How often have you heard, or said this: "Listen to your body".

It almost sounds magical/mysterious for people new to alternative nutrition, such as the living/raw foods lifestyle. I used to think my yoga teacher was exaggerating when she said it until I one day KNEW what she was referring to, and it just made sense. Same with nutrition - people just sometimes fail to trust their instincts.

But check out this link to a study that shows animals - including humans - have some "sense" about missing essential amino acids in their diets, causing them to seed out the foods which will provide that particular nutrient.

Interesting reading!

"[www.bio.com];

(I had to put quotes around the entire link, otherwise it only posts the first part, not the rest of the link.)

Here's just the beginning of the summary:

03/17/05 -- The biochemical mechanism that enables animals -- likely including humans -- to recognize when their diet is deficient in an essential amino acid has been identified for the first time by researchers at the University of California, Davis.


The findings by neurophysiologist Dorothy Gietzen and colleagues at UC Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine have implications for human health, particularly epilepsy, since some forms of epilepsy are influenced by amino acid deficiencies. That is because amino acids are the chemical units that the body uses to construct proteins for growth and development.

The study will appear in the March 18 issue of the journal Science.

"This constitutes a basic, well conserved mechanism in the brain of mammals that allows them to respond to nutritional stress and seek out food that will improve their chances for survival," Gietzen said.

For more than five decades, scientists have known that animals have the ability to sense when their diet is not providing sufficient amino acids. Of the 20 amino acids found in animals, eight of them cannot be produced by or stored in the body and, therefore, must be obtained through the foods the animals eat. These eight are known as "indispensable amino acids."

Previous research has shown that animals can sense within a matter of minutes if their diet is deficient in an indispensable amino acid, making use of a subconscious sensing mechanism that does not depend on taste or smell. For example, if rats are offered more than one type of feed, and the first feed they try is deficient in an indispensable amino acid, they will soon switch to another feed that provides the necessary amino acids.

Gietzen noted that animals ranging from single-cell organisms such as yeast, to invertebrates to humans, appear to have conserved this mechanism through evolution. As a result, humans have developed cultural patterns that provide important dietary choices. For example, long before people even knew of amino acids, some cultures paired rice with beans or the soybean product tofu. These are protein-rich plant foods which, when eaten together, provide a full complement of all indispensable amino acids.

So when my daughter says "my body tells me I NEED a cupcake Daddy!" I should listen?

Just teasing. Thanks for the link.

Raw Daddy -- livin' raw and lovin' it

makes sense.