The Basics of Cellular Nutrition: Part 1

Cellular Nutrition - Allowing Cells to do Their Jobs

In previous posts, I introduced the concept of cellular nutrition.  Cellular functioning is incredibly complex and is influenced by many factors.  I will go into more details about some of this in later posts, but for now I have tried to distill it into more bite-sized explanations.  If I have over simplified and you have a question, please let me know.  Otherwise, we’ll move forward with the simplified mechanisms of cellular nutrition.

In order to restore health (which assumes we’ve halted damage) our cells need 2 things:

1. Energy & Communication
2. Sufficient Tools

1.  How To Provide Cells with Energy and Clear Communication?

Control Blood Sugar

Cells require their own energy to work (just like us).  Glucose (sugar) is this source of energy.  Cells need energy to sustain themselves so that they can, in turn, perform their specific duties.  One of these duties is to produce sufficient energy for us to use.  Think of an energy plant.  The individual workers that work at this plant each day first feed themselves so that they can in turn go to work to work on projects that supply energy for you to use in your home.

When cells are working properly they can convert components of stored fat and proteins into sugar when needed.  However, if insulin levels are too high, if intake of calories is excessive, if different parts of the cell (like the ‘receptors’ or ‘transporters’) aren’t working correctly…all of this can impair how much glucose is actually available to the cell for work.  If it’s not enough, they can’t do their job.

And if it’s too much, they can’t do their job. Excess sugar, chemicals, stress…all have consequences to our cells.  On of which, is that these substances muffle the cells’ ability to communicate with one another.  Just like those workers at the energy plant, they need to talk to each other to coordinate their jobs.  If they can’t hear each other (which includes an amazing vibration process), they don’t function the way we need them to for health.

The solution – regulate or balance your blood sugar everyday.  Many think this is only important for diabetics or pre-diabetic individuals.  In my opinion, this is one of the most important things we can do for primary prevention – before we get sick.  If we know that elevated blood glucose is so damaging to the system, why wouldn’t we use stable glucose levels more to our advantage as a preventative measure?

2.  How to Provide Sufficient Tools?

Eat a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet

Our cells really do function like mini, complete little people.  They eat, they excrete, they talk, they can become sick or injured, and they work together on bigger projects.  Every single one of them is responsible for and programmed to do a very specific job.  And each of these jobs require very specific tools.  These tools are nutrients.

Hundreds of various tools are needed every day, 24 hours a day, in order to complete a task.  These include vitamins, minerals, bioactive compounds (phytonutrients or phytochemicals), and macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat). If the cells don’t have these nutrients the tasks are compromised.  Period.  Health stops here.  If this is a cell programmed to screen for cancer and it doesn’t have enough tools (nutrients) to function, guess what doesn’t happen?  When these tasks are compromised for days, months, or years we experience disease.

Fortunately for us, there really is a simple thing that we can all control to help provide these tools (nutrients).  Eat a balanced, whole foods-based diet with loads of variety. Each time we eat, we have the opportunity to select foods with a purpose. A huge purpose.  Supporting a cell to do a job like screen for cancer, secrete hormones needed for reproduction, or control metabolism so that you can burn stored fat – are huge purposes.  You control it – every time you put something in you mouth. Damage cells? Or support cells? Your call.

Isn’t cellular nutrition exciting?

~Teri