Basic Nutrition for Beginners
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Nutrition is one of those minefield’s where everyone claims to be an expert leaving the everyday person who is simply interested in improving their health clueless about which way to turn. Aptly named by one of my mentors, ‘The Thousand Headed Medusa of Nutrition’, confuses even me sometimes.
Science has compartmentalised our nutrition into different categories, claiming that “this” diet is the best out there, or “that” diet is the one to go on. You have diets for weight loss, diets for arthritis, diets for runners, and on and on it goes.
However being a fairly logical person there seems to be no real reason to rely on science too much in this regard, but an obvious answer of looking backwards. Way back! What would our ancestors have eaten 10,000 years ago? Heck, even looking back a couple of hundred years would be better than what most people are eating nowadays.
With my clients I break nutrition down into a couple of distinct areas:
1) Quality, and
2) Quantity – meaning ratio’s and proportions of macronutrients.
With regard to Quality, this is quite understandable, and even advocated by most of the major nutrition/diet plans out there. Simply put, don’t eat it if it wasn’t around 10,000 years ago. Real food, avoiding processed/packaged foods, eliminating chemicals, additives, preservatives, junk, packaged food. Make sense? Good. It’s quite easy, and it can be fun too. Just walk down the fresh food aisle in the supermarket and you have a huge choice of 25-30 different fruits and vegetables, 5-10 different meats, 5-10 different types of fish. Not to mention herbs, spices, and oils. I could go on all day, but I’m getting hungry just writing this!!
Now, the problem occurs when I hear clients come to me for consultations and they tell me they are already doing this. They are eating real, fresh, wholesome food, eliminating some of their favourite foods because they are “bad” but not getting the results that their efforts should be rewarding them with.
Many people nowadays are missing number 2 – Food Quantity. To preframe this next section, note that I am not talking about the amount you are eating, or the number of calories on your plate. All calories are not created equal and calorie counting is a huge myth in this industry and should be avoided at all costs if you are at all interested in improving your health and fitness related results.
Food Quantity is related to the ratio or proportions of macronutrients that are on your plate – how much protein relative to carbohydrates relative to fat that we are all eating. Each person is different in this regard. Again, think back 10,000 years ago, the Inuit would be eating different amounts of protein and fat to the Central African who again would be eating differently to the Briton or the Asian, and on and on.
Now, I hear what you’re saying: “We’re living in 2011, Brett, it’s not 10,000 years.” And I understand what you are saying. So we must delicately fine-tune your diet, listening to what your body is telling us, understanding your cravings, creating strategies to manage your work-life balance, and your exercise.
Does it sound complex? It really isn’t, don’t be frightened.
And once you master this process of fine-tuning your diet, you will optimise your body weight, increase your physical energy, improve your mental focus and clarity of thought, and much more. This part of the puzzle is really very important. Unfortunately you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet!
Due to the highly individualised nature of this discipline it’s hard to say much more in this article without complicating things. If you are interested in finding out more and having a free session to know your type, then please call 07740 353004 to speak to Brett.
Good luck with your goals, and I look forward to speaking to you soon.
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