Proper nutrition has become a complex and controversial topic. There are hundreds of different diets out there, many of which conflict with one another. We are living in a time when humans are sicker than ever, obesity is literally an epidemic, and there are more food choices today than ever before.

This is a brief but specific summary of what I call "wellness nutrition". Wellness nutrition is not about weight loss, it is not about counting calories, and it not about depriving yourself of the things you love. It is about learning which foods are required for healthy living and high quality of life. It is about learning which foods are significantly reducing life span and quality of life, and it is about becoming aware of the fact that your food choices have an absolute effect on your overall health and well being.

Whether or not you are making healthy food choices is one thing, but denying the fact that poor food choices will make you sick is an all too common belief. The only real reason for eating anything is for fuel. Food is the fuel that keeps our bodies running. Very simply: Good fuel equals peak performance.

Most of you know that our cells are constantly dividing and replacing themselves. This cell division and renewing of the body is always at work. In order to make new cells we need a source of raw materials. Guess where these raw materials come from? Yes, our food! Our cells are literally made out of the foods we eat. Do you think we make healthier cells from vegetables or from pizza?

Not only are the food types important, but so is the raising of the food. For instance if a vegetable is grown with pesticides and fertilizers, your cells have to use those too. If the animals we get our meat from have cancer (which many them do) we will use those cancer cells in the manufacturing of our own cells. It is an absolute catastrophe that we do not think we will get sick from eating sick food. It is inevitable.

Hopefully, by now you understand that the food you eat affects your health and that making healthy food choices will make you a healthier person. Now let’s discuss healthy foods. We have been sold a false sense of proper nutrition ever since grade school. If we were actually to live according to the food pyramid, we would, see an increase in depression, obesity, diabetes, and chronic illness. The food pyramid specifically recommends high doses of foods which create weight gain and inflammation and lower doses of foods which create health and vitality.

If you wanted to learn what the dietary habits of an animal species should be, your best opportunity to do so would be to observe those animals in their natural habitat and see what they eat. Well, the same is true for people. If we want to know what healthy people would eat, we must figure out what people ate in their natural habitat. Humans have always been hunters and gatherers. To be specific, the diet of healthy humans would be fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and meat. Anything not in one of those categories is either non-essential or potentially toxic. The closer your diet stays to those foods, the healthier you will be and the slower your body will age. The more foods you consume outside these categories the more unhealthy your body will become and the quicker your body will age.