Our Bodies Need Energy!

The human body consists of many trillions of cells. Each of these cells has a particular function, but they all have one thing in common. Each cell creates energy. The bioenergetic theory of health focuses on maximizing this energy, so that our bodies always have enough energy to maintain optimal health.

Like any system, the human body can only use as much energy as it has available. All of the higher-level functions of the human body are dependent on the cells creating enough energy. Immune health, mental function, digestion, muscular and skeletal development, reproductive functions and more suffer if the body lacks the energy to support them.

For our cells to create energy, they need two primary inputs: fuel and oxygen. Fuel comes from the food we eat, and breathing provides our cells with oxygen. Our cells use these inputs to create a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the primary source of cellular energy. Being "healthy" is dependent on the body having more ATP available than it needs is to power all its functions.

Conversion Is The Key

Most people think of human energy in terms of calories consumed as the input, and calories expended (usually through exercise) as the output. This misses a critical element, which is that our cells have to convert the food we eat into energy. If that conversion process isn't working smoothly, the body won't be able to create enough energy, no matter how much fuel is available.

Because cellular energy is critical to the health of cells, each cell has many pathways to create that energy. If the primary pathway is blocked, the cell can use a second; if that is blocked, a third, and so on. Each of these pathways can create ATP, but the primary pathway creates the most ATP in a given time.

Bioenergetic Health

Therefore, according to the bioenergetic theory of health, the goal of all health-related activities should be:

1. to provide the cells of the body with plenty of the fuels needed to promote energy creation,
2. to remove any blocks so that the cells can use the most productive pathways available to create energy, and
3. to ensure that our body has as much of its energy as possible available for all its functions.

In this way, our bodies will be creating plenty of energy at every moment, and will always have enough energy to support the highest level of health.

This has implications for all areas of health, including diet, exercise, lifestyle and environment. Within each of these, there are many particulars, and in some cases much disagreement about their importance. Our goal is to provide content and other sources for topics within all of these categories, which you can use to learn more about how to maximize your cellular energy and optimize your health.

The Bioenergetic Diet Overview

Check out topics for a list of pages with summaries of each topic as well as external resources you can use to learn more, and potentially get different viewpoints about the topic. Go to the View Resources link at the top of each topic page for that topic's resources, or search the site.