Written by Health and Fitness has been one of my primary research areas. I am continually finding new information relative to nutrition and constantly working towards improving and changing up my fitness routines. That said, I also am not what you would consider a “natural” at being healthy. My body and mind gravitate towards the sugary-fatty-carb-heavy foods and I also lack the natural ability to stop myself. So, for me, health is constant work. I have to stay conscious about what I’m eating and why. Because this has become such a passion for me, I have decided to blog about nutrition in a multi-part series. I will first address some important basics about nutrition and and then we’ll discuss some different theories on nutrition and how we should be eating to maximize our health and vitality. There are a wealth of different opinions on the subject. After using myself as a guinea pig for many years, I have definitely formed my own opinion about what I believe to be best for my body. This is the first part of the series, an introduction if you will about what I will be writing about in the coming weeks. As an added incentive for change for myself, I am also going to share with my readers my journey on my newest health and nutrition experiment. Update: See the different articles that comprise this Series below!
Among some of the most important nutrition concepts for me is natural, organic and unprocessed foods. I was a vegetarian for many years because I could not come to terms with what they were doing to (and putting in) the factory farm animals we ate. However, after many years of additional nutrition eduction I believe that we as humans need to consume meat (although the caveat to this is that we do NOT need to eat as much as we think). Now I choose to buy only grass-finished beef, fully organic and farm-raised chickens, eggs, etc. I will not eat an animal or animal product that has come from the factory-farming system. While there is a definite increase in price for choosing to eat this way, if you eat less animal products than the current American each day, it will balance out fairly well. Natural and organic eating includes fruits and vegetables as well.
Another important aspect of nutrition is balancing the macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fat), and staying aware of the nutrient density of your food choices. Nutrient density is a function of the quantity nutrients (micro-nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, amino acids, etc.) contained in the food per calorie. A good example would be to compare something like spinach which has one of the highest food densities to a Twinkie, which has basically nothing (I wouldn’t even consider it a food to be hones). In a cup of spinach is 10 calories and a multitude of vitamins and minerals. Twinkies have 15 times as many calories and no nutrients. Americans tend to eat too many calories… this is a fact that is most obvious to everyone at this point. In addition to our weight problem, we also suffer from malnutrition problems that cause everything from cancer to kidney and liver disease, poor immune system function, to diabetes. Americans eat high-calorie, low-nutrient dense foods.
There are many thoughts about what we should be eating. The macro-nutrient breakdown has been changed and modified and depending on the school of thought can be anywhere from 60% carbs, 15% fat, and 15% protein to 0% carbs, 40% fat and 60% protein. Generally there is some scientific study or book to back up the breakdown percentages. We will discuss these differences and how these macro-nutrient breakdowns can effect people differently. There are also many things that we eat everyday that I think we’re only recently beginning to realize are bad for us. Things like gluten, dairy, and refined sugar. We’ll also talk about how these food-types effect the body and why they may be worth cutting out of your diet.
Finally, I am going to discuss some of the mainstream diets out there that people tend to follow, the pros and cons of each, and then I will discuss some that are not yet mainstream, but are beginning to pick up speed. My next “experiment” with nutrition will be taking one of these newer theories for 30 days and blogging about how it is working.
Too many of us blindly put things in our mouths without stopping to consider how it contributes to our health problems. I think everyone is aware of the connection between diet and diabetes and heart-disease; however, I am a believer that the majority of our health problems in modern society our a function of what we eat. Here is a list of the upcoming posts in the series:
- Macro-nutrients: carbs, protein, and fat and their role in regulating metabolic hormones
- Organic vs. conventional; grain fed vs. grass finished
- Nutrient density; learning how to shop healthy
- Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar- what you should know
- Acid-Alkaline factors- why its important and how you can improve your balance
- Common diets- the good, the bad, and the ugly
- Another perspective- new and different ideas about eating
- Two weekly updates about my new health experiment, here and here.
I hope people will participate in this series. Feel free to ask questions and add to these posts. While I spend much of my free time reading and researching these topics, I am by no means an expert. I welcome other ideas and perspectives! Happy reading.
I’m so excited to read what you’ll be sharing on nutrition (so few blogs out there go so in depth). Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned!
Thanks! I will be adding links to this original post in the series as my additional posts are published.