Nutrition and the many options
For many of us, eating right ranks pretty high on the must do everyday scale. Eating a healthy and well balanced diet seems pretty straight forward. There are hundreds of books, countless diets to choose from and even your family doctor that can give you excellent advice on what to eat. So why is it that a one size fits all approach to good nutrition misses the mark for most of us?
First you need to determine why good nutrition is important to your lifestyle. Is a change in how you eat being done to lose or increase weight, fuel or build muscle during exercise, correct a digestive issue or just be healthier? These are all personal preferences and we all have some combination of reasons we change our nutrition. The interesting thing about nutrition is that each of our bodies has a unique requirement and reaction to the foods we eat. The primary reasons a one size fits all approach to nutrition does not work is due to the fact that each of us has three distinct areas that affect our eating habits and food choices.
The first area is wrapped around our desired results from the foods we eat. In some cases we eat for comfort or habit. A large number of us define our eating habits based on dieting for weight loss or to address health issues like diabetes or allergies to compounds such as gluten. Building a nutrition program around health or fitness goals is a very important first step to developing a personal nutrition strategy we can stick with. These goals will vary widely from person to person, so the only way to reach your desired results is with a program that truly fits you and your lifestyle.
The second area falls into the discipline category. Having some level of discipline when it comes to your eating habits can be one of the most daunting health challenges you can face. There are people who do very well at controlling what they eat, like sweets or fast foods. Then there are folks who have the very best intentions to eat healthy but no matter how hard they try just can't pass on the chocolate cake or that quart of ice cream. This one aspect can be the biggest killer to good nutrition and a major factor in why roughly 95 percent of all diets fail within the first few months. Discipline around normal healthy eating habits is easier to maintain.
The third area that is universal to all of us is our unique nutritional requirements that each of us have to fuel our activity levels. Whether we are sedentary and require little in the way of fueling for an activity or are a triathlete with high nutritional demands, no one has the same nutritional foot print. Unfortunately, many fitness and diet programs are somewhat canned so they do not adequately address your individual needs. The other aspect tied to this is the fact that your activity levels are not constant. Your caloric intake needs to adjust and match your activity levels. If you're an athlete accustom to increases in your calories a week before a big race, that would not be something you would necessarily want to do while you're on vacation lying on the beach. Balancing nutritional requirements with your unique activity levels is a major component to properly finding your nutritional niche and optimal health.
Over the next few weeks I will be covering a number of topics, good books, methods and options that directly address the need to approach nutrition in a way that best fits you, your activity and your lifestyle. As you can see with the following topics we have a pretty diverse set of nutritional information to cover.
1. Organic or whole foods and why they make a difference.
2. Primal eating, can eating a basic hunter gatherer food set change your health.
3. The importance of micronutrients, "If it fits your Macros," is an interesting approach to eating whatever you want as long as you meet your micronutrient needs.
4. The merits of fasting as it relates to health and nutrition.
Our habits and choices around nutrition can become the foundation to our long-term health and fitness. Understanding which direction each of us should take with nutrition can be difficult. Shedding some light on a few key areas should give you a pretty good road map on how to get started with a nutrition plan that best fits your body's unique requirements.
Judd Jones is a director for the Hagadone Corporation.