Wading through the lake of confusion. Nutrition, health, science, and why it sometimes drives me nuts.

I’ve been on a recent nutrition research binge.  I love seeking knowledge in this area, as many of you may know. 

However, I need to get this off my chest:  THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING.

There are so many false gurus, conflicts of interest, videos proclaiming miracle longevity products, and more along this sort than ever before.  I admit I have fallen to many of the false claims made by others.  My entrance into the field of nutrition was sadly, through the worst nutrition system of them all, the bodybuilding point of view. 

I can at least say, at this point, I've come a long, long way from there.  This said, I am so sick and tired of the confusion and complexity and finding sound nutritional knowledge and science.  Speaking of science, I’m developing a bit of an allergic reaction to the term in some regards.  Not all science.  In fact, yesterday I had a great chat with a friend, Paul Wartman, who told me about how telomeres behave over time to age us.  That was fascinating, and I felt the truth in it.

But in the world of monetary interests, and greed, I’ll say: most 'science' or at least others claiming all of their facts are based just on 'science', as if there are two characters on their shoulder, one named science who's trustworthy, and one named intuition, who is not. 

I’m not going to reference any articles, facts, or awfully designed websites that voice this opinion, as I’m saying this from absolute, pure, life experience.  I’m tired of the common intuition in each of us being treated as a secondary voice in our lives - we always need some form of validation.  

Our own inner knowledge and feeling is outweighed by educational Ph.ds, M.ds, and ABCDEFGs as long as this blog post.

I've been wading through the various diets, the majority of which seem to be surrounded by various recommended products, that they, undoubtedly sell.  This conflict of interest is inherently untrustworthy, and I hate to say that it’s conditioned me to not just question their so called ‘facts’ but it makes me generally judgmental of so many people and products on this earth.

Stick with me on this, I swear there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Without slamming any specific nutrition gurus, I've been curious about all of these ‘superfoods’ on the market today.  I was very excited to hear some very bold claims in regards to many of them, and, being my nutrition-obsessed self, I have to try them.

Reading the comments list on the videos led me down an interesting rabbit hole however.  Some people completely discrediting them, some people declaring plagiarism of earlier books (which turned out to be true, and the original books mysteriously are hard to find now), and some posting links to their own nutrition videos (under different aliases), and others just yelling.

No wonder we can't seem to get anywhere.  I've been researching for the better part of this weekend, and I'm basically back to where I started. 

THIS IS MY CURRENT VIEW OF NUTRITION AND GENERALLY HOW TO THINK ABOUT THIS STUFF:

Step 1 – Preparation

Learn to read your own body.  The alternative being eating foods or herbs with long names, and having them feel weird in your gut, and then telling yourself that it’s supposed to feel like there is a gang of bacteria reenacting World War II in your gut.  No.  Don’t listen to anyone else except how they make you feel, and learn to read the signs, both physically, mentally, and spiritually (if this is for you).  

Step 2 – Now Let’s Eat

Fruits and vegetables

Lots of them.  If doing nothing else on this list, do this and you’ll be off to a great start.  I’ll let your budgets decide if organic is possible.  I still think it’s crucial.  Kiwis are my favourites.  I intend to eat primarily raw foods.

Fermented foods

Microbes are good news.  Turns out our body is something like 90% bacteria.  By choosing foods that host various living organisms in them, we can best control that those 90% are the good little guys, not the aforementioned gang, that also contribute hugely to disease and sickness.  Many have claimed that fermented foods are the future of pharmaceuticals, and I couldn't agree more.  I've always had a distinct lack of trust for antibiotics and other modern western medicines.

Wheat and gluten

MAY not be a good idea.  This said, feel it out.  Read books like Wheat Belly or Wheat Brain, and see if you can resonate with the thoughts.  I personally feel much lighter and generally have more energy without these.  I've heard many opinions on this matter.  Sourdough is supposed to be quite an exception, and I definitely indulge in the odd slice, with some oils, balsamic vinegar, and herbs added.

Dairy

I’m not sure.  I’m currently having raw dairy, and I feel like it may be really healthy, but I’m going to keep feeling this one out.  I saw a naturopath, who said I had a dairy sensitivity along with a ton of others.  I took that as an opinion, as reductionistic as I feel it can be.  For example.  Raw dairy contains the correct enzymes to digest dairy properly (assuming the raw milk is treated and handled in a very safe manor).  Also, according to ancient India’s Ayurvedic nutrition system (literally meaning the ‘science of life), milk digests better when warm, and then even better with digestive spices such as cumin and turmeric, and then even better with honey and maybe fennel.  I’m not saying any of this is true, but I’m going to keep testing it with myself to see how it feels.

Meat

Obviously less.  For those who are super defensive of their meat eating habits – almost the entire nutritional community disagrees with the AMOUNT of meat most westerners eat.  I still eat meat the odd time, but I've been cutting back to just once or twice a week if at all.  I don’t expect I will need meat in the future however, still researching this avidly however. 

Nuts and seeds

I’m still a big fan of these, although, like everything else: IN BALANCE.  I've eaten so many pistachios before that I've convinced myself that they aren't healthy.  It’s hard to argue with fruit and nuts for a snack though (one of my go to eats).

Teas (especially herbal)

I pretty have these constantly throughout the day.  I've worked it out that a 20 packet of tea bags (organic and fair trade) usually cost about $5-$6.  This is ~30 cents per tea bag, which isn't bad.  I switch up my varieties, but the main ones are green tea, chai tea, dandelion root tea, a tea before going to sleep called nighty night, and some other herbal blends of chamomile, osmanthus flowers, lavender, peppermint, etc.  It could be just from the immense amount of hydration, but these generally make me feel pretty close to superhuman.

Superfoods

This is such a controversial topic, as one nutrition guru I’d been really interested in has seemingly been debunked – hardcore.  This said, there is still a ton of science that seems to back up certain things.  So from lots of reading, and searching online, I’ve come to certain conclusions.  Spirulina and chlorella seem to be great.  The great part about spirulina is that it’s a complete protein, but also has the EPA and DHA that people take fish oil, or eat fish for.  These are great brain function optimizers, among many other great things.  In my current diet, I still also have been integrating lots of chia seeds, goji berries, turmeric and other spices, and have recently added cacao to the mix.  I’m also currently going to be experimenting with the ancient chinese herbs astragalus, the indian (I think) herb ashwagandha, maca, and chaga mushrooms.   

There are many people debunking these superfoods, saying they’re unnecessary, and it’s all marketing.  I’m sick of trying to find the right answers online, so will be trying them out.  This said, today was my first day of including many of these in a smoothie, and it yielded some pretty crazy effects.  My energy has been pretty constant and incredible all day, and I’m JUST getting hungry now (4 PM) and I last eat at about 9:30 AM.  This is exactly what they described would happen.

For me, this is an anomaly.   Especially considering I only had a smoothie.  And honestly, I'm still not that hungry.  So far, it’s looking good for these things despite the naysayers.  So if you consider how nutritionally nourishing these foods may actually be, they may be far cheaper if you factor in the amount of food it would otherwise take to fill this time gap.  We’ll see how this develops.

This is a healthy meal I had last week:

Miso soup (fermented rice) with soya sauce (more ferments), and seaweed.

Almonds.  

Green smoothie consisting of kale, banana, mangoes, a little coconut milk and water.

Felt GREAT.  Simple as anything.

Step 3 – Mind hacks + Closing comments

Have the healthiest foods out in the open.

Part of our human programming makes us want to grab what we see, as it appears more readily available.  I’m sure someone could track this back into our evolutionary past as we would crave the things that were available in our regions.  Cravings are a pretty sneaky thing.  They work in very similar ways to people egos, from my own studies.  By this, I mean that they want the most immediately stimulating thing, despite the lack of long term fulfillment in alternatives.  Fight this, it is a constant battle, and I promise it’s worth it.  Cravings are like the plot of a movie, gradually moving towards a climax at the apex of tension, soon to flow back into an even.  I made a scientific chart to demonstrate this, which I’ve test time and time again.

If you’re lacking in the mental strength and discipline of the ancients, there is a silver bullet, and that is to not buy the whole wheat cookie in the first place!  If you don’t have them at all, you may still feel a craving for them, but you will circumvent the arduous process of willing yourself away from them after the apex by having no choice but to settle with the almonds.    However, and I say this with an element of humor of the difficulty that can come with this, once you cave, it can quickly just begin a whole cascading of nutritional avalanches.  So tread lightly. 

Also, due to my personal beliefs about the world, I very much believe in the ‘living energy’ of fruits and vegetables.   Many nutritionists write about this, especially those involved with the leafy greens.  This is the idea that the fresher your food is from being in the soil, the more energy they will contain.  And furthermore, the sooner you eat it, the healthier overall it will be for you.  Many don’t subscribe to such beliefs however, so just pay attention to the other parts of this post.  If you're curious about where this stems from, it's fairly deep rooted in numerous belief systems, especially those of ancient cultures, and even modern indigenous cultures, who seemed to generally be much more harmonious with our planets natural systems without having to dissect every piece of them.  I'm not sure why we currently feel such a desire to disprove or approve every single thing, considering how healthy many of their diets were before we colonized everyone else.  There are many tales of people in specific parts of China living to 130 and even 160 years old.  Don't believe it?  Well I'm not sure either.  Much of the knowledge about the medicinal herbs of this era are just beginning to return to us, so we'll see if there is validity to it.

As for supplements, I only currently take Vitamin D (since getting a lack of sun in cold Canadian winter) and fish oil (despite recently adding spirulina to my diet.)

Most of all.  Try to eat simply, and DON’T OVERLY STRESS ABOUT IT.

Excessive stress will probably be more harmful than bad foods themselves.  

It’s not worth it.  Do what you can, you're human we forgive you.  Now move past it.  Or don’t and still be okay with it and yourself.

I encourage you to try some of these things yourself, and help me expand my own knowledge and list, as I am by no means set in my ways.  This process is just building, but it just sucks when the nutritional ‘diet’ world is just completely hell-bent and obsessed with exploiting people who don’t have the time to test all of these things in themselves.

Luckily I am personally obsessed with this stuff, and I will be the guinea pig.