The Six Foundations of Optimal Health
And how to support them through nutrition and lifestyle changes
How the six foundations of nutritional health offer a clear framework for supporting the body | Photo from simona pillola 2 on Shutterstock
Introduction
In the modern world, nutrition can feel overwhelmingly complicated.
In my work as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner through the NTA, I teach clients about six foundations of health that are so simple and yet powerful that I wanted to share them more broadly.
The foundations reflect the fundamental processes in the body that we can support through diet and lifestyle. They empower everyone to understand the factors that need to be in balance for them to feel their best.
So let’s jump into the first one.
#1 Diet: A properly prepared, nutrient-dense, whole food diet
Over the centuries, humans have strayed farther and farther from the foods our bodies evolved to eat. Beginning with the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago and accelerating with the industrial revolution, the quality of the human diet and land have steadily deteriorated. More recent revolutions in processed food, chemicals, and technology threaten to completely divorce us from our food supply.
The first foundation is about coming back to our roots.
When we talk about a properly prepared, nutrient-dense, whole food diet, our main focus is on eating high quality foods in their most natural forms. For some people, this can mean growing herbs in the garden or finding fresh greens at the local farmers market; for others, it can mean choosing a rotisserie chicken over a fast food chicken sandwich. The goal is to make the healthiest choices possible with whatever options are available.
Making healthy choices also includes preparing meals in a way that maximizes the benefits of the foods being eaten. This can mean using cookware that supports our bodies rather than giving additional toxins, using high quality ingredients and cooking methods that maintain nutrients, and even creating rituals around food that connect us to our communities and the land we live on.
Though the six foundations are all critical, there is nothing more fundamental than choosing the best quality ingredients we have available to us, preparing them with care, and making meals opportunities to connect to our communities and our land.
#2 Digestion: Absorbing and assimilating what we eat
If we’re not able to break down foods and absorb nutrients, every aspect of our health will be compromised.
In the NTA, we emphasize that digestion starts in the brain. This means that before we put a single bite of food in our mouth, our body needs to be in a relaxed — or parasympathetic — state for optimal digestion.
When our bodies are healthy and we enjoy our meals in a relaxed state, digestion works like a symphony: our nervous system optimizes our blood sugar response, adapts stomach acids and enzymes to the right levels, and times the movement of food through our GI tract for optimal absorption.
In the modern world though, this is rarely the case. Our digestive systems are often under fire from processed foods, toxins, and high levels of stress. As digestive issues compound, they often result in food allergies and sensitivities, immune challenges, and decreased vitality.
At the NTA, we focus strongly on supporting the digestive system to return to balance because once it does so, the immune system, detoxification, and overall health improve as well.
#3 Healthy Fats
Few topics in nutrition are as controversial — and deeply misunderstood — as fats.
For much of the 20th century, dietary fats were linked to heart disease and obesity, prompting most Americans to adopt low fat diets.
By the early 21st century, researchers acknowledged that the original “lipid hypothesis” was unsupported, but the damage was already done. Most Americans stayed on their low-fat diets and ironically, in their quest for better health, became deficient in essential fatty acids.
Essential fatty acids — omega-3 and omega-6 — are building blocks of fats that must be obtained from the diet. They play many important roles, including building healthy cell membranes and hormones, aiding absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, supporting the body’s protective lining, and critically, regulating the healing response through inflammation.
Unless we get the right balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, our bodies struggle to regulate inflammation properly. This often shows up as muscle aches and fatigue, flaky skin or dandruff, and headaches.
For many in the modern world, the easiest way to ensure the right balance of fatty acids on a daily basis is by supplementing with high quality fish oil or flax-based supplements. But in the long run, restoring natural fats — such as fatty fish, seeds, unprocessed oils, and full-fat dairy — to our diets is critical for optimal health.
#4 Blood Sugar Regulation: Creating a balanced energy supply
Our bodies maintain blood glucose levels in a tight range for optimal energy and adaptability.
When our blood sugar rises after meals, the pancreas releases insulin into the blood to trigger the conversion of glucose to glycogen; when our blood sugar drops, glycogen is converted into glucose again.
For many people though, blood sugar operates more like a roller coaster. Processed foods and simple sugars cause our blood sugar to spike sharply and trigger insulin to bring it sharply down; as our levels crash, our bodies pump out stress hormones and glucagon to recover. This dynamic leads to mood and energy swings in the short-term and damage to our tissues and hormone balance over time.
A diagram showing the blood sugar rollercoaster that is common in modern life (NTA, 2021b)
Luckily, the blood sugar response can be healed in many ways: by choosing a more natural diet with a balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates; through periods of fasting or high intensity exercise; and finally, through lower stress.
#5 Mineral Balance: Striking the right balance
While macronutrients give our body the building blocks it needs, minerals are the spark plugs that make things happen. They enable metabolism, growth muscle and nerve activity, and enzymatic reactions to occur.
There are macrominerals, which are needed in larger quantities — such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium — and microminerals, which are only needed in trace amounts. But all are just as important for optimal function and health.
Possibly the most critical thing to understand about minerals is that they are interdependent. Since most require a number of other cofactors for their absorption and use, one mineral cannot be affected without impacting at least two others.
Consider the example of calcium, which 33% of American women take as a supplement: Though most people get enough calcium through their diets, many discover they have low levels of tissue calcium because their bodies aren’t able to absorb and use the calcium they’re ingesting. The reason is that In order for the body to use calcium, it needs six additional cofactors:
Proper hormone function (e.g. thyroid, sex, and adrenal hormones)
Hydration
Vitamins (e.g. vitamin D)
Proper digestion
Fatty acids
Other minerals (e.g. potassium and trace minerals)
If we take calcium without ensuring that these cofactors are working, we not only fail to resolve the deficiency, but we risk creating issues such as bone spurs since our body struggles to use the minerals it has appropriately.
Overall, minerals teach a wonderful lesson about the interconnectedness of the body: we cannot address individual deficiencies until we understand the body’s needs and functions overall.
#6 Hydration: Getting sufficient water and electrolytes
Sometimes the simplest thing we can do to improve our health is to just drink more water.
Water is essential for almost every process in the body: it delivers oxygen and nutrients to cells, removes wastes and toxins, enables digestion, cushions joints, hydrates and composes cells, and maintains the electrical properties of cells.
Water — and the electrolytes dissolved in it — not only support our structure but allow us to function as electrical beings.
The most practical lesson on hydration is to hydrate sufficiently and to know the signs of dehydration. On a minor level, dehydration often manifests as thirst and fatigue; but the chronic symptoms can be more severe and include joint pains, heartburn, exercise asthma, and other chronic challenges.
Since thirst signals decline with age — and when we are distracted or stressed — it’s especially important to listen to your body and be mindful that you’re hydrating it on a daily basis.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the processes of the body can’t be divided so neatly: all of the foundations impact one another and an issue in one is likely to have a domino-effect on the others.
Yet the foundations empower us to understand the roots of health and to take each one into our hands. As we learn how to heal our digestion for example, we’ll find that our blood sugar regulation and mineral balance improve as well, kicking off a virtuous cycle that decreases our stress and brings more energy and joy into our lives.
For that reason, the six foundations not only support our physical health, but they support our mental health, relationships, and ability to create the lives we want.
Want to find out which foundation needs your support most?
Take the Foundations of Health quiz to learn about the foundations of nutritional health and which to focus on first:
Sources
Nutritional Therapy Association. (2021). Digestion Function Student Lecture [PDF document]. Retrieved from: https://nutritionaltherapy.instructure.com/courses/217/pages/dig-%7C-core-videos?module_item_id=15113
Nutritional Therapy Association. (2021). Blood Sugar Student Guide [PDF document]. Retrieved from: https://nutritionaltherapy.instructure.com/courses/217/pages/bsr-%7C-core-reading?module_item_id=15121.
Nutritional Therapy Association. (2021). Evolution of the Modern Diet [PDF document]. Retrieved from: https://nutritionaltherapy.instructure.com/courses/217/pages/emd-%7C-core-reading?module_item_id=15080
Pollan, M. (2008). In Defense of Food. Penguin Press.
