NUTRITION AS A HABIT

Nutrition is the one science that even some of the most well decorated academics won't touch. There seems to be a huge gap in the science and the application—leaving you to feel like every corner you turn you have a "professional" telling you something completely different from the last. 

It's gluten, it's high fructose corn syrup, it's carbs, it's fat, it's too little protein, it's too much protein, it's animal products, it's dairy, it's nitrates, etc. The list of diets is endless: paleo, whole 30, Pritikin, Atkins, vegan, etc. They all miss the mark. See, every mainstream diet you know, and have probably tried, is what's called an elimination diet. These diets basically tell you what you can and cannot eat. Eat the things we tell you you can, eliminate the things we tell you that you can't. This doesn't work. Why? Because we have no discipline. Furthermore, we look at these as diets: fast-acting solutions to cure our problem. Like taking NyQuil when we're sick. However, eating is something we have to do everyday. So for there to be any substantial, lasting effect, there has to be some kind of permanent change. They also don't work because the science is not there to back the mechanisms of most of these diets, and those with supporting evidence, they usually have the application of the research all wrong, but that will be discussed in a different paper.

We get caught up in these specific diets instead of looking at the whole picture. We're all human beings so how can one elimination diet work for one person, and a completely different elimination diet work for somebody else? Genetics? Lifestyle? Sure, we have certain underlying genetic factors that can lead to a certain diet yielding us better results, but to what degree? Take something like the ApoE4 Genotype which is a hot topic in nutrition science. People with this genotype live longer if they eat meat (1). But how much longer? Are there other genotypes that might negate/reduce these effects? Any lifestyle factors (phenotypes) that can impact this? If there are genotypes that allow individuals on meat-based diets to yield more positive effects, are there genotypes that can have similar impacts on the positive impact of vegan diets? The mechanisms remain not fully elucidated. Nutrition is so multi-faceted it is extremely difficult to try and capture all the variables. That's why there are 40+ diets out there, all of which will claim to provide you with the best results. The problem is that there are too many unanswered questions to get as specific as these diets do. Truth is, we don't know what impact the elimination will have which leaves the main supporting evidence to follow a diet: "Well, It worked for me." Except you're not them, and that's why it might not, and probably won't, work for you. We need something that's universal to all human beings. We need to target basic cellular function at a genetic level to manipulate energy balance. Achieving a negative energy balance will cause a reduction in weight. But we will not discuss that here. Back to habits.

Most people overweight. Not just a little, but a lot. Based on the latest epidemiological studies, 42.5% of Americans are obese (2). So the question becomes, how does this happen? We are creatures of habit. Our bad habits are hard to break and good habits are hard to adopt. A habit is any regularly repeated behavior that requires little to no thought and is learned rather than innate. Sounds a lot like, well, eating... Yes, nutrition is a habit. But whether or not it's a good habit depends on what we eat and how we eat. 

We all have a habit of brushing our teeth every morning and every evening. Similarly, we should have a habit of what we eat and when we eat it based on what the science tells us is best. This is an autonomous journey requiring that you find intrinsic motivation. Being forced will not provide you with long term success. The best means of finding consistency and long-term success is finding your why. Why make a change with your diet? Why stick to this change? Why strive towards greater health? The answer isn't because I want to be healthier—there needs to be something deeper and only you can find that.

Read the full guide to nutrition as a habit here soon.