The Three Pillars of Health

The Three Pillars of Health

By Mike Feldstein

What's the Big Problem Anyways??

The way I look at it there are 3 major human intakes, let's talk about them for a moment. I will add some drawings to keep this process visual. 😃

three pillars of health

These are the 3 essential intakes we require for survival.

Food, Water, Air

You can survive...

🥙3 weeks without food   💧3 days without water   🌬️3 minutes without air

In a given day we:

Eat 3 pounds of food         Drink 2 litres of water         Breathe 17,000 litres of air


Of course there are other massive lifestyle health factors like exercise, sleep, and stress. But when it comes to the things we actually put into our body, it is much easier to be conscientious of the food we eat, and the water we drink. They have taste! And the feedback for how they make us feel is much more immediate. These are our biological requirements.

When it comes to air, it's really hard to tell how it's making us feel. Humans are great at adapting, and it's really difficult to tell when we're breathing clean, oxygen rich air versus dirty, CO2 filled air.

You know that feeling when you go outside for "fresh air"?

Who said that air was fresh!?

That's just normal air.

The problem is indoor air is so poor that outdoor air (which is pretty polluted) makes us feel awake, alive and feeling great.

Air is the only input that we consume all night long. People talk about the health benefits of food fasting, heck some people even do short term water fasting. Their ain't no fasting from air. (You can try it if you'd like.)

Now that I've clarified the importance of air, and how much of it we consume, let's look at the process in ensuring the quality of our intakes.

Let me start off with a little drawing that has been coming to me a lot lately. Side by side, they show the differences in how our water and food are treated and tested compared to our air.

food and water treatment stages
food and water purification stages
air purification stages

The point when it comes to your food and water (2 of your 3 primary intakes), is that the government is heavily involved in ensuring the health and safety of your food and water before it is ready for human consumption.

Government Involvement in Food and Water Testing

government food testing

US & EUs food regulation & testing processes

Water Purification Process

Take a look at the 10 step process water goes through from groundwater/river before it is distributed to your home for consumption. This example is from the city of Ottawa but is very standard for water filtration, treatment and testing on the government level.

city of ottawa water purification

You wouldn't go to a dirty water source to drink water, so why do that with the air that you breathe?

Your food is regulated and tested, your water is regulated, purified, and tested. No one is doing this for your air. You need to take matters into your own hands. If the city can't and won't test and purify your air, you need to do it.

We make that possible.

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