You are what you eat.
Everyone knows this. We know that to be healthy, we need to eat a nutritious diet.
So why is choosing what to eat so difficult?
As the science of nutrition advances, it seems that nutritional advice becomes more and more complicated. And contradictory. It’s coming from everywhere: scientists, doctors, teachers, reporters, bloggers, actors. Even the government.
Who can you trust?
Nutrition: Everyone has an Opinion
You might think you’ve sent your child to school with a nutritious lunch, only to be told you’re doing it wrong.
Maybe you’re not quite sure whether dairy is necessary for building strong bones, or the most evil food group on the planet.
Or maybe you’re suddenly suspicious that your favourite food is responsible for your constipation/diarrhoea, acne, or joint pain.
Join the club. The information (& misinformation) out there is endless. Depending on who you listen to, you should never eat meat, or only eat meat. Eat 6 times a day, or once a day. Get your nutrients from food alone, or take all the supplements.
Everyone thinks they know what you should be eating. And no matter what you do, you’re breaking someone’s rules.
There is No One Right Way to Eat
Let’s just get this out there: there is no one right way to eat.
There are many different ways to eat a nutritious diet. Successful civilizations developed all over the globe, based on a wide variety of foods. Swiss mountain children grew up on rye bread and cheese. Pacific islanders ate coconut & seafood. The First Nations people of North America hunted buffalo, grew corn, squash, and beans, and picked wild berries. The Inuit ate raw fish and fermented blubber. Their diets could not have been more different. And in a time when your health literally determined your survival, all these societies were healthy and successful.
The natural world is full of nutrients, and there are countless ways for you to consume them. The point is not to search for the right way – but to find what works for you.
A Healthy Diet for You
A “healthy diet” can be defined in different ways. Here are a few criteria to start with.
A healthy diet should, of course, contain all the nutrients your body needs to function properly. It shouldn’t contain anything that causes more harm than your body can repair. But it also has to be affordable. Realistic. And it needs to taste good: your food should make you happy.
What diet will satisfy all these criteria? Well, that’s up to you. The answer depends on your:
- heritage & upbringing
- tastes
- lifestyle
- food sensitivities
- gut microbiome
- metabolism
- physical activity
- environment
- health conditions
Optimize Your Diet with Clinical Nutrition
Simple changes in your diet can be the key factor in improving your health naturally. Many of the chronic conditions that plague our world today can be improved, reversed, or avoided with dietary changes:
- digestive concerns
- obesity
- fatty liver disease
- diabetes
- cardiovascular disease
- fatigue
- brain fog
- mental illness
- immune disorders
If you’d like to make sure that what you eat makes you the healthiest you can be, Naturopathic medicine can help. Naturopathic doctors are trained in clinical nutrition. We know that your diet needs to be suited to you. We will work with you to figure out what your body is asking for, make sure it gets everything it needs, and eliminate anything that is causing you pain.
You don’t need to eat what everyone else is eating. Eat better. Discover the potential of a healthier you.
