How can we focus on nutrition without focusing on weight?
First let me clear,
I have nothing against people wanting to lose weight. In fact, I help people lose weight all the time. More specifically, I help people identify why they want to lose weight, so that they can decide for themselves whether that definitely is a goal that they really should pursue in order to fulfil that ‘why’. We come up with a realistic, sustainable plan that will help them achieve that so that they can spend a greater proportion of their life not worrying about losing weight and counting calories.
Surprisingly, the ‘not losing weight’ part is actually trickier for a lot of people (intentionally ‘not losing weight’, I should clarify).
When we have an all or nothing, diet-centric mentality, we are either trying to diet to lose weight, or we are eating and drinking probably a little more than we might actually need to, almost in an act of rebellion against the ‘dieting’ version of ourselves. It’s the whole attitude of ‘eh, what’s the point, I’m no longer dieting anyway, let me have this moment…’ and then ‘that moment’ ends up lasting a lot longer and makes you feel a lot worse than it could have if you practised a little more moderation here and there.
But as well as that, we need drivers for actually wanting to make better food choices that aren’t just about whether or not something is likely to make us gain or lose weight.
BECAUSE:
Reason A: We need to challenge what type of messaging is that sending to children and other more influential populations?
And…
Reason B: Because nutrition has the power to affect so much more than just our weight. Nutrition directly influences our ability to thrive in everyday life and extend how good we feel later in life by greatly reducing our risk of so many chronic diseases that have a grasp over modern society.
And…
Reason C: By practising health-focused nutrition (using evidence based, gentle nutrition principles) there is no need to be ‘all or nothing’. In fact, we can actually improve our health by reducing the amount of stress and anxiety we might experience when we eat something ‘off limits’ or go ‘over target’ AND we also become better listeners to our body’s innate wisdom, allowing us to maintain a weight that our body functions perfectly well at, with minimal effort.
Sounds good right?
Maybe?
Ok, hopefully I can convince you by going over what health-focused nutrition actually is.
Firstly let me clarify what health-focused nutrition is NOT:
Tracking every single gram of food you eat to perfectly match the recommended daily intake of every single nutrient and fit within the perfect number of calories to match your energy expenditure for the day
Daily green juices
Eating organic food only or avoiding the ‘dirty dozen’ religiously
Drinking alkaline water instead of tap water
A million supplements every day
Never eating a piece of food with a wrapper on it
Never eating sugar
Never eating fried food, pastries, takeaways, alcohol, oil, artificial sweeteners, gluten, white flour or any other ‘white foods’ or ‘beige foods’
The belief that nutrition will heal your hormones, cure your depression, get rid of your acne, wrinkles and back pain and help you manifest success in all life areas
The Carnivore Diet (I’m not even going to try and be subtle about this one)
It’s not that by themselves these actions are unhealthy (if they are part of your lifestyle and you feel good about it, then that’s fine!), but frankly, none of these things can possibly guarantee good health. Why? Because:
Health is more than just what you eat. It’s how you move, the people you surround yourself with, how much sleep you get, how you manage stress, your thought cycles, your self esteem, your closest relationships and your overall life satisfaction.
When we understand how there is so much more to health than just nutrition, we can actually relax with how much importance we give nutrition compared to other aspects of our life. Meaning, we recognise that it’s really no big deal to eat the damn chocolate bar in the context of a fairly sufficient overall diet.
As a tangent, maybe one of those other aspects of your health could do with a little more attention? Is hyper-focusing on nutrition perhaps a deflection to what is really going on in your life and obstructing your health and happiness levels? Food for thought.
So, what actually is health-focused nutrition in that case?
Health-focused nutrition is observing the areas that evidence has shown nutrition to make a strong difference in with regards to our overall well-being, and looking for ways to boost the quality of our diet to support that. These areas include:
Cardiovascular health and lowering our risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancers
Bone health and lowering our risk of osteoporosis
Mental health and lowering our risk of cognitive decline
Gut health concerns including irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and bloating
Strengthening our immune system and building resilience against stress
As you can see, health-focused nutrition is mainly about preventing unfortunate things from happening to us, because that’s where the evidence solidly lies.
There actually isn’t strong evidence that nutrition alone can heal us from disease states. There also isn’t strong evidence supporting the efficacy of extreme or absurd dieting protocols that are unnecessarily restrictive or demonise multiple food groups. Often the whole point of these protocols being so restrictive is because since so few people actually follow the plan with the necessarily strict adherence, the inventors of said ‘protocol’ can blame the follower for not ‘doing it right’ when the follower does not achieve the level of gradious results the protocol was meant to deliver.
‘Oh, you didn’t heal your arthritis, autoimmune disease and depression, grow your hair back and lose weight by eating only raw organ meat, coconut oil and pineapples between the hours of 12pm and 6pm? Well you need to do it for at least 12 weeks straight to see best results, with no cheating.’
Who can possibly do that?
Of course extreme diets promise grand results. Because they don’t actually have solid evidence to support their claims- since few people can even do the diet, how could they study it?
Health-focused, evidence-based nutrition doesn’t have sexy, alluring promises, like quick-fixes and miracle transformations, but it also doesn’t have extreme and unrealistic methods behind it.
It recognises that humans are built to thrive off of a range of different foods, and are adaptable to a wide variety of food scenarios because we all have mechanisms in place that optimise our ability to function in a variety of environments we may end up in.
Therefore, regardless of your household income, people you cook for, cultural background, food preferences, food intolerances, ethical beliefs, cooking skills, time availability and social life - you CAN optimise your eating habits to boost your health without causing disruption to your quality of life- which is what nutrition should really be about!
So, if we’re not solely concerned about losing weight all the time, what do you actually focus on with nutrition?
Well, we should be focusing on evaluating where we’re currently at from a health standpoint, and making baby steps in the right direction to improve that gradually over time without overly-compromising.
Obviously, it helps to get a little guidance from a nutrition professional who knows what they’re doing to give you a nudge in the right direction along with a plan and accountability.
But at the end of the day, THIS is truly how we learn to respect the influence of nutrition on our body without giving it control over our whole lives.
