You are what you eat - Not quite

Tis the season for makan makan again. Following through to Chinese New Year at the end of January 2014. How not to indulge and over eat for the next two months? An annual “No diet period” for me at least.

We are what we eat, NOT QUITE.

Let us rephrase it. We are what our bodies does with what we ate. Not a great Aha moment? Food for thought. Let us digest and discuss this new paradigm. We are what our bodies does with what we ate.

For decades we were told that we are what we eat. So the bogeyman is out; bad foods for you. You can eat this, you should not eat it that. So frightening, scary and limiting. We keep looking for the food that are “good” for us. Yes good for us not me.

But hey, aren’t we all different? Maybe going by the ballpark rule, we are 80% same but 20% not the same. Why some people could eat no fat and some could eat no thin?  Why some people get well with a medication, but others does not get well with the same medication? This is because no two person are the same in body composition, health, age, blood count, acidity/alkali level; and hydration and oxygen levels in the body. We maybe built the same, even looks the same as in twins, but never the same with body composition, enzyme production and metabolic rates.

So someone’s meat is someone else’s poison.

Yes I do agree that there are good and bad foods, more precisely functional foods and foods which causes allergies to some people. Sometimes our genetic disposition will also make us intolerant to some foods, as with milk, soy, glutton, casein etc etc.

 We should be able to eat all type of foods moderately at least, and indulge with caution when we are diabetic or have digestive problems.

When we eat, we ingest the food differently, (Gluttons don't chew their food) we digest differently and also our metabolic rates are definitely different. So even when we ate the same food, same quantity, our bodies will make use of the food at the level of capacity possible in our bodies. We are what our bodies does with what we ate.

On that premise, let us eat and be merry.  Give yourselves a treat.

BTW for your new year’s resolution; start with improving your health, your body weight and composition, your immune system and your homeostasis. You can eat more for the next annual No diet period.

The bottom-line is not about the foods anymore, but it is about your own body that you should focus on.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Allen Lai