Quality fats are a key building block to a healthy you.
We know that achieving your ideal weight is more than nutrition, but often times it is both the only focal point and hang up for most people. With that it’s ever so easy to get caught up in the latest fad diets as they promise the world but rarely, if ever deliver. Most of the time they leave us with quite a bit of misinformation about what a healthy diet and lifestyle look like and their ideologies become forever engrained in our biological software.
Well, I’m not going to promise the world but I am going to give you some food for thought in hopes of reversing some of these dietary misconceptions on your way to a nutritional approach that works best for you. One that will hopefully put you on the path to discovering what it takes to reach a weight and look you feel comfortable with.
Physiology of Weight Loss 101
Before we dive too deep we first have to look at what it takes for the body to want or need to lose weight. We are all naturally hardwired to hold a specific amount of fatness, to which each of us have our own very individual set points. And pushing these set points lower (or ever higher) can feel and seem like an impossible feat. Again, there are so many factors other than nutrition that contribute to weight gain or loss (neurobiological, psychological etc) but as you can imagine it’s a huge piece of the equation. So let’s start with the simple question of why we eat?
According to biochemist Stephan Guyenet we eat for two reasons:
1) Homeostasis (continual balancing within the body systems) – in the case of nutrition, eating to meet energy demands of each system.
2) Non-Homeostatic – Eating based on another cue such as meal timing, palatability or other food cues and associations.
For this post we are going to focus on eating for homeostatis in regards to solely balancing essential nutrient needs and energy demands.
Eating For Balance
What does homeostatic eating look like on the outside?
If we are eating to meet the body’s energy and essential nutrient demands then we are eating only when truly hungry and stopping when “gently” full. I like to refer to the 80% full philosophy, enough to where you could be active afterward without feeling sick or bloated.
Let’s quickly define what nutrients are essential for our overall health.
essential nutrients – a nutrient required for normal body functioning that either cannot be synthesized by the body at all, or cannot be synthesized in amounts adequate for good health and thus must be obtained from a dietary source. (1)
These include:
vitamins – A, B, C, D, E, K,
minerals – calcium, copper, chloride, cobalt, chromium, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, zinc
fatty acids (efa) – a-Linolenic acid (omega 3), Linolenic acid (omega 6)
amino acids – isoleucine, lysine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine, histidine, arginine
A diet full of these essential nutrients is one we could considered balanced therefore leading to proper volume of food or caloric intake.
The theory:
If we are out of balance with these essential nutrients we naturally seek more food until those needs are met. This over time leads to excess consumption and calories which in turn leads to an increased body fat set point and body weight. If we can’t meet our energy needs we have to eat more to do so, right? This is a vicious cycle that we’ve all seen and/or experienced.
Weight Loss: Working With Our Biology
Instead of fighting our biology and natural instinct why not work with it? Given the right tools and nutrients our body wants to be fit, lean and healthy.
I’m sure now you can see why processed foods, industrial seed oils and fast or convenience based foods make us fat and unhealthy! These foods are very calorically dense but containvery little nutrients therefore prompting us to eat more. By focusing on more nutrient dense foods relative to their caloric density we work with our physiology by giving the body what it is seeking in turn consuming less food overall and naturally (and sustainably) lowering our set point to our ideal weight.
Natures Most Nutrient Dense Foods
The biggest misconception most have with eating nutrient dense foods (or a healthy diet in general) is that it must be heavily fruit and/or vegetable based. That shifting close to a vegetarian diet is what is best for long term health. However, we’re uncovering more and more everyday showing this isn’t fully true and that many animal based foods are even higher in overall essential nutrients that the body needs. It’s not that vegetables, tubers, fruits, nuts/seeds aren’t beneficial but their array of essential nutrients pails in comparison to foods like beef liver, cod liver oil… even bacon! Of course vegetables, fruits and nuts have other intangibles such as carotenoids, bioflavanoids, antioxidants or rich sources of other non essential nutrients. Yes, they are important, but the essentials (vitamins & minerals) come first and therefore ideally should be met first for higher levels of health.
With the work of researchers like biochemist Mat Lalonde PhD more evidence is pointing to other foods that are often left shunned by the “mainstream” health and nutrition experts and therefore untouched. Many of which I’ve written about here in regards to having superfood like status.
So what does this list of foods look like? Here is a snippet of what was presented in Dr. Lalonde’s research.
The first thing I thought of when I saw this list? It’s how our ancestors, ancestors ate.
As you can see, those foods that are highest on the list are many of the foods that we have been told are bad for us. Animal meats, organ meats, oils, beef, pork, cacao (chocolate), eggs and dairy. In fact, mainstream nutrition dictocrats tell us quite the opposite should be consumed for a healthy diet. Eat whole grains, fruits & veggies while limiting your red meat intake and overall fat. According to this list those foods recommended are FURTHEST down the list. Comparing that to the theory I presented above we would need to eat even more of these foods to meet our basic energy needs.
Could this be a big reason we have a major obesity epidemic in this country?
I might not stretch it that far myself, but it sure doesn’t help. I can almost guarantee it is a reason some can’t lose the last 10-20lbs or more.
* As a side note the quality of the food wasn’t a concern in this study. Even those these were likely commercially raised animals on a grain fed diet they still performed better than some of the so called health foods. I would expect better quality foods from animals raised on their natural diets to have even more nutrient density than these listed.
What You Can Do Next
Now that you are privy to this information what’s the next step? Wait for mainstream nutrition science to catch up? Of course not.
Test it yourself. Start incorporating more of the top 10 foods on this list into your everyday in place of others at the bottom of the list. See if you feel any different or if you have any significant changes in weight or shape. Track your progress using Pictrition and tell your friends.
It’s the future… and the past.
Simply put, it's one that is able to adapt to the world and stress around it.
Let's deconstruct that.
Social: What we call picking the right tribe or establishing meaningful connections to those who are in your life circle. Studies show time and time again that this is a crucial piece to a long lasting and productive life.
Physical: One that allows for adequate levels of movement. This often gets interpreted as spending time in a gym but we're not referring to fitness, which can be an important part. The body is more interested in movement which may mean working in your garden, walking your dog or simply not being still for large chunks of the day. Can you perform variations of all the fundamental movements? Squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling, dead lifting, twisting, climbing, crawling and gait (walking running). When's the last time you crawled? :-)
Nutritive: Emphasizing real food and learning to be more attune to your bodily needs. What does that mean? Overriding what you've learned about food and nutrition and becoming aware of natural signals for certain foods, like hunger and its many stages.
Psychological: Allowing for a full spectrum of experiencing the world as it comes, being able to test beliefs and feel comfortable doing so. The mind is the most plastic tissue in the body so allowing it to freely flow without judgement is the healthiest place to be.
The better we can navigate our daily stressors, the greater chance we have at achieving enhanced health overall and the lean, fit body we were meant to have. You can easily break each of these down and see how they play a role in the weight gain process. Even the slightest shift or imbalance can significantly impede your efforts.
No one ever said fat loss is easy, but by understanding that our natural state is one of leanness you can see how the process might be simple.