Natural foods and it's advocates today came by way of the disease management industry in the United States which has become a trillon dollar a year industry. Over the last 25 years we have seen diseases that had no footprint whatsoever in society skyrocket to unimaginable levels. These two factors have iniated a wake up call to all those seeking a longer, more productive, and healthier lifestyle. We are the first generation to be willing to spend a percentage of our income on our attempt to hold off the aging process. We have come to see our parents experiencing diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and diabetes like never before. The question we tend to ask is where did all this come from. We need not look any further that our food supply. Now that we have become proficient producing food in mass quantities we can do the same in terms of quality

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.

Energy production is driven by the types of food we eat and that hopefully contain the essential fats, protein, carbohydrates, water, vitamins,and minerals that make up the necessary compounds to do so. 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. The availability of processed foods (or nutrient stripped foods) has made is difficult for parents to feed their children in a way so as to ensure long term health. 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. The natural of certified organic growers is to eliminate pesticides and chemical fertilizers, all which are harmful to the health of the body. 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.