8 Ground Rules for Building Good Nutrition Habits!
Holy, is nutrition and dieting ever a loaded topic!
The more we accumulate research on the topic of what to eat, the more we learn, yet seemingly the less we know.
There are few topics that bring about as much debate as nutrition (perhaps only exceeded by politics). If you’ve ever done a google dive into this convoluted space you’re well aware of what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t? I’d be willing to bet there’s someone in your life who has the secret to the perfect diet, or so you’ve been told.
Well I’m here to tell you what that perfect diet is… Kidding!
The reason I’ve written this, is after seeing countless patients come to me in a state of utter loss, confused by the barrage of advice from friends, videos, commercials, and blogs (sorry to add to the pile) I feel it necessary to outline some ground rules that can get you on the right track.
But even with these simple, practical ground rules, they still won’t all be right for everyone, all the time. That’s the thing about nutrition. To recognize everyone on an individual level, we must understand that what we eat to make us feel our best is also different from one person to the next. So if someone proselytizes a way of eating (usually their way of eating) as the optimal and only way to eat to be healthy, you have my permission to call bull****.
Without getting too far into the nitty gritty, the reason why I say this with such confidence is because conducting research into nutrition is so difficult. For example, you want to find out if people live longer and have less heart disease if they eat more kale? Good luck with that.
To create a study that will answer this question with minimal doubt, you need to track hundreds of people over decades, making sure you know the amount of kale everyone eats over that period. Oh, and to remove confounding variables (other things that may be contributing to their heart health and mortality) you need to track those things too. In this example, that means knowing how much and what else they eat, how much they drink, how much they sleep, do they exercise, do they smoke, do they have a family history of heart disease, etc. You can start to see that to do a study like this, you need more and more funding to get a more accurate answer – and these expenses add up quick. Not to mention the fact that people’s ability to track and recall what they eat (which is the way diet is tracked in most studies) is also very inaccurate.
So back to my previous point – what are some ground rules to build your foundation from? I’ve listed 8 rules below, but this is not an exhaustive list by any means. It’s supposed to provide you not only a guide, but also a sense of relief that every individual health decision cannot be automatically labeled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s an outdated way of thinking, and a mistake that we’ve had to pay the consequences for, due to countless errors in nutrition guidelines over the previous decades.
Steps to build a good nutrition foundation!
1. Perimeter Shopping
When you’re in the grocery store prioritize foods found on the perimeter of the store and spend less time in the middle aisles. Unless the store you shop at is different from every other supermarket I’ve been to, this means buying mostly fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products. With the exception of things like nuts, seeds, and beans, shopping on the perimeter is a general rule of thumb that will serve you well.
2. Avoid Drinking Calories
If you’re really valuing your body and your nutrition, it’s important to realize that we don’t get valuable nutrients from our drinks. When we make decisions to drink our calories (juice, pop, alcohol, sugar-laden energy drinks), we’re making a decision to spike our blood sugar and – over the long-term – promote an insulin-resistant state. If you’re making changes to your nutrition in an effort to shed some weight, this is always one of the best places to start. The amount of caloric deficit we need to get to on a daily basis to start losing weight isn’t far off what we get when we regularly drink our calories. If you don’t believe me, look at the nutrition label next time you have one of these beverages.
3. Balance your Macros
Macronutrients include fat, carbohydrates, and protein. These are the three basic kinds of building blocks that can be converted into energy and make up the caloric content of our foods. There are different diets that preach different amounts of each macro, and they can be beneficial if done right by an individual who can maintain (and hopefully enjoys) that way of eating. Some of these include low-carb or ketogenic diets that promote a majority of calories from fat and little from carbs. My advice here is to ensure you get enough protein. In a standard western diet this is the macronutrient that gets most neglected and is critical in building muscle and promoting a feeling of fullness after eating. The gym rats have it right – get your protein.
4. Minimize Packaged Food
Maybe this one’s a cop out and maybe it should be included as part of Rule 1, but I think it’s necessary to clarify that processed foods should be minimized to avoid excess sugar and salt (two massively used staples in many processed products) and other hidden ingredients which are only found in factory-produced foods.
5. Manage your Portions
I’ll keep this short. Minimize your portion size if you’re prone to overeating. Easy to say but hard to do? Well if you follow step 3 and start eating more protein that will help with portion control. Other things you can do are eat your food on a plate that’s similar in colour to your food. I’m not messing with you – there’s actually research to support this – it’s called food camouflage to trick your brain into eating less. And if you’re someone who usually goes back for seconds? Well then take a smaller portion on your first go round anyways.
6. Eat Cause You’re Hungry, Not Cause You’re Bored
In the digital age we as a society have forgotten what it’s like to experience boredom, what it’s like to sit with our own thoughts. One of the ways we fill this gap that we’ve come to find so uncomfortable is to stuff our face. My tip? If you’ve eaten a generously sized meal in the last few hours and are reaching for a snack, take 5 seconds and ask yourself if you’re eating out of hunger, or out of boredom. If you’re like me and you’re a fidgety type, drinking herbal tea, carbonated water, or snacking on some raw veg is an easy way to scratch that itch and avoid unnecessary calorie intake.
7. Trust your Gut
If a food generally makes you feel off, whether that be stomach pain, nausea, headaches, brain fog, or anything else, cut it out. Food sensitivities are especially important if you’re having frequent diarrhea, as this can lead to dehydration and impaired nutrient absorption. In essence, the foods that set you off can ruin your chances of using everything else in your diet.
8. 80/20 Principle
I’ve left perhaps the most important rule for last. The 80/20 Pareto principle states that we get 80% of benefits from 20% of our actions. That means small changes can often have large impacts – and that should always be the first goal with any lifestyle change.
The other 80/20 rule that I focus on is to make good decisions at least 80% of the time. And yes, that does mean you can have cheat meals, no matter how embarrassing you might think they are! An easy idea to remember is to avoid following one cheat meal with another. This provides you the mental framework to catch yourself before you get on a trend that gets out of hand.
With these ground rules, you can start to make small changes that lead to big progress. While by no means is this an exhaustive list, it’s a great place to start!
