Nitrogen (N) (A Balancing Act)
Nitrogen (N) (A Balancing Act)
Recently I’ve been reading about the biochemistry of humans. However, let me rewind for a second. Before getting involved in understanding biochemistry, years ago I got into the Paleo movement and quickly loved it and came to the conclusion that proteins were made by amino acids and that is the future of human nutrition. The biochemistry of Amino Acids was fascinating to me, but what really sticks out is that Nitrogen is a part of every amino acid, which are the building blocks of proteins. Amino acids are created from the gasses, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Oxygen and the building block of organic life, Carbon. Carbon is at the backbone of all life when combined with the three previously mentioned gasses found around the Earth. Amino Acids are created with ammonia molecules, which contain Nitrogen. These guys dictate everything in the human body. They are the workers of the human body. Nitrogen is involved with protein production, enzymes, vitamins, skeletal/muscular development, fat and carbohydrate utilization, and hormone production. Clearly you can tell this an important chemical regarding nutrition and food. If we eat complete protein sources of meat, seafood and eggs in variety, we can obtain all essential and non essential amino acids that dictate our health and immune system. Although nitrogen is a part of amino acids and has a good effect on the body due to its relaxing effect in Nature, it can also be too toxic when humans cannot eliminate it properly causing an ammonia toxicity and then a wide array of illnesses including brain and nervous system abnormalities. That ultimately creates too much Nitric oxide in the body, since nitrogen and oxygen join to create nitric oxide and causes the body to break down and succumb to illness. With that said, if Nitrogen or Oxygen is out of balance, animals (including humans) are out of balance. Life will not exist if there is one without the other. By eating whole foods such as fruits, vegetables and a variety of meats, seafood, and eggs our bodies have an amazing ability to regulate itself and maintain optimal health to age gracefully. When exposed to too many toxic chemicals such as cleaning products and having poor elimination channels, we constantly tax our immune system and ultimately degrade, degenerate and decompose our own physical bodies. I use the word “tax” purposefully, because most of us, maybe all of us, hate being taxed on our money and lives, so what makes you think it is OK to do that to your immune system? Bottom line here: let’s clean up our lifestyles, get more daily sunlight, listen to our circadian (night-day) rhythm, drink sufficient amounts of water daily, eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, and most importantly get a surplus of meats, seafood, and eggs so our body knows how to manage its nitrogen balance and survive a long and healthy life.
