Today’s nutrition and dietetics study human diet from the perspective of food as matter, that is, exclusively physical nutrition for the human body. They investigate the types and functions of its various material components, such as the different groups of vitamins, fats, minerals, antioxidants, and other molecular constituents. Then they associate the lack or excess of anyone of those components with diseases and other human health disorders.

This view is not a problem in itself, but to consider the quantitative aspects of food alone as being the whole reality of food is a problem. People tend to think about nutrition according to rules they were handed down and so they believe that the same rules apply when it comes to food and isolated nutrients like calcium, vitamin C, iron, etc. Modern nutrition does not protect or preserve the original quality of food, that is, its vital energy. (Gagné, 2011)

What happens is that the vital energy in foods is not a material feature that can be measured by the means available to modern science. Nutritional studies recognize the fact that there is a reduction of nutrients depending on how food is prepared and processed. However, because they fail to acknowledge its vital energy, they are far from recognizing the effects of depleting the vital energy of food when chemicals are used in agricultural production, food processing and industrialization, or when food is genetically modified.

This is nature´s normal state: vital energy-rich food that provides more efficient nutrition to those who consume it. Grains and produce grown without toxins, and processed foods free from chemical additives, tend to conserve their vital energy better.

According to Mokiti Okada, another point to consider is that nutrition and dietetics should study not only food itself, but also human body functions.

Human beings consume foods for the sake of life support and the manifestation of life powers; yet, today’s cientific theories misinterpret this truth. In eating, the life powers of the liver, gall bladder, kidneys, and pancreas function to produce, extract, and distribute all the nutrients needed for the functioning of blood, muscles, bones, skin, hair, teeth, finger and toe nails, and so on. A partir dos alimentos, elas transformam e produzem livremente os nutrientes necessários. (Okada, 2002)

When perfectly healthy, the human body is capable of absorbing nutrients efficiently. Much like a factory, it processes food turning it into blood, tissue, and substances that will maintain the metabolism working. When it receives pre-processed blood, tissue, and nutrients, the “factory” comes to a halt; it loses its function. By consuming pure food, rich in vital energy, the organs that provide the body with nutrients work better and people rejuvenate. Intensifying this activity should be the most important thing when it comes to being healthy.

The healthy body is capable of detecting when a nutrient is missing; it craves a certain kind of food. And through the sense of taste, it can determine what products should and should not be consumed as food:

(…)The Creator made things taste bad to show that they are toxic and should not be eaten. Consequently, the better foods taste, the greater their spiritual energy and the higher their nutritional value. Fresh fish and vegetables are delicious because they still have dense spiritual energy. As time passes, their flavor diminishes because their spiritual energy disperses. (Okada, 2002)

There is third point: it is consistent with the order of Nature that man should preferably eat seasonal products and food produced in the region where they live. Differences in climate and regional characteristics should be respected if food is to be appropriate for consumption by the people who live there.

Source: “Alimentação pela Agricultura Natural” – Study Group – Brazil.