The Power of Nutrition
Specific Purpose: To Inform my audience about the basics of nutrition, how food affects our body, and what optimal nutrition looks like. Thesis: To understand the power that nutrition has upon our health, tonight I want to share with you the basics of nutrition, how food affects our body, and what optimal nutrition looks like.
I. Introduction
What would you think if we are not fully human, that “we are about half human and half bacteria”?
This statement was made by Harvard scientist Dr. William LI, a physician in internal medicine, who dedicated 30 years to research, and author of the book “Eat to Beat Disease”. The explanation behind this statement is that the human body has around 37 trillion human cells…. but the fact that caught my attention was that we have as well around 39 trillion bacteria In our body. Most of this bacteria is good bacteria and live in our gut, which is known as the micro biome. When we eat food, our human cells utilize the nutrients that they need for bodily functions, and whatever leftover that the human cells didn’t absorb, goes to feed the bacteria. These bacteria have a tremendous impact on our immune system, our metabolism, and can even affect our mood. So it matters what food we put into our body.
Transition: Our body can not produce everything it needs to work optimally, but it’s through food that the body acquires the essential nutrients needed to perform crucial functions.
II. Body
A. The Basics of Nutrition
1. Macronutrients are the primary building blocks of our diet: carbohydrates, protein, and fats. According to Harvard Medical School, fats are a crucial part of our diet. 2. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that the body needs in smaller amounts.
Transition: Now that we understand how our body uses nutrients from the food that we eat, let’s take a look at how that food can affect our body.
B. How Food Affects Your Body 1. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, a neuro endocrinologist and author of the book “Metabolical”, he explains in his lecture “The Bitter Truth” at the University of California in San Francisco, on how processed foods like sugars negatively effect our body, like: • Causing inflammation
• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes
• Fatty liver disease
• High Blood Pressure
• Cardiovascular disease
