Health Articles > Health-and-nutrition > What are the 6 Essential Components of "Real" Food?

Real food contributes to health. Junk food contributes to disease. It is denatured and contains little or no health-producing properties. Our bodies are always looking for food that contains usable components. * Glucose - for energy. * Protein - (amino acids) for building and repairing tissue. * Fatty Acids - to construct membranes and move electrical currents. * Ionic, food-form minerals - as catalysts and building components. * Enzymes (vitamins) - as catalysts. * Water - the medium for chemical processes. Real foods: * Are edible, and grown by nature. * Can be eaten without processing in any way. * Can be eaten as an entire meal and be thoroughly enjoyed. Real foods come to us from nature as "complete packages." They have everything in them that is necessary for the body to process and assimilate for use. Food that does not contain such elements or that contains toxic additives can safely be considered junk. Real foods have an alkaline effect in the body; junk foods have an acidic effect. Cooked food is incomplete because, at the very least, such cooking destroys its enzymes, some of the nutrition, and binds the amino acid lysine making the protein unusable by the liver to make amino acid building blocks and hormones. Cooking is a form of processing; the food is no longer natural. Processed and packaged foods such as sugar and refined white flour,and the products made from them, such as candy, soft drinks, desserts, breakfast cereals, and breads, are almost totally lacking in fatty acids, minerals, and enzymes. In addition, they form acids and contain toxic chemicals which are added as preservatives to prolong shelf life and enhance flavor. When food lacks one or more of the six essential ingredients listed above, the body has to borrow resources from its own tissues to process it. Toxins present the added burden of elimination because of their harmful and hazardous nature for health. The body attempts to eliminate toxins through stimulation, which "revs up" the metabolism and costs the body energy and nutrition in the process. The simple code for nutritional digestion in the body is: it takes enzymes to get protein; it takes protein to get minerals; and, it takes minerals to get vitamins. Each item is dependent on the one before it for complete digestion to take place. When food contains all of its live ingredients, digestion can proceed to completion; bowel movements are easy, and produce very little odor.