Eat Real Food … and … Specific to Your Needs

“Just Eat Real Food”

That should about cover it — right?

Reality Check:  No – not for most of us. 

• For nutritional health, there are general nutrition recommendations, intended for the generally well general public. Then there is therapeutic nutrition, which is individualized and may need to balance one need against another, or theoretical concerns against the practical reality of what is.
• we used to take it that general nutrition recommendations could be thought of as being the right thing for almost all the population.
• we used to take it that almost all the people who needed special individual nutrition recommendations would be identified by the fact that they had sought medical care for some problem  and had been diagnosed with a medical condition. It was taken that they would receive their specific nutritional instructions within the medical system.
• Thus, the thought was that pretty much you could follow the general dietary/nutritional recommendations with confidence unless you had received medical advice otherwise.
• A new feature of our current time is that many people (perhaps even more than half of us) need to choose an individualized therapeutic nutrition approach if they are to best keep/recover their health. The main aspect of nutrition this refers to is what might be called “fuel nutrition” – that is, the appetite for, internal handling of, storage and burning of those nutrients that can be used as fuel – carbohydrates, fats and protein (not a nutrient – but alcohol also is used as fuel).
• Also, many people who would benefit from an individualized nutritional approach will not know this. Many will not have been diagnosed with an illness, and may not have any medical symptoms that are of enough concern to bring them to medical attention.

Health problems that are related to nutrition can start very small and be unnoticeable. And yet much can be gained from taking early steps to improve the situation. As one example, preventing weight gain offers much better promise than later undertaking a sustained weight loss of a substantial amount.

I think the time has come when there is no longer a place for general recommendations regarding what types and balance of foods to eat without the accompanying recommendation for each person to be sure to be aware of, evaluate, and consider their personal biological, metabolic responses to foods – particularly in terms of fuel nutrition.

Admittedly, this may seem to be sad news for hosts and hostesses everywhere. The ranks of the food ‘normies’ are shrinking and will shrink more. I am very optimistic, though, that this trend can be turned around over time and we can move forward to a time when most people are once again able to thrive on a wide variety of foods and food intake patterns.

For the present, though, much depends … so much depends … on dinner.