The Endless Debate About the Right Nutrition

And the power of listening to your own body

 

 

Vegan, Paleo, acid-alkaline balance diets; salt, sugar, gluten, or dairy as the culprit of all evil – we have all been confronted with these theories a lot lately and different parties seem to be fighting a hard war against each other in order to defend their own.

Who is right? How do we eat right? Is there even such thing as THE right diet? These are very likely questions a lot of us have had in our minds lately.

The several studies that have been done are contradictory and a lot of us are left alone in the dark trying to find the right path to nutrition.

I wanted to make this blog post, because I have just watched a debate on television on this topic exactly. The debate was a big mess that lead nowhere since every party insisted upon their way of living as the right way of living and their studies as the right studies.

And I just asked myself: Is it possible that modern living and too much information about nutrition has made us oblivious to our own bodies' signals and our intuition?

Of course I believe that knowledge about food is important. It is important to know that our bodies need certain nutrients, minerals and vitamins. It's important to know that you get these from whole foods much rather than from highly processed foods.

But to just put my finger on one of the above options and say 'this is the right way' is not the decision I want to make.

Because I believe that nobody is created equally. Yes, we all have the human DNA and thus a great deal of similarity, but then everybody has a certain unique set of genes, a certain set of bacteria in their gut, on their skin, different forms of metabolisms and so on. It would be foolish to believe that there is one diet that suits us all.

We are so busy to find our path in this jungle of healthy lifestyle theories, that we forgot about one important thing. Our own best doctor. Our own body!

You yourself know best how a food makes you feel. I think that over the years many of us have lost the power to listen to our bodies and interpret the signals that it sends us.

Like I said earlier, it is important to know about some nutritional core factors, so you are able to pick the right foods. This is the basis. This is what we're all equal in, what our human DNA is programmed to work with. And this is also what all diets agree on.

We should eat whole, natural foods. Foods that you can find in nature and that are as little processed as possible. 

We should eat a lot of plants, is also something everyone agrees on: Vegans, Paleos, acid-alkaline dieters.

We should eat balanced. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals.

But everything that goes further than the basis, should be something everybody figures out for themselves by listening to their body. 

For some people it may be right to live a vegan lifestyle, other people will feel great by living a paleo lifestyle and others again will feel best with a mixture of their own.

What helped me was to ask myself the following questions:

1. How do you feel when you eat a food?

• Do you like the taste? 

If you absolutely don't like a food, don't eat it just because people tell you you should and that it's healthy. I personally hate raw kale. I've tried it several times and I just don't like it. For all the health benefits it may provide me with, it simply ruins my meal.

2. How do you feel right after your meal? (directly – 4 hours after your meal)

• Do you experience, bloating?
• Are you tired?
• Are you energetic?
• Do you experience stomach pains?
• Do you feel an uncomfortable feeling of fullness or heaviness?

For me this is dairy and gluten. Dairy makes my skin break out only a couple of hours after consumption and gluten (when consumed in high amounts) gives me a bloated belly, so do raw apples by the way. These are things I found out over a long period of time in which I payed attention to my food intake and my body's reaction to it. If you don't have any reactions to these foods whatsoever and you like to eat them (question number one) keep eating them. Just because other people praise these foods as the evil of all, doesn't mean that they actually are!

3. How do you feel a longer while after your meal? (5 hours – 24 hours)

• Do you experience bloating?
• Do you have energy slumps around a certain time of the day?
• Is your digestion working correctly?
• Are you energetic, or are you experiencing fatigue?

I know this one is a little tricky. By then you have already consumed other foods or will definitely do so anytime soon. In case you do experience one of the negative feelings, the only thing that worked for me was to eliminate one of the potential causes, test that for a while.

If I felt better I knew what the source was. If nothing changed I tried the next potential source.

Three more things to consider, when listening to your body:

 

Eat when you're hungry

• Don't starve yourself because it's not time to eat yet, but also don't eat when you're not hungry, just because it's a habit or you feel like you have to do so.

Stop when you're satiated  

• overeating is a big problem, we've all been raised to finish our plates. I hate wasting food myself, but try to start with smaller portions and see if they already fill you up, if they don't take a refill.

Enjoy your meals  

• sit down, take your time, taste and enjoy your meal. This also counts for treats! There are two factors that jeopardise this guideline nowadays. 
• Number one is our fast living society. Everybody's in a hurry always. There is hardly time to breathe, how on earth shall we have time to eat? We have to take it. Sitting down and consciously, mindfully eating our meals, saves us the time we take to walk to the vending machine at our usual afternoon slump.
• Number two is our constantly nagging bad conscience that creeps up on us, whenever we eat something. And that's the worst thing we can do to our bodies. Psychology plays a big role in healthy living and eating. And worrying about the food we eat, causes stress in our bodies, which then leads to a slowing down of our digestive track and storage of extra weight. Plus eating should be something positive, a time where you connect with yourself, your time out, your time to socialise, catch up on family, friends or colleagues. How can you enjoy that time, if you are constantly worrying about your food intake?  
• So take you time, enjoy your foods and treats (which I believe should definitely be part of our diet but eaten in moderation) and let go of the negativity!

I know this sounds like a lot of work to do. But if you practise it for a while your body will begin to regain it's ability to share it's intuition with you and you will become more capable of interpreting your bodies' messages and cravings until it rolls automatically. You will connect with your body and you will feel if you're on the right path.

There are so many rules out there about diet, when really it should be something as simple as knowing the basics and listening to your body. It tells you what it needs, how much it needs and when it needs it.

Give it a try, see how it feels and let me know what you think.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Love, Jen xx