We are now well into the New Year and routines start up this week, if they haven’t already.

A thought popped in my head about getting back to the basics as this new year starts.  In our bodies, the basics are our cells.

Every one of our 10 trillion cells function to keep us living and doing our daily tasks.  We have no idea how much is going on there, really.

However, if we focused on what do our cells want and need, as if they were a member of the family, we’d very much reap the benefits of health that we may be looking for.

If we envision our cells with their cell membrane, cytoplasm, organelles and such (you can easily google a picture to get a good idea visually), we can see they are pretty simple but complex in how they do all the things they do, considering also how very tiny they are and all of the information they each hold.

Cells need basically what we need.  They take in water, and nutrients, and they expel wastes. They receive messages and carry out instructions, then, at some point, they die.   They are happiest with foods and nutrients that they can easily take in and use to carry out their instructions.  If we treat all of our cells right, then we should basically have optimal function of our tissues, organs, and systems.

What do our cells want most?

First, healthy fats to build their cell membrane.  The better quality the fats, the easier it is for cells to take in nutrients and get rid of wastes.  Virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, avocado, fish oil, unrefined nuts and seeds, pasture raised eggs and meats.  Many fats when heated, other than saturated fats (animal and coconut), become damaged.  Damaged or old or rancid fats are poor options, just like trans and hydrogenated fats.  So if we make sure to consume more of those listed healthy fats and less damaged/ fried/trans/hydrogenated fats, we are sure to have stellar cell membranes. 

Next, our cells want water.  Water helps to move nutrients in and wastes out.  It also helps to improve the environment around the cells.  Like a swimming pool, we can fill it with clean, clear water, or dirty sludge.  Our cells appreciate that pool of sparkling water to bathe in, like we do.

Next would be nutrients.  Whole foods baby!  Those clean and easy to process foods, which are so easy to grab at Quality Greens, that do not have chemicals or additives to create more work and mess for our cells.  Digestion is critical here.  Those tiny cells need foods broken down into their smallest forms in order to get used by the cell.  If you see undigested food in your stool, you know those foods are not being broken down enough to actually get into your cells.  So chewing really well is a huge request of your cells.  Eating foods that are easy to digest which would be whole foods, that come with their own enzymes and feed our good bacteria and that help to break down our whole foods more.  Good gut bacteria is a whole other area, to big to bring in here, but they are very important to our cells as well.  Fibre in whole foods keeps good bacteria happiest.

Last would be our thoughts and feelings.  Our cells want to feel appreciated and loved.  This may sound woo woo but, our hormones talk to our cells.  That is how our hormones work.  They check in and pass messages and create reactions.  When we are hungry, cells in our stomach react, when we eat sugar, cells in our pancreas react, when we are stressed, heart, adrenal, most cells react, and so on.  Think about how stress mostly comes on due to worrisome thoughts, and our body reacts with faster thinking, maybe sweating, nausea, heart rate increase, etc.  There is a lot of influence on what we think and feel to how our body, and thus our cells, reacts. 

What if we told our cells we appreciate them, instead of us feeling down because we want to change things about ourselves?  Like with our family or co-workers, if we always criticize and make negative comments, even if just in our minds, those hard working 24-7 cells are going to feel less than and under appreciated, and maybe start to project negative back at us.  This is where gratitude and happier thoughts can maybe serve us better than negative thoughts.  Just a thought to think about.

One very important part of our cells that I didn’t have room to get into here is the mitochondria.  They are what power our cells to do their jobs everyday, when they have the right nutrients.  We will come back to those guys next week.

Summary - eating healthy fats, whole foods and drinking water, as well as saying good words to ourselves, are all important steps to automatically getting the best resources involved where our cells are concerned.  And if our cells are happy, then we are happy.

Have a great week!

Lisa.