Over the past few weeks, I have been talking to you about diet and nutrition. My goal was to try to take a topic that seems to be confusing and complicated to most people and simplify it. When we add the fact that most people are overwhelmed by information on diet and nutrition coming from TV, social media, family, and well-meaning friends their confusion grows exponentially. I hope that these past few blogs have helped you demystify this topic.
Let’s take a quick review of what we have learned so far. We have learned that diet is what we eat, and nutrition is what our body utilizes from what we have consumed. We learned that foods break down into three major components called carbohydrates (sugars), fats (oils), and protein. We discovered that there are high and low nutritional values for each of these components. We also found out that there are food plans (diets) for different purposes. We can add weight, lose weight, control blood sugar, as well as many other diet plans for other body needs.
In the next blog we talked about vitamins and minerals. These are nutritional aids that assist the body in metabolism, help maintain cell integrity, and enhance internal bodily functions. We discussed how we need to maintain a baseline of the most commonly utilized vitamins and minerals. I tried to point out that trying to take all of the vitamins and minerals to prevent all of the possible diseases and conditions we could encounter in life could be very expensive and very inefficient. I suggested that a great wide spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplementation to your diet would be far more efficient and far less expensive.
I would add here that the recommended daily allowances (RDA) of vitamins as recommended by the government are woefully inadequate. I highly recommend a great product, Reliv Now. This is a lightly flavored powdered high dosed vitamin mineral product that has natural absorbency factors added. If this product is of interest to you, please reach out to me or to your local Reliv distributor.
I also spent some time talking about weight loss dieting. I pointed out that this is a huge multi-billion-dollar industry. We need to be aware as many of these products are promoted to us of the “Snake Oil Salesmen”. Just like the travelling hucksters of old, these people will try to sell you a bill of goods that cannot deliver as they promise. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, you need to keep your money in your pocket.
Finally, I tried to make the point that weight loss is not a magic formula, it is a math problem. In simple terms we need to eat higher nutritionally valued foods, fewer calories, as well as do more to burn calories. If we eat less and move more then we will lose weight. It is all in the math and it does not really matter what diet you choose to use if you follow that simple plan.
There are some other little things I would like to clear up with you before we leave this topic. We all need to drink more water. Water is an absolute must for good health. We need water to maintain cell integrity as well as to flush away toxins that are left in our cells from metabolic activity. I recommend that we drink at least eight 16-ounce bottles per day.
I also would like to point out that there are a lot of snake oil salesmen in the gym and exercise equipment business. Please remember that these people are expert salespeople and know exactly how to entice you to buy. My point is why do you need a stair master machine when you have a set of stairs in your home? Why do you need a $4,000 treadmill when there are trails, sidewalks, and malls we can walk in? Exercise, at least in my case, is more of a motivational thing than anything else.
The last thing to remember as you dive into the world of diet and nutrition is that it is mostly common sense. Make wise food choices. You know how to do that! Make wise sized portion choices. You know how to do that, too! Try to figure out ways to do what you know needs done in the simplest way possible. Remember that if you eat a lot of very colorful fruits and vegetables you will reduce the need to supplement your diet with vitamins and minerals. This is not nearly as complicated as the “salesmen” try to make you believe. You can do this. It is just a matter of deciding and then doing.
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