Fitness - Your Smart Cells Clock

You could have learnt at your grandmother's knee that a healthy body is one that gathers food, digests what it requires and throws out the waste. It is a simple philosophy drawn from common sense. If you look around you, you will see that Nature has organised our planet to perfection. We have days and nights for all earthly creatures to work and sleep, animals who prey on other animals, animals that eat plants, the four seasons. Our entire world functions in cycles, Since we are Nature's children, our bodies too ought to be working in similar rhythms. For years, scientists and psychologists researched and analysed - trying to figure out if we functioned in a set pattern. After all, women have menstrual cycles. So, was it possible that the human body operated in some' kind of health rhythm blueprinted by Nature?

And sure enough, they stumbled on to a great discovery.

Our smart cells had a biological clock which they followed with precision! They had optimum time-spans for the bodys three functions - taking in and digesting food; absorbing and using the fuel; ridding our body off its wastes. What stunned these researchers was that the tireless smart cells could manage all three functions at the same time, but cannily also concentrated on one function more intensely during a certain period. And the marvellous smart cells living cycle ,slowly came to light just as a photograph emerges from a negative, in this way:

Noon to 8 p,m. : eating and digesting

8 p.m. to 4 a.m. : absorbing and using

4 a.m. to noon: eliminating wastes.

It was one more feather in the health expert's cap. Until then they could tell us what we should eat - Now they knew when we should eat to optimise our body's efficiency.

Common sense showed the way - that we could eat only when awake. But the living-cycle theory explained why if we stayed off food, our hunger would rise and then diminish even if we didn't eat.

That is because the body system would switch to the next function.

Common sense dictated that it was during sleep that our body-having nothing else to e expend its energy upon- used the time to rejuvenate and rebuild itself. The living cycle explained why a good night's sleep is far more refreshing than an afternoon nap. That is because the smart cells operate best in absorbing and using food at night.

And it was the living cycle that finally explained how the smart cells set aside a certain time for ridding the body of wastes.(Which is we have a furry tongue in the morning and also need to empty our stomachs soon after waking

After a late night of partying and feasting, have you woken up with a dull feeling? That is because you've eaten at a time when the body wants - to busy itself in absorbing and using the food. Instead, you've sent it off its normal track and forced it to 'eat' and digest - throwing its natural living cycle out of gear. Since its eliminating time has been postponed, you may find yourself constipated!

It figures from the timings of the natural living cycle that breakfast is not necessary to start the day. It is a time when the smart cells are busy vacuuming and cleaning up your insides. However, if you do feel hungry due to an old habit, eating fresh fruits or drinking fresh fruit juice would satisfy your hunger. Since the body can digest them easily, you don't tie up its energy in digestion.

According to health experts, the digestion of food demands more energy than running or cycling! Which is why, after a heavy meal, you feel sleepy. Your smart cells engage them - selves in the digesting process, using all their energy, leaving you with very little for doing anything except sleep. They also require loads of energy to clean up your system.

Obviously, you don't want your day's energy to be diverted purely for digesting food and eliminating wastes, important through they are for your health. Hence, constantly feed your smart cells with high-energy, fatless and sugar- free food like vegetables, fruits and sprouts to enable you to have tons of energy left over for your work and leisure.

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