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Do Your Insides Spell Trouble for Your Outsides? (Meet Player #1)

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January 19, 2010
	Jo Wehage : Head Operations Ego

Whether it’s sustained weight loss, a sculpted body or vibrant health, if you don’t get this you won’t succeed: If you’re not on the inside you can’t impact change. It’s often true for the board room and it’s certainly true for the 100 trillion cells in your body. In this simple 2-part series we’re going to examine this portion of your insides to see if it spells trouble for your outsides.

Getting healthy at the cellular level can change your life.

Cells make life possible. Healthy cells make a vibrant life possible. Cells are what build tissues, organs and bones. Cells are what make it possible to eat, to think and even to sleep. Cells make it possible for your blood to carry oxygen, fight foreign invaders and cells produce the very energy that make it possible for you to move throughout your day.

Feeling sluggish, weak and foggy in the head? Look at your cells. Feeling vibrant, a source of boundless energy, bright eyes and shiny hair? Look at your cells. Has that short term diet or fitness routine hit a plateau? Look at your cells.

Cellular Biology is for Nerds
Let’s face it, covering cellular biology in this article is about as likely as getting all you need to launch a rocket to the moon on one post-it note. Nonetheless, understanding just a few key elements is all you need to make a lasting impact on your health.

For our purposes we’re going to focus on three primary components; The cell membrane, mitochondria and nucleus. But that sounds dull and nerdy, so does a board room for that matter, so let’s think of these elements as key players in an A-list night club, namely; the bouncer, the disc jockey and the dancing queens. 

Player #1:  Meet Your Cell’s Bouncer (the cell membrane)
Every cell has an outer crust called the cell membrane. Much like the bouncer at the most up-scale and exclusive club it’s the job of the cell membrane to make sure only the best and brightest (nutrients) make it in and troublemakers (toxins) get booted out.  

The secret to a healthy cell membrane is permeability. While it needs to be rigid enough to maintain its structure, the healthiest cells are soft and permeable. Your goal is to get your cell membranes soft and permeable and keep them that way as you age. Our bouncer is a smart, agile, and gentle giant.

Attracting the Right Talent
So how do you attract the right kind of bouncers to run this A-list club called The Cell?

The secret to high quality cell membranes is eating the right kinds of foods and beverages. Especially important to the cell membrane are good quality fats

For some cells as much as 80% of the cell membrane can be made up of lipids (fats) which is why good quality fats are so essential in your diet. Lipids are the secret to the cell membrane’s flexibility.

Eating good quality fat is essential for increased energy, weight loss and overall health at the cellular level. Raw nuts and seeds, avocados, extra-virgin coconut oil, chia seeds, flax seeds, cold-water fish, fish oils and extra-virgin olive oil are all examples of the right kinds of fat to fuel the healthiest cell bouncers in town.

Acting as this gatekeeper the bouncer at the door can be the main reason a club makes it on to the society pages or slowly turns into a club on the ‘wrong side of the tracks.’

In part two of our series we’ll not only meet our dancers (mitochondria) and disk jockey (nucleus), we’ll review the key troublemakers that bring down the image and success of the cell and the impact it can have on your health. We’ll also review how all this can lead you to a neighborhood called Type-2 Diabetes.

But for now, how about romancing those bouncers with some high quality fats? Choose one or two reliable, high quality sources of healthy fats that you can feed your cells every single day.

In part 2 of our store we we cover:
Player #2: The Brains of the Place
Player #3 to 30,003: Dancing Queens
A Dancer’s Diet Plan
Trouble in Cellular Paradise
Blame it on the Crowd
Thank Goodness for Neighborhood Revitalization
Action Steps

This post is proudly submitted in the Body Basics category of our 12 Weeks of Wellness