Being an athlete I try to be as health conscious as I can be to maintain peak performance. Over time I've picked up on certain indicators / signals my body gives me that either tell me what I'm doing is good (diet, recovery, training, sleep, breathing, etc) or not so good. Whether I'm giving my body what it needs or am deficient in certain nutrients.

One of these indicators is the warmth within my extremities (hands and feet). This is an indicator I really pay attention to as when they are cold it usually means 1. My body is focusing its energy usage on more vital organs and parts of the body that need focus and 2. I'm probably in need of certain nutrients, usually for me it's protein.

Which leads me to another interesting point that I've been thinking about within Japanese culture. In Japan there's this term called "hieshou" which is a term that pertains to people who easily get cold or always have cold hands / feet. It's become something of a norm over there (I say over there bc I'm Japanese American and only visit on occasion) to the point where there's literally a word for it, which honestly should be alarming as when the body is functioning efficiently and being taken care of cold extremities should rarely be an issue. My theory for one of the reasons why people have "hieshou" is because they're not getting enough protein. There are other reasons I'm sure as well such as stress, possible lack of exercise, overworking, and lacking other basic nutrients but I believe protein deficiency is one of them.

The modern Japanese diet, at least from my experience and knowledge, does not include enough protein. We eat a lot of carbs from rice to noodles and it's the majority of our caloric intake but not the most nutritionally available. Heck, in Japan a common restaurant combo is eating ramen with a rice bowl. There also is a popular sandwich called yakisoba pan which is yakisoba noodles in a hot dog bun😅 don't get me wrong it's all delicious but it's carbs on carbs, and definitely not enough protein and other important nutrients.

Just something I ponder. Exactly how "developed" are developed countries? 🤔 "developed" and "1st world" definitely does not equal truly healthy and thriving...

Tldr: Warm extremities (hands and feet) = body is doing well.

Cold extremities = body is not doing well or signaling something is wrong or lacking.

#health #plebchain