My Dear Readers,

Greetings from Maverick!

They say there are 411 Kcal in a piece of apple pie. But does the whole pie convert into energy for use by your body? What is a calorie? A calorie is a unit of energy. Like you use inches and meters to determine the length, we use Kilo calories to determine energy usage by the body. Is 411 Kcal in the apple pie kinetic energy or potential energy? Obviously it is still potential energy because  it is not yet available for use by the body. So when does this energy get converted into kinetic energy? If you said ‘when we eat’ you are only partially right. The minute you eat a piece of apple pie it still needs to undergo an entire digestive process lasting several hours before it can get converted wholly into energy. Now here is the problem, what happens if your body cannot convert that energy because it cannot digest the apple pie?

Every morsel of food can either be a source of energy working for you when your body is able to digest it or every morsel of food can be a cause for energy drain working against you when it costs your body more energy to digest it than the energy it will release from that food. All ‘junk foods’ are those that use greater energy – deplete nutrition from the body for the very process of digestion, than what the food can actually give in return. And if that food cannot be digested, it will have to be stored as toxins and later eliminated causing a lot of stress on our body’s organs of detoxification. Every morsel counts!

We need to have all three macro nutrients everyday. Carbohydrates are important for brain activity. We cannot go on a ‘NO CARB’ diet. Proteins are a must for every meal because, proteins cannot be stored and without proteins your body cannot digest other foods. So you cannot skip proteins in any meal. Fat constitutes the cell membrane. Further cholesterol is endogenously produced by the body if dietary supply is inadequate. So you cannot really avoid fats. All three macronutrients – carbohydrates, proteins and fats, are a must for every individual in every meal!  At the same time, not everybody needs these macronutrients in the same ratio and certainly not in the quantities, we often times consume.

For instance, an eskimo’s daily diet includes about 90% fat. He needs that to withstand the bitter cold weather. Here in India, right under the sun, we cannot deny our body the carbohydrates we are genetically used to. A diesel car will not run on petrol. When our physical appearances differ, our thumb impressions differ, our responses differ, our voice differs, our environment differs, why do we believe all of us have the same body biochemistry?

Each one of us have a unique biochemistry, that needs to be fine-tuned to suit, our specific nutritive needs. Like how, every engine requires a unique fuel mixture, similarly every person has a need for a unique fuel mixture, in terms of nutrients.

Metabolic typing is a scientific system based on decades of research by some of the finest scientific minds Joseph Mercola, Weston A. Price and William Wolcott. It helps individuals identify their specific nutrient needs. As a Metabolic typing Advisor I always tell my clients every morsel you eat is working either FOR you, enhancing your health or working AGAINST you causing enormous harm to the delicate balance in you body. When I say ‘Every morsel counts’ I certainly don’t mean it in terms of calories but in terms of its nutritive value!

Bottom line: Never starve your body. Ensure you give it proper nutrition. Have a balanced meal that suits your individual metabolic type. At the same time remember, quantity matters. Your stomach is the size of your fist. Don’t stuff it!

Yours in wellbeing

Gita Krishna Raj