NUTRITION
1. Food is both fuel and medicine
2. The ‘battle’ to maintain a healthy weight:
a. 80% nutrition
b. 20% activity
3. You can’t out-train poor nutrition
Five goals for sharing nutrition content. Hoping it helps you align your actions with your intentions:
PROMOTE sustainable strategies in enabling you to thrive into longevity
- No fad diets or click-bait gimmicks propagated here
ADVOCATE nutritional choices, based on nutrient density
- “Food as medicine” approach
PROVIDE free actionable artifacts for download
- Overcome fragmented, incomplete, and mis(leading) information
Infographics, transforming chaos into actionable knowledge driving choices:
- Grocery list, useful and informative
- Food combo list, for those that practice ‘digestion compatibility’ of foods
- Meal planner, reference for daily guidance and grocery listing (NOTE: a unique planner based off your needs is a component of the customizable calculation downloadables {just below})
- Coffee creamers, flavorful healthy alternatives to sugar laden products
- Nontoxic cleaning and aromatics
- Customizable caloric nutrient calculations {please join mailing list to access} Equations differ for males & females – click the link appropriate for you.
– NOTE: Laminating them allows for marking up using wet-erase markers. Wipe clean for future use.
SHARE my experience with exploring diets and food sensitivities
- The following are my ‘take aways’
- Keeping in mind, I’m speaking for myself
- My individual biochemistry
- My individual perspective
- I admit, this is an area on which, I struggle to refrain from bias
Restrictive dieting – as a whole – proves both unsustainable and nutrient deficient.
Restricting sugar – on the other hand – consistently renders positive impacts.
‘Sugar‘ as in simple sugar (granulated sugar). I’m not including sugars – naturally occurring from fruits, vegetables, and dairy.
Gluten-free
I spent many months a few years ago eating gluten-free. It takes some time for your body to rid itself of gluten, then you have to give your body time to adjust. I did not experience the improvements I was seeking. Left with the understanding I was neither celiac, nor gluten-sensitive. I abandoned the diet.
My thoughts:
- For those that are celiac / gluten-sensitive,
- I recommend America’s Test Kitchen Gluten-Free cookbooks. Their recipes (except chocolate chip cookie – very gritty) were amazing.
- For those that are not celiac / gluten-sensitive,
- I don’t recommend it, no matter how posh you think you sound. It is a very expensive diet to maintain. It requires a lot of substitutive starches – many simpler than wheat.
- I do recommend ‘upgrading’ your wheat to “non-GMO”, wheat that’s not been ‘cross-hybridized’.
- I do find I feel better when I limit my gluten intake. With occasional consumption, I am not symptomatic. However, if I let down my guard and consume gluten routinely – within about 3mo I’m having digestive issues.
Vegan
I knew going in, at best I would be “dirty vegan” – eating eggs, fish, meat, real dairy. My intention was to deepen my awareness and try to find something good about this diet.
- One good thing that came of my experience was – baking:
- I discovered several vegan options that were healthier alternatives. Vegan chocolate chip cookies being my favorite discovery.
- These cookies are also gluten-free.
- They can go head-to-head with Nestle Tollhouse recipe
- I discovered several vegan options that were healthier alternatives. Vegan chocolate chip cookies being my favorite discovery.
My thoughts:
- You’re missing out on a lot of nutrient profiles.
- You’re consuming a concocted slurry of substitutions molded to serve as REPLACEMENTS to cheese, meat,…, etc.
- How can MANUFACTURED replacements be healthier than the direct/natural source? I ask rhetorically. I’m not interested in debating this. I already know what I am going to (not) do.
- I see:
- Job creation – manufacturing, marketing
- I say ‘follow the money‘.
- Waste & environmental issues from manufacturing processes. Surely these prove more detrimental than ‘cows farts’. God created cows, knowing – by his design, they would fart.
- Job creation – manufacturing, marketing
- You do you boo.
- I see:
Paleo
I like the focus on what’s included, nutrient dense food sources:
- Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, health fats/oils
I don’t like the focus on what’s excluded, gut-healthy prebiotic food sources:
- Beans, tomato, peppers, dairy, grains (oats, wheat, rice, barley, rye, corn)
- NOTE, speaking of prebiotics
- Did you know, prebiotics are the fuel for probiotics.
- Probiotics have the lion’s share of conversation and marketing. Without prebiotics, they’re rendered ineffective.
- If you’re not providing probiotics what they need – i.e., prebiotics. Your attention and expenditure on probiotics is for naught.
- Did you know, prebiotics are the fuel for probiotics.
Keto
- I have neither put myself on a keto diet, nor allowed the fitness industry to shame me onto one.
- So many ‘fitness professionals’ are pushing keto these days. I trust my knowledge far beyond the marketing tactics and fitness pressures.
- Before considering this diet for yourself – look into these:
- Ketones – made in the liver, after fasting
- Ketosis is not achieved from restrictive dieting
- Recurring expenses incurred – urine strips, etc…
- I say ‘follow the money‘.
- Revisit the pre/probiotic conundrum presenting above (in Paleo section)
- Skip to the good part:
- You don’t have to be on a ketogenic diet to achieve the benefit of your body producing ketones. Simple intermittent fasting will well-suffice.
Currently Exploring
- MCTs (medium-chained triglycerides)
- Newly introduced to them being fuel for our mitochondria
- Intermittent fasting
- How long it takes for your body to adapt to the lifestyle
- How long it takes for your your liver to recognize ‘fasted’, produce ketones
CHAMPION industries leaders
- The following impacted me
• Dr. Daniel Cooper who worked with me to disprove “I needed thyroid medicine”. Proving I simply suffered from a bacterial imbalance in my gut. I had been studying nutrition (macronutrients, portions, etc). Having met Dr. Cooper, I learned to dig deeper into concepts such as food combination and gut health. A conversation I had with him (after my lunch making me sick one day) inspired me to research ‘food combinations’.
• I understand food allergens are real. I’m not in position to speak of them. My friend Kelley is very passionate about food allergy education. She is the founder of ‘Food Alergy Alliance of the Midsouth (FAAM)’. I’ll refer you to her for support and information.
MISLEADING INFORMATION:
Example:
I recently saw a ‘health video’ by a respected medical doctor. He promoted currants (black/red) for their ‘high polyphenol’ content.
I couldn’t find black/red currants locally. I had seen one product marketed as currants, but upon looking at the ingredients it was raisins and oil.
Upon searching why a product would sell as currants, but actually be raisins – I found they’re varying types of dried grapes.
I searched for them on Amazon. Price for
- Currants ranged from $16.99 (3.5oz) to $18.99 (16oz, 1lb). Based on choice of full fruit or powdered.
- Raisins, $3.99 (13oz), $4.69 for organic
- Sultanas, priced in line with raisins, ~ $4.00
Comparing price to nutritional profile, I’m choosing ‘wise spending‘ :
{ Nutritional profiles for 1oz (28g) }
