Lately, some of my clients have been asking me if they can have a juice for breakfast.  I appreciate that they are looking for something quick and easy to make, but their laziness to prepare a real breakfast is linked to the many reasons why they are unsuccessful in reaching their goals. Making you breakfast is just like making your bed, if you can start the day on the right foot, then the choices you make in the rest of your day are more likely to be positive ones.

Today our diets are full of processed foods containing sugar, flour, and vegetable oil (honest, how the f**k do you get oils from a vegetable?).  Its estimated that up to 50% of the calories we eat come from these nutrient-void sources. Our large intake of highly processed foods has decreased the number of beneficial nutrients in our diet, we are deprived of nutrients and this is impacting our health. We are eating more crap food because it is easily accessible and most of us have become a guinea pig to the food industries sick, fat and unhealthy experiment. Not only are these foods low in bioavailable nutrients, but they are high in anti-nutrients such as phytate which block the absorption of other valuable nutrients in the body like zinc, copper, iron, magnesium, niacin and calcium, just to name a few.

Gluten is the devil! "I call gluten a "silent germ" because it can inflict lasting damage without you knowing it" [Brain Maker, David Permimutter]. Gluten is everywhere today, despite the gluten-free movement taking place even among food manufacturers, gluten lurks in everything from wheat products to ice cream to hand cream. It’s even used as an additive in seemingly “healthy,” wheat-free products. Common foods that contain gluten are pasta, noodles, bread and pastries, crackers, baked goods, cereals and granola, sauces and gravies (many use flour as a thickener), beer and malt beverages, and brewers yeast.

For the greater part of the past 2.6 million years, our ancestors’ diets consisted of wild animals and seasonal fruits and vegetables. Today most people’s diets are centred on grains and carbs — many of which contain gut-blasting, microbiome-damaging gluten whose downstream effects have serious impacts to our health.  The fact that preventable, non-communicable diseases account for more deaths worldwide today than all other diseases combined is unacceptable (see part 1). How can that be? We’re living longer than previous generations, but not necessarily better. We’ve failed at averting and curing illnesses that we’re susceptible to when we’re older. I don’t know anyone who wants to live to be 100 if their last twenty years are spent in misery?

Theodosius Dobzhansky, evolutionary biologist,  said, “Nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.” What did he mean by this? All organisms adapted to thrive and survive in a particular environment, if that environment changes faster than the organism can adapt, mismatch occurs. This fundamental biology principle applies as much to humans as it applies to any other organism in nature.

Scientific research is bringing more and more credence to the notion that up to 90% of all known human illness can be traced back to an unhealthy gut (Brain Maker, David Perlmutter). And we can say for sure that just as disease begins in the gut, so too does health and vitality. Ongoing research continues to uncover a strong case that gut health is critical to immune system functioning, detoxification, inflammation, neurotransmitter and vitamin production, nutrient absorption, signaling being hungry or full, and utilizing carbohydrates and fat.  The gut extracts vitamins, minerals and energy from the food we eat, and it produces more than twenty different hormones. An unhealthy gut contributes to a wide range of diseases including diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, autism spectrum disorder, depression, alzheimer's, ADHD, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Most doctors learn very little about gut function and gut health, should they honestly be giving anyone nutritional advice?

Your body is like a delicate little flower. How you take care of your body dictate whether it wilts and die or if flourishes and blossom. The rapid pace of our society takes our focus away from the simple things that our body still appreciates and longs for: rhythm, movement, nourishment. Don’t underestimate the importance of the basics when it comes to reaching the results you are working for.