Polarised nutrition and the 100 diets

There is general consensus on certain aspects of nutrition. But also research and experiential evidence that points to different methodologies for balancing a healthy organism. Or to encourage renewed wellness with food and lifestyle changes. Most experts agree, in principle at least, we should have a personalised way of eating that suits us as unique individuals yet follows certain common specifications.

Specifications that normally include lots of green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, colored vegetables like squash and pumpkin, beetroots and carrots, fresh fruit and a balance of macronutrients: high quality carbohydrates, protein and healthy fat.

Here the subject is already highly contentious and different schools of thought emerge. How much carbs? Grains? Meat or no meat, red? Large fish too? Butter and dairy?

Fad diets and real nutrition

The world of nutrition is so polarised, it’s hard for anyone to understand what we should really be doing. Some aspects of nutrition remind me of the fervour of religious worshipping, the passion of heartfelt politics, the attachment of football fans to their team. Passion and commitment are good things in life but can turn into dogmatism.

At one end of the spectrum we have the vegetarians, some of whom are absolutely convinced everyone should be eating a plant based diet. There is evidence a “healthy” vegetarian diet can promote longevity and prevent chronic disease. It can be extremely beneficial if properly done and Vegetarianism as a whole is a movement I like.

Still, it doesn’t suit everyone and having caramel brulee latte for breakfast, take away veggie patty for lunch and macaroni cheese for dinner is technically vegetarian and clearly non optimal for anyone. So, if you think vegetarian is good for you or the Earth, make sure you have a “healthy” vegetarian diet, more on this in a future post.

At the opposite end we have the worshippers of high protein eating. They gained momentum with Atkins and Dukan, subsided for a while and are now back very strongly with the Paleo, Primal “movement”. You see slabs of red meat on their websites and blogs with muscled, gym like, scantily clad models made to look like primitives. Less good research here, although a certain metabolic type does very well with high quality meat and fish, when combined with lots of fibre and antioxidants from vegetables. They advise on the total elimination of grains, dairy and beans, for everyone.

Many people don’t do well with grains and dairy, also because most people tend to have them in low quality form (refined, processed) and in way too high amounts. Beans are rich in fibre, help with stabilising blood sugar levels and heart health, they are high in iron, B vitamins and phytonutrients. Long living populations eat beans in large quantities and, unless you do not tolerate them, beans are generally to be added to your meals.

We also have the GAPS diet, with good anecdotal evidence of success in gut healing protocols (it also resembles anti-candida protocols). The link with the brain is not yet scientifically accepted, although there are many hints, clues and research pointing to that direction. The Macrobiotic diet, which follows very interesting concepts from the East. The Mediterranean, possibly the most studied and scientifically endorsed one. The Adam and Eve, DASH, Vegan of course, the Ketogenic, Gluten Free, FODMAP etc etc.

And then public policy makers need to give everyone general guidelines. But we’re all different, so how can general guideline be devised? And those change over the years, as science follows its very slow path – particularly in nutrition, for various reasons I’ll get into at some point – and industry lobbies exert their power. Guidelines are often visually represented in a food pyramid, which used to include a lot of grains as main staple, with no specification if whole or refined – which definitely contributed to many of the problems we see in society these days.

So, what one has to do, you might be asking by now? It depends, like most things in life, it’s not black or white. Always be skeptical of black or white answers from anyone and when it comes to nutrition especially. It’s a complex subject and highly dependent on many variables including genetics, specific lifestyle, environment, age, etc. The same exact person in southern Spain in August and Scotland in January will probably do better on different food, you don’t need to have a PhD to work this out right? It’s hot and sunny outside? Maybe a lighter, fresher lunch or dinner makes sense, so red meat 3 times a day seems weird. It’s January, middle of winter and -5 C? You won’t go raw vegan then, will you? So, seasonality is one element.

Genetics is another. Swaying away from the scientifically endorsed and into traditional cultures once more, we can look at the Five Element Theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine or the Doshas in Ayurveda. Most traditional cultures have been identifying individual predispositions based on body characteristics dependent on specific phenotypic traits. Similar categorisations of individuals can also be found in the Graeco-Arabic (Unani) and Korean medicinal systems (Sasang constitution).

Think about it for a moment, taking a sports analogy. How do 100 meters race finalists look like in the Olympics? Do they look like marathon runners? Obviously not. If you are big boned and muscled you will be better suited to strength or anaerobic exercise like weight lifting. If you are skinny and light you’ll generally do better with long distance training.

If that extends to diet is still not accepted by the medical establishment but it is intuitively common sense, and we scientifically know some people do better or worse with more fat, animal protein, grains, alcohol or caffeine, depending on certain variables and their genes.

And if you think one food group isn’t great for you, before you eliminate it completely, look at reducing the amount and improving the quality. A clear example is dairy products, which sometimes get a very bad rap and often for good reasons. Are you having 3 lattes a day? Cheese everyday? Why not reducing it to twice weekly, and get some local farm, unpasteurized goat cheese instead of your processed spread?

As a nutritional therapist, it seems easy to advise to eliminate entire food groups, but you want to see what you can add to the table first. Also, we want to make eating as easy and pleasurable as possible including as many foods as we can. If you don’t think meat is good for you, start eliminating processed meat, cut down your weekly consumption and buy high quality, whole meat only, before taking the more extreme step of eliminating it completely and maybe doubling the intake of grains or dairy to compensate.

As you can see, It is very challenging to understand what is the best diet for us, as unique individuals, and it is smart to get some help from a knowledgeable expert, alongside growing our body of awareness and studying the subject ourselves.

Whatever you choose to do, balancing and supporting your health in sensible ways should be a lifestyle. Following fads and cult-like regimes or being dogmatic about food isn’t smart and I’d be generally not keen to recommend pushing for quick, short-term results, although lots of crash diets and sport related nutrition do exactly that. Not the yogi approach, not the smart nutritional therapist approach either.

4 things seems very important to highlight here, whatever food you are eating:

  • Learn to cook. Basic recipes serving up delicious food can take 15-20 minutes and the takeaway, ready meal alternative is often not good enough.
  • Organise your grocery shopping so you are as rational as possible – try on-line shopping if you are very busy. Do not buy stuff and “treats” that you know aren’t nutritiously balanced.
  • Work on a healthy lifestyle in and outside your home. The power of ads and peer pressure at work or in social occasions make us think we should eat the factory made piece of cake or go to the junk pizza chain. Don’t!
  • Grow awareness, listen to your body. Intuitively, we know if something we eat is making us healthier and stronger or bloating us down, if we are aware and know how to read the signs.

It’s cool to be healthy. Ultimately you are free to choose to eat what you want, you live in a free world and if you want to be a fruitarian… well, it’s up to you really. But please spend some time learning about food and nutrition. It’s really important, culturally enriching and yummy to do!

Healthy whole food natural nutrition

Comments

comments