How many of you out there are overwhelmed by the sheer number of diet and nutrition books and philosophies out there? Weight-loss diets and nutrition philosophies seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Walk into any bookstore and if you dare to peek down the health and nutrition aisle, you will see 200 titles vying for your attention with enticing pictures, glossy covers and bold typeface. The Atkins diet! The South Beach Diet! Eat Right for your Type! The Maker’s Diet! Living on Live Food! The Juicing Bible! You could try a different approach every single day of the year and see which one works for you.
I say that tongue in cheek of course, but has that confused anyone besides myself? With that many different philosophies, how are we supposed to find the best approach to achieve the best health we can, diet-wise?
One common thread I see running through most of these different diets and philosophies is that they seem to jump on one main idea or nutrient and focus almost exclusively on it. For example, in the Atkin’s diet, carbs are OUT! Protein is IN! Other books talk about specific nutrient deficiencies and suggest complicated cocktails of supplements to reverse your problems. Still others focus on “natural” cures, with specific herbs, oils and other substances for each malady you face.
I submit to you that there is a different way of looking at nutrition. The big picture way. Most of the philosophies out there are very fragmented in approach, often to the exclusion of other aspects of health. Sure, if you *think* you are low on Omega-3′s, flaxseed oil is full of ‘em. Need more calcium? There are calcium supplements out there that taste like chewy candy. Have heart disease? Just eat oatmeal every morning for 30 days. Have some weight to lose? Green tea pills will speed up your metabolism.
But there are two problems here. The first is that nutrients are not designed to work in isolation. They work together to accomplish different things. It is also thought that scientists have so far only uncovered a handful of nutrients that are in foods. From what I remember, it is something like 10%. So there’s the other 90% of nutrients in existence that we don’t know about yet. Hopefully, you can see that it would be only too easy to overdose on a particular nutrient if you supplement, and overdosing – which could create imbalances – can be just as negative to health as a deficiency is.
The second problem is that you can consume a certain “supplement” (an herb, pill, powdered drink or vitamin) to “correct” a particular symptom and it may even seem to work for a time. But getting rid of a symptom is not health. Getting rid of a symptom is just getting rid of a symptom, and the supplement you are taking to do this could be causing your body many other problems you don’t even know about yet. True health consists not only of masking and eliminating isolated symptoms, but instead changing your entire lifestyle to move toward full health instead of merely moving away from disease.
So what is the answer as far as diet is concerned? In my opinion, whole foods. Ditch the 1-a-day vitamins, stop counting your carbs, get rid of those protein powders and throw out the apple cider vinegar. It’s time to get back to nature. Nature’s foods (raw fruits and vegetables) provide you with a perfect package of nutrients that are in good balance with each other. Plus, they look good and taste amazing. So eat as much food in it’s natural state as you can and try to limit foods that have had the nutrients processed and refined out of them and you will be taking a big step toward the big picture of health.
A happy and healthy new year to everyone!
Nutritionists say you should have one bowel movement for every meal you ate the previous day. So if you had three meals on Monday, you should be producing three bowel movements on Tuesday. Yet this doesn’t happen for most people. Yesterday, they ate breakfast, lunch and dinner but nothing’s coming out today. Read more » |
Comments on this entry are closed.