It's the Context, Not the Diet
Assome of you may know, I’m a big fan of the saying “The more you know, the moreyou don’t.” I’ve often said this inregard to strength and conditioning, but after “getting my nerd on” during thepast few months with nutrition, it really applies to that world as well.
Sowhat do I mean? The more you learn abouta subject, the more you realize how much is simply built upon assumptions, andsometimes, how much of the field is yet to be discovered. How this applies to my world can often beseen with strength and conditioning terms like concurrent or conjugateperiodization (I think I just heard a few of your snore while reading thosewords). For those that are unfamiliar,these simply describe certain ways to progressively advance people’sworkouts. But, the reason these methodsare used are simply because we think they work, or that they have worked withpeople in the past.
Let’sapply all this fancy mumbo jumbo to an actual weight room scenario. Forinstance, someone could probably get pretty big and explosive by working ontheir squat for 6 weeks, then decreasing their squatting frequency andincreasing the frequency they perform an Olympic lift, like a hang clean, foranother few weeks. According to theperiodization theories, they would be developing more strength in the squat,then increasing their ability to rapidly display that strength (i.e. increasing their power) by going toan Olympic lift such as the clean. However, common sense will tell you that the more someone squats, themore strength they’re probably going to display in every other activity. And, that this whole “periodization” thing isjust a way to make us sound smart.
Thesame is true with diet and nutrition. Often times, our culture looks for a secret ingredient that’s in or outof favor (fat, carbs, protein, omega-3’s, etc.) as the magic bullet to ahealthy life. Yet, there’s a reason whymulti-vitamins and supplements just don’t work as well as eating a balanceddiet, and it’s because we’re taking ournutrients out of their natural context. Forinstance, there are thousands of compounds in a piece of kale, and we have noidea how all of these interact with our body. But what do we know? That peoplewho tend to eat a ton of kale (and other fruits and vegetables) are probably healthier than those that don’t. Food is simply more than the sum of itsparts.
Thisvideo does a great job explaining how of the science behind nutrition is yet to be discovered. I know I've linked to this video at least twice before, but if you haven't seen it yet, set aside 18 minutes to give it a look.
Oftentimes, we just have to use our heads to live a healthy life. It’s when we try to take shortcuts, or try tomake “convenient changes” that we ignore the greater context of what can makeus all really healthy.