Set up your mind for a good health for your family

Guest post by Nutritionist, Mirela Burhuc*

The human body, my dears, is an amazing machine. With about 75 trillion cells organized to form tissues, organs and body systems it has all it needs to give you a long life. But like every other machine, it needs care and maintenance and proper food for a good development and to keep on, moving smoothly.

All the body’s organs are arranged into systems and each system has a primary function. However, in order for the body to function at its full capacity and to maintain health, the systems have to work together.

I invite you to have a short look on them and to imagine the wonderful mechanism inside your body:

A. Skeletal System – it provides the body with support and protection. And if you didn’t know, it has an amazing capacity to store several mineral, like calcium and phosphorus and, distribute them wherever is needed upon demand. And that is not all! The red marrow in certain bones manufactures red and white blood cells so much needed for circulatory and immune systems.

B. Muscular and Integumentary System – The Muscular System is the guy responsible with your movement even the one that you don’t see and it happens inside your body and The Integumentary one has the role to provide with physical protection through skin, hair and nails and also to regulate body temperature and store energy.

C. Nervous System – here is the control room of the body, The Boss, as I like to call it because its components: brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves and sense organs have a brilliant teamwork: to collect, process and disseminate information from inside and outside. The Master-chef, of course the Brain, controls all the systems in the body.

D. Respiratory System – you can’t live without it because this system provides you with oxygen and gets rid of the waste product of your metabolism: carbon dioxide. I guess you heard how important a correct way of breathing is for the body. So don’t forget: inhale…exhale! The body is doing the rest for you, just give it some extra help!

E. Cardiovascular System – with the Heart, The Queen or King as you want to name it, has an important responsibility: to pump the oxygenated blood necessary to all cells in the body.

F. Lymphatic and Immune System – one maintains fluid balance in the cardiovascular system and distributes immune cells and the other one provides resistance to infection.

G. Digestive System – everything included in this system, from mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder and pancreas help in breaking down and process the food you eat so that important nutrients can be absorbed from the intestines into the circulatory system and transported to the cells.

H. Endocrine System – it has mostly the same function like the Nervous System but it uses hormones in order to do its job.

I. Urinary System – this is the filter and removal of waste system. And if you want to have a clear image, it has 4 main components, kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. One important thing is that the kidneys also help to maintain blood pressure.

J. Reproductive System – this is not essential for life but is essential to propagate it. Its female components are ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus, vagina and external genitalia, breasts. The male components are testes, spermatic ducts, seminal vesicles, urethra and penis, prostate and bulbourethral glands.

This is how it looks like: a brilliant machine capable to give us the strength to live more than 100 years if we maintain it and feed it right.

Before studying Nutrition I used to search via internet about any subject I was interested in, related to healthy food and let me tell you: I got little bit dizzy. What I noticed was the difficulty to find the truth in all that bunch of information and the suggestions or ideas were little bit out of common sense for the year we live in.

The truth is that the FOODS AREN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE.

The healthy food that we knew: fruits, vegetables, meat…are spoiled and they no longer promote good health.

Why?

Because they are sprayed with chemicals, meat injected with antibiotics and hormones and soils destroyed by dangerous fertilizers.

Now all it is coming back to us with revenge and people get sicker every single day. We still want to find someone to blame for it but we don’t look in the right direction. It is a complex guilt and it started many years ago when someone just decided to play with the land and get more crops.

The chemicals added year by year leached and polluted rivers, streams and lakes across the globe.

The experience taught us that fast solutions are not always the good ones but we still do the same mistakes all over again. It is true that the population is growing and the fear of not having food for everyone is scary but I wonder if this is the whole truth and I fear this is just a lack in information on how to manage soils to produce good amounts of healthy foods without chemical fertilizers.

I remember my childhood almost 30 years ago: food had a different taste, different flavour. I remember the smell of fresh tomatoes from my aunt’s garden or the fruits growing on trees all over the countryside. It was a feeling of abundance and health.

Now, do me a favour: take a fruit and smell it!
Take a vegetable and do the same!

What do you experience? Is it a lack of smell or a strange metal taste?

It is very simple to measure the quality of a product: by smell and flavour. When it is not, you should wonder:

WHAT ON EARTH AM I EATING???

As a nutritionist I find myself puzzled: I have to guide you through healthy food to achieve the health you desire because my motto is:
Food is your best medicine!
Do I lie in this situation? How can I be truthful to me, to my clients, to you?

I tell you that green vegetables and fruits, herbs have salvestrols, great nutrients that fight cancer but…..it is still true in 2014? I still believe there is some amount of good nutrients in them but with all these changes in the soil and entire environment ….not enough to keep disease at bay!

I believe that a new approach is needed!

This is why I am here for you, to keep you updated and guide you to make the right choices NOW, the year 2014!

BUT is not only up to me, YOU have to SET UP YOUR MIND!

This part is very important because what I have learned and you might already know is that mind can be a very powerful weapon used to protect you or to attack you. Is all about your choice and commitment. Ask yourself what do you want from life: a good health to keep you moving on and being always close to your dear ones or ups and downs, endless trips to the hospital, gobbling medication and fearing the days of tomorrow?

Once you know the answer, stick with it and believe in positive changes!

It is possible only if YOU want!

*Mirela Burhuc is a highly educated, strong mummy, with her driving force being the love for her son. She graduated as a teacher from the Faculty of Letters, History and Theology in Galati, Romania, and later on enrolled to the Faculty of Psychology and Sociology. Her studies were interrupted in 2008 when her child got diagnosed with Autism and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), along with severe mental retardation and significant behavioural disturbance in a hospital for infantile psychiatry. A painful divorce followed shortly after, and since then on her life has followed many different routes. She now lives in Malta and works as a nutritionist; Diploma in Nutrition with Distinction by The Blackford Centre for Nutrition. To achieve the Diploma, she had to pass 15 written assignments, all based on practical, real life clients. You can read more about her story, her services, and get in touch with her on www.healthashore.com 

Category: Guest posts, Resources for Malta Mums