Very often we hear people who give their takes on what is deemed healthy or unhealthy to them. And there are people who dismiss healthy nutrition altogether, whom conjecture that all food is unhealthy. Obviously such a poisoned worldview deviates enormously from reality, and is mostly due to an apathetic attitude towards nutrition in general. Rather than looking at it subjectivity, I would like to explain the objective meaning of healthy nutrition by applying some basic epistemology.

You need only to know its source In order to ascertain its true nutritional value and if it’s healthy or not.

The source

The one source that sustains all life forms on earth is the Sun. The way the Sun’s energy generates and sustains life on this planet in the way that is does is incomprehensible to many. Without it, all life would be lost. Understanding our dependence upon it is paramount in order for us to ascertain the definition of healthy nutrition.

With this simple foundation, our knowledge builds up. What is healthy nutrition? It is that which has tolerated most of the Sun’s influence. Plants like spinach and broccoli, fruits such as apples and oranges have spent most of their time absorbing the Sun’s energy, which is why it is a healthy food source. Incidentally, The dutch word for health is ‘gezond’. Breaking down the word will reveal an amazing truth. Ge- is a prefix that indicates a past participle, zon is the dutch noun for Sun, and -d is an indication of a past participle or something that has already occurred. So you could interpret the dutch translation as something that has been ‘Sun’ed, or something that has been influenced by the Sun.

Simply put, the Sun sustains our lives with its energy on a daily basis (fact), which means that it’s energy is life-empowering, thus making all foods that have tolerated most of the Sun’s energy clean, whole and healthy. Eat as close to the source as possible. The source which sustains your life is the obvious source of the right nutrition. All foods that haven’t tolerated much of the Sun’s energy or none of it is to be questioned.

Not from the source

If certain vegetation or particular fruits undergo processing, it diverges more and more from its original source. The use of chemical preservatives, additives, colorants, sweeteners, etc. turns the original into something revamped. Fresh orange juice contains the most nutritional value, because it is close to the source. When it has been concentrated, and many additives and sweeteners have been added to the mix, you are taking it further away from the source. Which in turn leads to less nutritional value and the intake of dangerous chemicals that make you unhealthy.

With is this in mind, you can determine whether something is healthy or not. By asking the question; How far is it removed from its source, the Sun. The closer, the healthier.

Organic vs non-organic

There are people who question the relevance of whether food is organic or not, but it matters a lot.

When food is organic, it is simply referring to the fact that no chemical fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, or genetic engineering have been used in the process of growing it. Organic food has no chemical poison residue and has much higher amounts of nutrients. Which is relevant, since most of the chemical processes can make you unhealthy, by way of its proven toxicity to human beings. And much of the influence of the source has been removed because detrimental processes have removed most of its nutritional value. This is not the food that is clean and whole. You ought to eat as close to the source as possible. Processing removes it further from the source, so avoid food that has undergone the most processing.

Does this mean that I should read labels?

I personally do not bother with reading labels. If it has a label, I usually don’t eat it. An orange doesn’t have a label, Swiss chard doesn’t have a label, Einkorn wheat berries don’t have a label. And I amalgamate ingredients my way, I never eat them ready made. I eat as close to the source as possible.

I also abstain from heating, since heat deprives food from its original nutritional value. The nutritional value of cashew nuts, for instance, is drastically different when it has undergone immense heating, with roasted cashew nuts for instance. Which is why I also try to eat food in their rawest form.

Be wary of the traps.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about how important the Sun is in determining which food is healthy or not, I ask you to widen your gaze. There is lots of deliberate misinformation that is intended to denigrate the Sun as a cause of destruction. The Sun has been accused of thing like ‘Climate change’ (Previously called Global Warming, and later renamed to Climate change, because people understood that the world wasn’t actually becoming warmer), and Skin cancer. Now how can something that has sustained life for millennia become detrimental to life in a matter of years? Co2 is obviously not the culprit here, since it is the oxygen of plants, which we eat. Without it, all plant life would perish, and the same goes for our lives, because plants turn the Co2 we breathe out into O2 we breath in. Plants need Co2, and we need O2, which we provide for each other while we breathe together. This symbiotic relationship with our environment has sustained life, the same goes for the Sun. Such contradictions aren’t regular in Nature, but they are regular in things that are manmade. Like Sunscreen, which literally contains carcinogens.

When there are dubious instances with powerful influence whom try to denigrate the things you need to remain healthy, something larger is taking place, and you should remain prudent and vigilant.