Silvie+Maryl – Holistic Living, Plant-Based Diet, Recipes, Love & Relationship, Healthy LifestyleTips

Since we’re always talking about how nutrition is all about feeding your cells, we thought we’d better acquaint you (or re-acquaint you…we all took biology when we were kids!) with this wonderful unit of existence. Our cells are amazing bundles of endless work, so cute, all round and jam-packed with goodies to keep you alive.

The cell is a marvelous structure that runs as efficiently and tirelessly as a thriving business – with many members hard at work performing various necessary tasks. Let’s take a look at this wonder of a mini-creation, of which you have trillions at a time in your body (they ARE your body!)

Every cell is bounded by a membrane, kind of like a fenced-in community or the border that surrounds a pool and keeps the water in. Within this membrane is a semi-liquid substance called cytosol (this would be like the water in the pool). Suspended in the cytoplasm – some moving, some static – are tiny bodies called organelles (“little organs”), each of which has a specialized function within the cell. This is where it gets really interesting. Like with every structure, there is a level of organization within the cell, and if each “department” and its members do their jobs correctly, get what they need to accomplish this, and don’t mess with anyone else’s gig, everything works just fine. This reflects as health in the human body.

So what are these organelles?  The usual suspects are really cool:

• ✶ There’s the nucleus, so important that you’ve probably heard of it. The nucleus contains chromatin, which are made up of DNA (genetic material) and protein. Think of it as the genetic library of the cell. When you hear about people talking about genetics, it’s this tiny central part of your tiny cell within the tissue, within the organ, within the various systems of your body that people are referring to. All of your history (and your parents’ and grandparents’ and so on until the beginning of man) is in the center of a tiny cell, of which you have roughly 50 trillion. Take a moment to marvel (1, 2, 3…all together now: “WOW”.)

• ✶ If the nucleus is the big daddy of the cell both in size and importance, then the mitochondria is the big momma, as it also contains some DNA and has a  crucial role. The mitochondria (singular and plural…there are a few in a single cell) is also known as “the powerhouse of the cell”. This is because it is where cellular respiration takes place and that means that it is there that the actual energy that your body uses to move around and stay alive is generated.

• ✶ The nucleus takes up a nice chunk of cell space, and so does the endoplasmic reticulum that surrounds it. The ER is a network of membranous sacks and tubes that take care of various metabolic tasks.

• ✶ Another organelle is the ribosome. There are a bunch of tiny ribosomes everywhere in the cell – some stuck to the ER – and their job is to make proteins.

• ✶ There is also the golgi apparatus, which is like a processing guy – it takes care of the synthesis, sorting and secretions of the cell’s products.

• ✶ When there’s stuff that needs to get broken down (remember, the food you eat is going where? TO YOUR CELLS. You literally feed your cells when you put something in your mouth), such as a carbohydrate/fat/protein that entered the cell for nutrition, there are organelles called lysosomes (lys = “to break”) that take care of “digesting” it or otherwise breaking it down enough to where it can be used by the cell for nourishment, energy or repair.

There are more “little organs” in your cell, such as transport vessels that move things to and from each organelle, but these are the main guys who take food, water and other elements in and process them to keep you alive and kicking. Now do you see what we mean by the importance of what you put in your body in the form of food? Whatever you ingest is going into your cell and activating, nourishing or harming, and otherwise interacting with your DNA, your body’s energy generator, the distribution centers for power and survival, and virtually everything you need in order to either maintain or fix your physical body, which, of course, has a direct effect on your mind, emotions and spirit.  What your cells need is a variety of nutrients from real, whole foods as well as fresh and natural ionized/alkaline water that has not been recycled fifty times. They also need fresh air and food sleep from you, so be sure to take yourself to places where you can “feed” your cells clean air and try to respect your circadian rhythms by sticking to a 6 a.m.-10 p.m. wake schedule.

Think about the little guys the next time you’ve got a choice to make for breakfast, lunch or dinner. “How will this affect my DNA?”  “Will the overly processed sugar in this soda be too much or too foreign for my lysosomes to break down?” “Should I opt for pure water instead of this sugary drink?” “Is it really a good idea to drink alcohol if it is going to kill my neurons, dehydrate my cells and ask my liver to work overtime to get rid of the toxicity?”

And remember your origins: All of these trillions of cells that you collectively call (fill in your name here) came from the replication of ONE of your mother’s cells together with ONE of your father’s cells. THAT…is how important a single cell is.

You cannot love what you don’t understand, and you cannot understand what you do not know. So, now that we’ve reacquainted you with the tiny units of your physical body, how about it? Let’s love ourselves by loving our cells.