I am always amazed at the conversations regarding diet and nutrition that take place in my office. People usually fall into one of two categories in discussing diets and nutrition when they are on my table. The first category, and likely the most prevalent, are the patients that recognize that they need to lose weight but either supposedly don’t know how or are upset because they can’t lose 50 pounds in 6 months! The second category are the patients that have just heard about the latest diet fad that is sweeping the nation and want to know if I think it will work.
Diet and nutrition are absolutely mammoth cottage industries in the United States. This industry generated about 950 billion dollars in the United States last year alone. As you move down the rabbit hole of diet and nutrition you need to remember that the people selling you that diet book, those supplements that make fat disappear, those gym memberships, and those weight loss meals that are shipped to your door are doing this to make money. This is not to say that these products and services won’t or don’t work. You just need to be aware that these products and services all have one thing in common. They require your money AND your hard work to make them do as they promise.
Through the month of August, I will be focusing on diet and nutrition on my social media platforms. In the blogs for August, I will be breaking diet and nutrition down into some basic concepts that will allow you to make better informed decisions about how you utilize diet and nutrition in your life. I want these blogs to serve as a “go to” basis for you on this important topic.
I know a chiropractor that is fond of saying that he would rather change a patient’s religion than try to change their diet. I know what he means. People have their diet “gurus” and trusted dietary sources and their devotion to these teachings are very strong. But now we are back to the point I made earlier. This is a huge business, and you are the targeted customer of that business. This puts a bit of a different spin on things, doesn’t it?
Over the next few blogs, we will take a deeper dive look at the different types of diets and how they work. We will take a look at vitamins, minerals, and herbs and what we should be taking and how much we should be taking of these products. Finally, in the last blog of this series I want to talk about the “Holy Grail” of the diet and nutrition world….. weight loss. I will give you my sure fire, absolutely cannot fail weight loss program.
Before we dive into all of those great topics, we need to have a couple of concepts defined that will serve as a basis for our discussion. The first is the definition of diet. Diet is what you eat. Period. Diet is simply everything that you put in your mouth and swallow. In America today, we have twisted that term into an action that we are supposed to be taking with the inference that we will lose weight, gain weight, control our blood chemistry, or generally become healthier because of that action. This is where a lot of the confusion starts because many times what is allowable and not allowable on certain designed food intake plans get confused with what is allowable and not allowable on other food intake plans. Just remember that diet is what you eat.
THE SHEPHERD'S DIET????
The second term that needs to be clarified is nutrition. Nutrition is what the body extracts from the diet that can be used to maintain all of the normal functions of the body. Nutrition provides you with the energy to move and think. Nutrition is what the body extracts the materials for tissue repair after an injury. Nutrition is the substances that are taken from the foods that we ingest that are useable by the body.
The third concept we need to explore is more of a grounding concept that I need you to remember as we go through these blogs. That concept is that diet and nutrition are just common sense. I will say it again. Diet and nutrition are common sense. Let me prove my point. If I were to put an apple in your right hand and a luscious donut in the other hand, which hand would be holding the food with the highest nutritional value? The apple, of course! If you ate them both, your diet would have been the apple and the donut. Most of the nutrition you gained would have come from the apple. See? It is just that simple.
Now that we have those concepts down, I want to close out today’s blog by scratching the surface of the world of diet and nutrition. Most food plans are designed for specific purposes like controlling blood sugar levels, losing weight, or even gaining weight. This is done by ingestion of various amounts of the three basic components of all foods. These components are carbohydrates (a fancy term for sugars), fats, and proteins. Carbohydrates are the easiest component for the body to get nutritional value from, then fats, and lastly the proteins.
Like all things in life, each of these components have good and poor levels of value. Remember, this is common sense. The apple and the donut are both carbohydrates. We can do the same for fats and proteins. The value levels of these components are based on our body’s ability to break these foods down to their nutritional value. What is easily broken down is used immediately. What is harder to break down is stored as fat. That isn’t too complicated, is it?
Let’s wind this up today with a short look at the one nutritional component that has not been discussed but is absolutely essential to life. If you are thinking water, you are exactly right! Water is life. If you had no food and no water, you would die of thirst before you starved to death. When astronomers are searching the heavens for planets that might have life, they are looking for water. The planet that has water has the greatest potential for life because water is essential.
Patients in my office like to play a little fast and loose with the definition of water. When I ask them about their water intake, they tell me they drink lots of water because they drink coffee, tea, soda pop, beer, wine, and so on. These are all liquids, but not all liquids are water. We must drink water and a lot of it to be healthy. You should consume at least 6 to 8 sixteen-ounce bottles of water per day. I am going to close this blog by challenging you to do that every day from now until our next blog. You can do it! I know you can. I will talk to you next week when we break down all the different types of designed food intake plans.
Komentarze