Understanding Nutrition Part 1 - Why Nutrition Matters.
Nutrition is essential for growth and development, health and wellbeing. Eating a healthy diet contributes to preventing future illness and improving quality and length of life. Your nutritional status is the state of your health as determined by what you eat.
Nutrients can be described as the chemical components of food and can be classified into six broad groups: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. Water is not technically a nutrient, but it is essential for the utilisation of nutrients. Nutrients perform various functions in our bodies, including energy provision and maintaining vital processes such as digestion, breathing, growth and development.
We pride ourselves on offering the most effective training systems available, for strength, performance, health and body composition. But how you train and how effective your training is, will only be half of the story without good nutrition.
Good nutrition directly correlates with improved health and concentration, improved training performance and better body composition.
Poor nutrition can contribute to stress, tiredness and impair our work capacity. Over time can contribute to the risk of developing illnesses and other health problems such as: being overweight or obese, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
To give our clients the best possible approach to their health and fitness, we provide nutrition guidelines for optimal health and performance. Good nutrition doesn’t need to be difficult or complicated. In fact, in a time of countless diets and fads, the fundamental principles of good nutrition are often misplaced and overlooked. Great changes can be made by simply following a number of basic rules. These can be used synergistically with training and exercise for long term health. Whether you want to be fitter, stronger, healthier or leaner, following and implementing basic nutrition guidelines will put you on a course of improvement, health and longevity.
Applying Good Nutrition
Despite the ridiculous claims and attractive marketing of the multi-billion pound UK diet industry (the global value is expected to exceed £220billion by 2020) many still fail to understand the fundamentals of good nutrition.
Most people associate healthy eating with going on a diet to lose weight as opposed to a long term solution to a series of current health issues or a simple and effective way to improve health. Healthy eating isn’t something we need to worry about 24/7. By applying a number of basic nutritional principles, eating well in the long term is both entirely realistic and sustainable.
Despite countless short-term ‘fat loss’ diets making bold claims and applying numerous approaches, including shakes, cleanses, fasting strategies and eliminating various foods and nutrients from the diet, the issue remains in decline. These approaches are very rarely healthy and are never sustainable. They also fail to impact one of the biggest causes of poor nutrition: nutritional habits.
The implementation of good long term and sustainable nutrition involves the application of good habits to our daily approach.
Whether trying to lose weight or not, there are valid reasons for implementing good nutrition:
1. Reduce Risk of Chronic Disease
Nutrient deficiencies, poor food choices and excess bodyweight can lead to a number of chronic conditions, like heart disease, cancer, insulin resistance and diabetes. When your body doesn't get the nutrients it needs, your immune system becomes weak and your risk of illness goes up.
2. Fuel Your Performance
Food is the body's fuel, proper nutrition leads to better performance. Provide your body with the right nutrients and you'll be rewarded with more energy, improved concentration, more muscle and faster recovery.
3. Improve Skin and Bone Health
Improve the appearance of your skin and the strength of your hair and nails with nutrients such as biotin, vitamin E and zinc. Deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D can cause bones to deteriorate and dramatically increase your risk for osteoporosis.
4. Maintain Energy
Nutrition and bodyweight also play a role in sleep and energy levels. A meal high in refined carbohydrates can leave you feeling sluggish, whereas a meal balanced with complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and protein can keep you full and focused. Healthy eating is important for maintaining energy levels throughout the day and maintaining proper sleep at night.
5. Develop a Healthy Relationship with Food
Learning to eat well can help you implement a lifestyle change that is free of food fears, dieting and the cycle of gaining and losing weight. Everyone should enjoy food. If you learn to eat correctly, you'll be able to eat what you love, enjoy treats, consume food that makes you feel your best and balance your plate with adequate portions.
Nutrition isn’t guesswork, it’s a science. - but it doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective.
