Holistic nutrition: your pathway for healthy longevity

When you hear the term holistic you tend to think of something transcendental, whole, connected, and encompassing. It might even ring a bell for the word holy or divine.

Against all philosophical dissection of the human being and all departmentalization of life, it is highly essential in modern times that we think of everything as a whole, a connected network. Indeed, nothing is just out there on their own; everything is intertwined in complex manners.

What matters is that all the small details affect our existence and our bodily and spiritual being on earth. So maybe it is high time we reconsider our approach to diets and food consumption towards a holistic nutrition goal.

What is holistic nutrition?

Our being is a complex interwoven net of physical, emotional, chemical, mental, and spiritual parts. To ensure holistic health, we need to take care of all of these building blocks.

Healing and health-related practices choose to focus on the human being as a whole, to understand what their bodies need and hence apply the right approach that suits each individual.

Kristin Wartman, a certified holistic nutrition educator, sums up the idea by saying that:“ holistic nutrition is healing with whole foods.” It is a way of approaching health and life through combining “ancient wisdom with modern knowledge.”

Holistic nutrition uses food for the optimal health goal. It includes taking into consideration the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of the individual, alongside his or her physical health.

Food affects the human being beyond what we previously thought. It is not just about inflammations, bacteria, and wounds; the damage is usually encompassing, it goes beyond the cells to affect our mental and emotional states.

What does a holistic nutrition coach do?

Holistic nutrition specialists have an extensive wide scope to the matters of health and wellness. Though they do not diagnose diseases nor cure or prescribe medicines for those diseases, they intervene in numerous ways to assist people to avoid or deal properly with these illnesses.

Those experts scrutinize each patient’s life on multiple levels. Listing the daily routines, habits, and options for each person helps to assign unique, individually tailored eating plans and possibly other routines.

The bottom line of their work is developing good habits and road mapping a healthy lifestyle for their patients to follow. They can suggest certain workouts, social activities, and personal habits or leisure activities for the ultimate goal of putting their client on the right track.

Four mood boosters:

Though holistic nutrition experts do not define a one size fits all approach, they do recommend certain foods to boost the mood regardless of people’s unique conditions. The following list specifies a few options:

• Dark chocolate: cacao is rich in flavonoids and antioxidants. The former can reduce your blood pressure and possibly calm you down if angry or stressed.
• Avocados: rich in vitamin B, a know mood booster.
• Oranges: the first fruit to think of when we need vitamin C and s better immune system. Oranges are loaded with phosphorous and vitamin B5.
• Kelp: iodine is a compound in kelp that can promote good thyroid function and hence improving your mood and energy.

We must keep good care of our mental health. Paying attention to our mood swings and bursts of stress is crucial to avoid damaging effects. The last year has been a tough time for all of us due to the pandemic, constant lockdowns, minimal social and personal activities, and limited freedom. Food can help us cheer up and keep our spirits high.

Tips to keep in mind when adhering to holistic nutrition

For better health conditions you need to follow a few guidelines recommended by most experts:

• Eat organic food: read the labels and make sure your fruits and vegetables are not chemically intervened with. Pesticides and chemical products might cause severe damage to your body.
• Eat real food not processed food: the growing brands and expanding food industry might provide endless options but unfortunately most of them use unhealthy ingredients like processed sugar… make sure you are choosing real food.
• Mindful eating: think of food just as fuel to your body and not a necessity for happiness or wholeness. In this way, you can control how much you eat and what to eat.
• Plan your meals: thinking about your meals and putting together a plan for at least a week can be an excellent practice to program a complimentary diet and include what your body needs.
• Intuitive eating: it is about experimenting with your food and judging what works for you. You control your food, not vice versa. It promotes the idea of food as pleasure and not guilt, and hence you can avoid the feelings of regret and consequent depression and restlessness.