There is no concept of good or bad to our body. Whatever you ingest, it’ll take it and it will continue to systemically process the input. Whether the food is high in nutrition or not, our digestive system processes it the same way. Whether it is a banana or burger, it has no judgement and it does its thing.
So let us understand what the body cares about and why there are no moral codes to our body. According to the body, it cares about the chemical structures. It does’t speak in terms of taste, spice levels etc. It talks in terms of molecular structures (macro-nutrients and micro- nutrients).
The four major macro nutrients are
carbohydrates (sugars)
lipids (fats)
proteins (amino acid chains)
nucleic acids (DNA & RNA) - generally we don’t talk about this but it is important.
The 2 major micro nutrients are
Vitamins (you can’t make on your own)
Minerals (electrolytes)
For example: When body says carbs it means something like this: CnH2nOn (basic sugar structure). If you are a chemistry student you can understand that the molecular structure has carbon and water around it. Carbs are a quick and efficient energy source.
If you look closer into the chemical structure you can understand that when n=6, it is glucose (monosaccharide) and when that n=12, it is a disaccharide(maltose, fructose- sugar in fruits). When you look closely at starch or glycogen (polysaccharides), they are more complex. They have lots and lots of glucose aka complex sugars.
So carbohydrates are water soluble. This is why when you eat a lot of carbs, your weighing scale shoots up the next day. It could be just water.
You can check it today. Your Maggi cooks faster (certainly >2 mins 😅), bread can break down in water easily, pasta cooks in minutes etc. Because Carbs are water soluble this is happening. Like this we can go deeper and break down every nutrient but that is not my intent. I just wanted to show you a sample of how things work and how intricate they are.
I want you to know the language of the body and not how we use these words loosely. Only when you move from unawareness to awareness, you will be able to appreciate and empathise how stuff work. You will start becoming more sensible and your actions will show that sensibility. Mindfulness does not come if you wish for it. It comes from deep perception and that needs deep observation and understanding of things around you.
As a designer, it is my job to go to the roots and understand stuff else I can’t bend and break the rules if i want to. Creativity is possible only when there is deep understanding. Understanding the biochemistry of our food made me appreciate what happens inside every time I eat something. Whether it is a cereal or a cup cake, now i know what is going on. I am not a big fan of cheat sheets and templates. I love the foundations and principles behind things.
Ignorance is curse. Understanding is bliss.
🥂to syntax!
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