The subject of nutrition can be very confusing.
On some level, I believe we try to make this more complicated when we struggle because complexity helps us feel better about our struggle.
That being said, the overwhelming amount of lower quality convenience foods at our disposal makes good nutrition challenging.
Quality nutrition requires your active participation and involvement. You will not accidentally eat healthy.
This does not need to be complicated though and can be broken down into the three pillars of nutrition: Food Quality, Food Quantity and Food Timing.
Food Quality
Food Quality exists on a spectrum with Single Ingredient Whole Foods on one end and Heavily Processed Foods on the other end.
Ideally you’ll consume more single ingredient whole foods and minimally processed foods.
Lean chicken breast and high quality cuts of beef are minimally processed foods. These foods have undergone some level of processing in order to reach the end consumer.
The closer a food item is to it’s original state, the less processed the food will be.
Imagine fresh cut yellow fin tuna right off the boat. This would be a single ingredient whole food.
Canned tuna in water has been packaged to extend the shelf life and this would be a minimally processed food.
Tuna Helper lives at the far end of the food quality spectrum as a heavily processed food.
Foods such as ice cream, protein bars and pasta aren’t inherently good or bad, but they also don’t exist in a natural state and are heavily processed.
Food Quantity
Food quantity may be the most challenging of the three pillars in North America.
We’ve become accustomed to super-sized portions and often associate “value” with volume.
For this reason, Americans are notoriously awful at determining appropriate portion sizes and may have a tendency to over consume.
A serving size of peanut butter is usually all that’s required to drive this point home.
On behalf of all Americans, I would like to say that the never-agreed-upon serving size of peanut butter is criminal and not reflective of how any sane person would consume something so delicious.
Some coaches and experts recommend weighing your food to help you become familiar with recognizing appropriate portion sizes.
The method we recommend is using your hand as a guide to determine portion sizes (see below).
Click here for a detailed breakdown of how to modify your portion sizes using this method.
In addition to the using your hand as a portion guide, we recommend consuming at least 30 grams of protein with each meal as this has been proven to be the trigger for Muscle Protein Synthesis for individuals over the age of 30.
Most people have foods they enjoy but struggle to eat in moderation. Foods you overeat and have difficulty controlling yourself with are called Red Light Foods.
We recommend NOT keeping Red Light Foods in your house (or within reach).
Food Timing
Food timing refers to your normal eating pattern or schedule of meals.
You may have been taught that you should eat three balanced meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner).
While three balanced meals may work for you, this certainly isn’t the pattern of eating our ancestors followed.
The concept of three balanced meals originated with the marketing of breakfast cereals and by any measure, the marketing campaign worked.
The Thermic Effect of Feeding has proven that eating 2,000 calories will have the same effect on your metabolism whether you eat two, three, four or six meals.
There is no singular correct pattern of eating. There is simply what works for you as an individual that allows you to maintain a healthy body composition and level of performance.
Intermittent Fasting is a popular application of Food Timing that ultimately aims to reduce consumption by restricting your feeding window.
Generally speaking on food timing, we don’t recommend eating within the first hour of waking and within 2 hours of bed time.
With these two bookends in place, you’ll want to find the pattern of eating between these two points that works best for you.
Conclusion
Food companies are engineering foods to be more palatable so you have the ability to consume more. These companies generate more revenue when you consume more.
Having around the clock access to low quality processed foods is a significant challenge for many people.
Lower quality foods open the door to higher consumption readily available 24 hours a day.
When it comes to improving your diet, you may find it beneficial to keep things simple and strengthen each of the three pillars of nutrition: food quality, food quantity and food timing.
