(This is Part 1 of a 2-part series.)
This is a discussion of the condition of low-energy and fatigue, and more generally, of energy production and dissipation in the body.
The body is constantly producing and dissipating energy, and it tries to keep these in balance and even build a surplus if possible.
Each of the six trillion or so cells in the body is an energy factory. Every cell produces energy, and the process of organic chemistry by which the cells do this is quite complicated indeed.
Because the process of energy production in each cell is so complex, it is subject to being degraded. Degraded by what? Basically, by a process of increasing pollution in the cell from toxins.
The toxins that increasingly hinder the cell's complex machinery come from two sources, endogenous and exogenous, that is, inside and outside.
The body produces toxins in large amounts just in the course of doing its complicated business. The most important process in the body, that of producing energy, produces a number of interim or waste products, among which are the justly famous and damaging free radicals.
Free radicals are highly corrosive and are capable of doing serious damage to cellular machinery. Of course the body has agents whose job is to neutralize free radicals, but these agents can get gradually overwhelmed if free radicals are produced in larger than normal amounts.
What produces free radicals in large amounts? Diets too high in fat. Diets too high in protein. The process of "burning" these elements for energy is extra complicated, and produces many extra toxins. A diet that includes animal foods in almost any form inherently tends to supply too much fat, protein and toxic by-products.
Diets high in refined products like sugar and white flour and other factory-refined products also produce excess free radicals, but from a different source. Refined foods don't contain enough micro-nutrients like vitamins and minerals and other phyto-chemicals, so the cellular machinery gets damaged that way.
Diets high in cooked food also produce free radicals as compared to diets high in raw foods. Foods such as raw fruits and vegeatables in general tend to be very "clean burning" in the body and produce few toxins.
It's worth noting that all of the healthiest peoples on earth eat diets that are 98% vegan or greater, very low in refinement, and containing lots of raw fruits and vegetables. They eat their plant-based foods very close to the way that nature produced them, and their diets are below 10% fat and 10% protein by calories, tremendously lower than is common in industrialized societies.
There are also many sources of exogenous pollution. There are numerous chemical additives in foods. There are also pesticides and herbicides, heavy metals and dioxin compounds. There is pollution in the air and water. There are x-ray and radiation sources.
All of these sources and others contribute to the build-up of toxins and pollution in the cellular machinery, and in particular the delicate cellular machinery concerned with producing energy.
(This is the end of Part 1. Go to Part 2.)
—jim sloman, 02/02/01 for Feb 2
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