Holistic Nutrition
Nutrition, from a Western perspective, concentrates on calories and chemical composition. How many calories are in that muffin? Is it fat-free? How many grams of protein are there? How many “points” is that? When we use an approach like this, we reduce the complexity of the human being to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet. And yet it’s been established that food goes way beyond the calorie and its chemical composition—as anyone who has struggled with weight or health issues knows. The human body does not work solely on the premise of “calories in, calories out.” When we focus on this singular variable, we lose sight of the true operations of the body, the intricate workings that are synergistically interlaced (Barnes, Prasain & Kim 2013; Liu 2004).