I was supposed to post this blog the second week in January, but Covid-19 showed up in my life and disrupted it. It was only a detour. My experience with Covid-19 lasted a month 1/2, but God carried me through and I am stronger and wiser now than before it happened. One of my worship songs is by Marvin Sapp called, “Never Would Have Made It” (1). I made it through because of God and his direction along with physical assistance from my husband, sister, doctor, and nurses. This blog on nutrition is designed to evolve and challenge your thinking about food. It’s for deep divers who want to go to another level in their health. The blog has a purpose and is process-driven and will guide you into the evolution of nutrition from your perspective and how it benefits your health, fitness, and well-being. What are your thoughts about Nutrition? Write them down? How do you view your current patterns of eating? Write it down? Are you in alignment with what you say you need to do for your eating habits? Write it down? Do you focus on the food you consume regularly? Write it down? Now look at your answers and ask yourself are you aligned with you and your actions? If the answer is no, then go deep diving to find out why. If yes, then you are a teacher for others to follow. This blog has an assignment that you can do to challenge your thinking and slowly help you make life-changing decisions about nutrition that will benefit you. By the end of the year, you will have a new perspective and focus on nutrition. You will even have a new framework and platform that you operate from that is holistic and feeds your lifestyle and help you lead when faced with disruptive patterns. You will be able to use tools to measure your progress and restructure your home to align with your nutrition, health, fitness, and wellness goals.
This blog is for YOU and how to understand and write down your thoughts about nutrition, understand the process, absorb the knowledge, and utilize the nutrition information to build your platform for your Health, Fitness, and Wellness. When people say health is your wealth, so is nutrition. It is the foundation and key to your body’s overall health along with your belief system and the way you think. Everything surrounding us is a system. You must know which system you’re activating in your life and which one you control and the one you do not control. We may not control outbreaks or sicknesses, but we can control what we think, believe, who we listen to, and how we respond. These decisions are part of our free will. Our choice of food that we choose is a form of free will because it is universal, but access to quality nutrition may not be for all. Based on your circumstances, nutrition can be a god to some, and to others, it is a way of life or it can be bondage or stronghold. There can be many other reasons that people turn to nutrition for lifestyle changes, but what did God say about nutrition before the word “nutrition” ever reared its head in the 1500's.
What did God say?
What did God originally say about food, which falls into the category of nutrition? God’s original word about food which is embedded in the framework of nutrition was in Genesis 1:11, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so (KJV)” (2). He also spoke in Genesis 1:29, “I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you, it shall be for meat (KJV)”(3). When God showed me this, I had to deconstruct everything that I knew about Nutrition. Not that all of what I learned was not the truth, I didn’t understand in fullness. Now that we know what God said, what have I interpreted as of today about nutrition. It is so much that I have to split it in blogs, books and courses. I will start with a very brief history of Nutrition.
Brief History of Nutrition
Some think that Nutrition may have started with the dietary guidelines, but it started way before then. Nutrition started with natural healers in 400 B.C. Most people in the field of nutrition and medicine know about the Greek physician Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine” who said, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be they food” (4). Hippocrates lived between 460-377 BC, so the concept of healers has been in our society for over 2,500 years. He was in perfect alignment with God’s original intent as it relates to food. The natural healers during that time believed in the inner healing power as the basic foundational principle (5). The word evolved into the 1500s and is defined as an act or process for organisms to absorb food for their systems and living tissues (6).
We are either going to operate in the will of God for our health or we are not because the place of in-between and straddling the fence is over. Use Science to elevate the knowledge of God that builds a platform for health and impacts your health so you can thrive. The nutrition framework we see today had a starting point and from the beginning to now, I provided a brief history. There are many other things in-between, but I choose what was relevant to the framework of Nutrition in America because this is where my experience, education, and knowledge have been for over 31 years.
In the beginning – God Said
God said in Genesis 1:11, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so (KJV)” (2). It was also in Genesis 1:29, “I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you, it shall be for meat (KJV)”(3).
400 B.C. – Hippocrates
The Greek physician Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine” said, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” (4).
1894 – Origin of U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The first congressional funds were appropriated to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the study of the relationship between nutrition and human health. Dr. Wilbur Olin Atwater was appointed as the Chief of Nutrition Investigations and is accoladed as the “Father of Nutrition Science” in America (7).
The platform of nutrition has evolved, so I created a diagram to demonstrate what I saw. Food became Science and Science became many fields of study which led to nutrition, Nutrition Science, and Nutrition Medicine, just to name a few. It evolved into many professions such as dieticians and nutritionists which also offered other forms of practicing at a lower level with certifications such as fitness nutrition coach and functional nutrition coach, just to name a few. The field of nutrition included dietary recommendations and guidelines that are overseen by government programs that follow rules, processes, and procedures based on a systematic methodology. The American Dietary Guidelines are only 42 years old. It was birthed in 1980, and I will go over that history in another blog so that you can see and understand where we are today with nutrition and the knowledge that is presented versus the knowledge that God must show us. God sees us human beings consistently evolving like a tree so we can take the dietary platform which is stagnant and build a platform that is elevated above nutrition and health. You will also be able to ensure your platform extends beyond nutrition and provide structure for the next generation.
It is crucial that you know what platform of nutrition you are tapping into so that you are aware of the results that you will receive. There have been so many platforms, but the one that I have watched is the business process and practice. The process is the key to understanding your recommendations, needs, and overall understanding of nutrition for your lifestyle. I challenge you to see the big picture in my online nutrition coaching course called “Nutrition Bootcamp 111” which is coming soon. This course will lift the veil and open your eyes to a strategy and process that works for you.
Your Challenge
What is the origin and purpose of nutrition in your life? The purpose of food did not change, but in its context of nutrition, meta morphed, changed, and evolved to take on its image of how we need to see it from the eyes of the experts. It’s fun to dress up nutrition with recipes, smoothies, juicing, soul food, and many other cultural aspects, but the point of nutrition is to nourish and balance the systems within our body which protects us from sickness and so we can function in the capacity that you were designed by God. The evolution of nutrition science has helped us to see a structure to follow, measure and elevate beyond our current conditions or to maintain our current state of health. Some people could care less about nutrition, some care enough to get by, some love it and others just pick it up when they need it. Either way, we all need food to nourish our bodies. Without looking at any notes, internet, or getting any type of help, this assignment in this blog is based on your knowledge. It’s challenging, but it will make you think about your nutrition platform in accordance to the systems in your body. I generally like to do this in a classroom setting with the collective thoughts of everyone in one location. This gives us an idea of what knowledge area we need to explore. Here is the assignment:
1. On a sheet of paper, write the number of systems in the human body.
2. From that number, draw boxes that represent each system. For example, if you think there are 10 systems in the human body, then draw 10 boxes as such:
3. Write the names of the systems in each box. I did numbers instead of names for a demonstration of the names that should be in the box. (See example)
4. Below the name, create another box and began to write the foods that support each system. No cheating. Just do this from your knowledge. This is part of your evolution. Also, think about the food/beverages you consume for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and add them into their respectful system. Remember, systems are not food groups but support the function of that system through organs, tissues, cells and glands at its best. I put together examples just based on the numbers.
Putting these lists together not only helps you to think, but it also provides you with a picture of your own platform and areas that you may want to consider changing or finding more information about. This is why I am a coach. To help people walk through what they need and to allow them to discover another way. This helps you to see pathologies that may have occurred, and disease prevention is no longer an option, but stabilizing the condition or disease until it is reversed.
References
(1) Sapp, M. (2009). Never Would Have Made It (Official Music Video). https://youtu.be/TWrGjzBheno
(2) BibleGateway. Genesis 1:11. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201%3A11&version=KJV
(3)BibleGateway. Genesis 1:29. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A29&version=KJV
(4) NaturalHealers.com (n.d). The History of Nutrition. https://www.naturalhealers.com/blog/nutrition-history/
(5) Gurshe, S, Rona, Z, & the Alive Research Group. (1997). Encyclopedia of Natural Healing. 2nd edition. Alive Publishing Group.
(6) Online Etymology Dictionary. (2021-2022). Nutrition. https://www.etymonline.com/word/nutrition
(7) Zimmerman, M., & Snow, B. (2012). Essentials of Nutrition: A Functional Approach. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-nutrition/s05-01-defining-nutrition-health-and-.html
(8) Mozaffarian, D. (2018). History of modern nutrition science-implications for current research, dietary guidelines, and food policy. Science and Politics of Nutrition. https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2392.full
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.
Catrice C. Jackson
NESTA Fitness Nutrition Coach (FNC)
NESTA Core Condition Specialist (CCS)
NESTA Certified Holistic Life Coach (CHLC)
Email: change@bevolutionllc.org
Contact: 470-666-4778
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