Health. It’s personal.

Health. As the old saying goes “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” A quote, so famous, that it exemplifies the fundamental link of food to nutrition and then to health status without anyone ever realizing it. Still, upon closer inspection, it is simply known that there is no way that an apple a day could keep us totally “healthy,” or could it? We will get there… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Taking a step back and examining health, it is easy to understand that being healthy means a variety of different feelings to many different people.

The working mom or dad. Often, they have put in eight hours plus of work at the office and are coming home to their families, possibly for a quick dinner and some family time. To the working mom or dad, health may be having just enough energy to get to the end of the day without a mild tragedy occurring and being able to take that final deep breath before falling off to sleep. Or, possibly making their children drink milk instead of soda when at the dinner table.

A very different picture of health is perceived when asking an athlete their view of health. The track star. Practicing day after day, running race after race, and consuming carbohydrate after carbohydrate to achieve the ultimate form to win the race. It’s the body and mind that needs to be healthy for a track star to feel confident enough to pull ahead in the race. This cannot be achieved without the proper fueling system and understanding the reciprocal relationship between food and performance.

One last example. The health of a woman recovering from chemotherapy. Her view of health will differ drastically from even the people around her. To her doctors – it’s the absence of foreign cancer cells from the body. To her family – it’s the presence of life. But to her, healthy is the feeling of enjoying the taste of ice cream again without the presence of nausea.

Health is something that sprouts from something smaller. A day, an activity, a disease, a piece of fruit, the list can go on. It seems to all come down to how you live your life through the choices that are made to fulfill you, both literally and "figure"atively.

The fact is health it's personal.