It seems like everything I had heard, read and watched about nutrition in the media before coming to Bastyr focused on the battle between carbs, fats and protein. It's all about the struggle to lose weight and diets are all about the big 3 (in fancy nutrition lingo the “macronutrients”). But food gives us much much more than just those 3 things. That is very apparent from the strange paradox we are seeing around the globe today: an epidemic of obese people with malnutrition.
What's going on? People are getting a lot of the big 3, but very little of the other nutrients… the ‘micro nutrients’. The water soluble (Vitamins B and C) and fat soluble vitamins (Vitamin A, D, E, & K) not to mention the plethora of phytonutrients (as in plant compounds) such as antioxidants and the insanely large number of beneficial plant compounds we have yet to name, or even identify.
We take foods that are naturally spilling over with these powerful, essential compounds. We strip them, refine them, bleach them, sanitize them and pretty them up. Then we take what we took out and pop it into pills to be sold back to us as supplements. I can’t remember where I read this but it really struck me… Kind of strange- no? Those vitamins were ours. They were in our food and we have to pay to get them back. We shoudln't have to think about how to mix and match and meet all our needs from pills. Well there's an easy way to fix that... and it's delicious. Eat real, whole food.
I’ll take my vitamins as a juicy, fresh pear please. Or how about some garlic marinated roasted chicken with rosemary yams, edges crispy from olive oil and good old time in the oven? Or a pie, golden and steaming, with pounds of crisp local apples cooked down into sweet little sugary buttery coated pillows of love... sound a little more appealing than washing down a handful of chalky or gelatinous pills? wondering if it's the right formulation or the right time to take it (with a meal? empty stomach?) hoping that you don't taste fish oil all day, or that a ghostly cloud of white powder doesn't whisp from your nose as you exhale, carrying up, on a little burp, the contents from the burst gel cap lodged in your esophagus? (yes that happened to me).
When you eat, whatever you eat, eat real food. Think about getting your money's worth. Aim for nutrient density (more nutrients for the calories). Even when you eat a chocolate chip cookie... think about how it can have a few more nutrients in it (get the extra delicious one from the bakery with the real butter, rolled oats and walnuts). Add a handful of something green or red or orange to your meal - throw a bit of spinach or mushrooms into your spaghetti sauce or soup - grate an apple into your instant oatmeal and use real maple syrup instead of Aunt Jemimah maple flavour high fructose corn syrup on your pancakes, drink sparkling, real juice drinks instead of pop once in a while. Food is more than just fat, protein and carbs. Do little things to add the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals you need. Even if its just a trace because Small Acts Add Up.
It's my favourite saying and it's true. No matter what you do, it matters. Little changes make a difference over time.
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