Nourishment 101
Eating well without diet or food rules doesn’t have to be complicated. Good nutrition is honestly so simple. Diet culture complicates it. Keep reading for the most important, practical tips I give my clients.
Diet culture has layered on the confusion with nutrition. According to diet culture, good nutrition sounds something like this… Cut carbs, but keep the fruits and vegetables. Make sure you don’t eat too much processed food, but definitely consider using protein powder or supplements (which are processed). Eat plant based to lose weight and fight disease, or follow the carnivore diet and don’t eat any plants ever. Follow a super low calorie diet, but also try to hack your metabolism.
You can’t win with diet culture!
Good nutrition is so much easier than diet culture makes it out to be. But rejecting diet culture’s misinformation and confusion might be tough to swallow at first. It may require you to challenge your beliefs about what “good” nutrition even means.
Good nutrition as an intuitive eater will be a balance of listening to your body and keeping a flexible routine to feel structured in your eating patterns. Being structured is not the same as being rigid or obsessive.
Honoring your hunger will be a balance of listening to your body and using sound reason to be intentional and structured with your eating patterns. Sometimes specific life circumstances, like navigating a health condition or being an athlete, impact hunger cues. But theoretically, even if you didn't feel hungry all day long, your body still needs nourishment every day, multiple times a day. If you're not experiencing hunger cues, you need to call upon your rational thought to keep yourself nourished.
In general, I recommend...
Eat consistently: Aiming to eat 3 meals and 1-3 snacks every day. Meals are a non-negotiable to keep your body energized and help regulate blood sugar. Snacks may be adjusted to your hunger levels, timing, and taste preference.
Eat often: Try not to go more than 4-5 waking hours without eating because after this point, blood sugar levels are out of balance depending on what/when/how much you ate last. Try to eat every 3-4 hours if possible.
Eat enough: Make sure you're eating enough to provide your body with adequate energy. Your body can't possibly use all the good nutrients you eat if you're simply not eating enough!
Eat a variety: Think about creating variety from different food groups at meals: carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fat, dairy, fruits and vegetables. Including foods from multiple food groups provides your body with diverse nutrition and improves satisfaction when eating.
Eating various fruits and vegetables provides micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), fiber, and antioxidants.
If you are lactose intolerant or allergic to dairy, opt for soy alternatives if possible to maximize protein, calcium, and vitamin D intake.
Good nutrition is honestly that simple. When I start working with a new client I’ll often tell them that we can’t possibly dive into the deeper, more detailed side of their nutrition if they’re not eating enough and not eating consistently. How can we build on a foundation that isn’t there?
To get started with good nutrition, first, tear down the diet culture beliefs about food, nutrition, and your body. Working with a nutrition professional (ahem, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist) will help you distinguish the lies from the truth. Next, start to replace the unhelpful beliefs with sound nutrition science truth. I think you’ll find that it’s a lot more simple than you thought.