Nutrition: Choose wisely

Nutrition is the No. 1 area of health and wellness that everyone can, and should, make a priority.

Eating a healthy and well-balanced diet should be pretty straight forward, but overall most of us tend to shop and eat based on convenience, food prices, and slickly-packaged, high-sugar, tasty foods.

Our food choices in America, although plentiful, can be some of the most unhealthy in the world. Processed foods with high sugars and loaded with hydrogenated contents make shopping healthy a real challenge. Most people just buy what's on sale or claim they can only afford inexpensive boxed foods. I would counter that we cannot afford to eat unhealthy foods since the price to your overall health and wellness is far too great.

One example of a growing concern with our food supply is the estimated 70 percent of all processed foods in our supermarkets containing genetically modified ingredients. Many of those same processed foods are heavily loaded with sugars and high fructose corn syrup. The fact that hydrogenated food products have links to autoimmune disease and cancers make the overall supermarket outing a bit like shopping in a chemical factory. So what should you do?

Now I realize this sounds a bit harsh, and there are very good foods out there in our local supermarkets, but making the right choices can be a real puzzle. Let's start by understanding why good nutrition is important to your lifestyle. You need to decide if a change in how you eat is being done to lose or increase weight, fuel or build muscle during exercise, correct a digestive issue, or just be healthier. The interesting thing about nutrition is that each of our bodies has a unique requirement and reaction to the foods we eat.

The best way to approach and select a solid nutrition plan can be found in three areas.

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, to address health issues like diabetes, or allergies to compounds like gluten. Building a nutrition program around health or fitness goals is a very important first step to developing a personal nutrition strategy you 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.

Take the time to truly define and understand your nutritional health. Build your daily diet around the understanding that it has the biggest impact on your overall health and body composition.

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 when eating whole foods with low sugar content and reduced carbohydrate intake. Whole healthy food selection removes the fast food triggers from the equation.

The third area is universal; we each have unique nutritional requirements fuel our activity levels. Whether we are sedentary and require little in the way of fueling for an activity or are a complete triathlete with high nutritional demands, no one has the same nutritional footprint.

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 accustomed to increases in your daily calories during heavy training cycles, this would not be something you do while you're on vacation recovering. Balancing nutritional requirements with your unique activity levels is a major component to properly finding your nutritional niche and optimal health. The unfortunate truth about calorie loading and exercise is most athletes eat less than sedentary people.

Key factors to set your nutritional road map and make food selection easier:

1. Eat whole, organic foods and avoid processed, high sugar content, and GMO-loaded foods.

2. Shift your nutrition thinking around the idea of primal eating. Eat foods that are natural, like meats, vegetables and nuts, avoid processed foods and grains. Eating like our hunter/gatherer ancestors has real merit and tends to be high in protein and fat, which is a very good thing.

3. Consume fewer calories: Most of us overconsume the foods we eat. In the United States, we lead the world in obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes, all areas that come from overeating and poor food choices.

4. Eat more cultured foods. Cultured foods are essentially foods that have gone through a process where they have been broken down by either bacteria, yeast or fungus. Foods like Kefir, Greek yogurt, Miso, Sauerkraut, Kombucha or Kimchi as some great examples. These foods will strengthen your digestive tract and support your immune system.

5. Eat good macronutrient food sources. The three areas for macronutrients are protein, fats and carbohydrates. Good examples of food choices in this category are avocados and olive oil for fats; eggs, chicken or tofu for protein; and sweet potatoes, quinoa and leafy greens for carbohydrates, just to name a few.

Our lifestyle, habits and activity levels all tie back to nutritional choices which can become the foundation to our long-term health, wellness and fitness level. Understanding which direction each of us should take with nutrition can be difficult. I would recommend building your own personal nutrition plan that best fits your individual wellness requirements.

Judd Jones is a director for the Hagadone Corporation.