoever). What do you think happens to your car? That's right! The body makes the best of a bad situation and eventually falls apart over time. You want a longer life out of your car? Great! Give it the proper fuel and repair the wearing parts on a regular basis.

The human body is no different. If you want it to last longer and perform effectively you must give it the proper fuel and repair it on a regular basis. The fuel and the repair are one and the same in this case. The food you eat is the fuel and also the repair component.

Your body needs essential fats, protein, carbohydrates, water, vitamins and minerals to carry out various metabolic functions, one being the production of energy. Energy is created inside the cell and is the driving force of life in the body, including the immune system. If the body is deprived of these essential energy producing and repair nutrients, over time, it becomes slower, more lethargic, and more vulnerable to illness. The challenge for most isn't in getting enough food for the job but getting the right kind food for the job. It has become more and more difficult over the last 15 years with the advent of mass production of food products and the elimination of necessary farming practices in producing nutrient dense foods. There is no question that the immune function of children today is impaired as a result of the consumption of "empty foods" that carry very little nutritional value. Nowadays we see children missing a day or two every month from school. Feeding growing children processed foods in the early stages of their lives sets them up for problems in the future.

Mother Nature has provided the human being everything necessary to live long and productive lives while here on earth. In light of the industrial revolution we have taken shorter steps in bringing food to the world but not food that is conducive to long term health. The human body needs a highly varied natural foods diet to maintain the entire system. Repair in the body takes place by the tune of 300 billion cells a day being replaced through the replication process. If the new 300 billion cells are being constructed out of poor quality nutrients or are even missing some in particular then the long term affect is a deficient immune function. Natural foods including plants, herbs, veggies, and organic or grass fed beef of wildlife are the basis of the building blocks that rebuild the body on a daily basis.

When purchasing natural foods do understand that there is a difference between natural foods and "certified orgnanic" natural foods. Certified organic foods are free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Large scale production farms have their eye on quantity, not quality. The challenge for them is their need to mass produce food interferes with standard soil enriching farming practices such as crop rotation, plowing crops under, and allowing soil to rest for years at a time. Additionally the pesticide issue fans the flames of disease as we are ingesting (although in small amounts) chemicals proven harmful to the human body. Certified organic growers eliminate that problem by growing without pesticides. Going one step further local organic growers are the best as you can pick up fresh quality produce immediately after harvest or butchering (in the case of grass fed organic beef, and grain fed free range organic chicken,).

Now that you understand that the immune system is a function of proper food choices you can get control of your own health.