A Focus on Fitness

People are increasingly concerned with good nutrition these days. An emphasis on fitness and health takes nutrition and folds it into the general effort. In other words, nutrition is a 'partner' to workout devotion and consistent athletic participation.

Nutrition is really the process of stocking your body with strong, healthy foods that are chock-full of nutrients. What is a nutrient? A nutrient is a natural substance that enriches the body when consumed; literally, it is one of a number of chemicals that the system needs to maintain metabolism. Its role is to refresh and restore the ever-active, always-taxed human body.

For many people, processed foods, snacks and sweets stack the dietary lineup. What goes into your body goes into your body; fill it with junk, and the ensuing digestive chaos just might make you sick.

A healthy body is regularly restocked with solid nutrients. Good nutrition means eating right consistently, which translates to a balanced diet focused on fruits and vegetables. Eating healthy results in a lower caloric intake without creating a 'diet' as an artifical measure to lose weight. 

When you switch to a healthier diet, you boost the nutrient density of foods consumed. This in turn reduces cravings for more calories through quick fixes. 

Nutrition is also about cooking and eating in a way that preserves nutrients on the way to your plate. This is an important point: if you are a vegetarian but thoroughly cook all your food, much nutrient value will seep away in the cooking.

Nutrition also helps maintain a solid fitness profile. Making workouts count is much easier. Switching to a healthful, consistent diet creates energy and propels your fitness ambitions.

What is good nutrition? We can break it down into two aspects, closely intertwined. The first is a truly balanced diet. This is a diet that apportions protein, sugar and fat intake properly. The second is a shift to eating more nutrients and fewer processed foods. Processed foods are stocked with preservatives and additives that disrupt our digestion and potentially damage our bodies. These foods are also typically high in salt.

NOTE: When we use the word 'diet', we are talking about how you eat, not designing your daily meals specifically to provoke weight loss.

Good nutrition is the creation and maintenance of a vegetarian-fruitarian diet that stocks us with all essential proteins and nutrients. It relies on a diet that avoids processed foods nearly completely, and keeps meat and animal products to a minimum.

Once you migrate to a healthier diet, you are likely to eat fewer calories. You will consume far more nutrients per calorie, and since nutrients are what your body actually craves, it won't 'ask' for those chips, crackers and sweets.

Good fats are basically those that promote good health. 'Bad' fats do not, especially in quantities that drown out the presence of the good fats. This is precisely the case in the modern diet.

Fat itself is a vital and natural substance; it is the excess of fat and the imbalance between types that does the damage. It is only when certain types of fats flood our bodies regularly, disrupting natural ratios between fatty acids, that chaos ensues. Processed foods often contain bad fats in quantities that overwhelm and disrupt the system.

This can be traced and demonstrated. One example is the surfeit of Omega 6 fatty acid in the system as a result of eating too much junk food. The body 'expects' a 4-to-1 ratio between the n-6 (Omega 6) and the Omega 3 fats; but for many people the ratio is something around 10-to-1. This promotes inflammation and, quite possibly, the development of cancers later in life.

Meat products are also risky in the quantities that many people consume. This includes cheeses, milk and butter as well. Meat is stocked with protein, but also with inflammatory substances.

By reducing meat intake, you also keep salt levels down. High blood pressure, stroke and heart attacks have all been correlated to generous and continuous quantities of meat in the diet.

Many of its tasty components are replicated in vegetable substitutes these days. If you need a 'fix', you can grab a nice soy-based imitation from most markets.

If you have an ecological bent, note that switching to a vegetarian approach helps reduce strain on the earth. Raising meat exploits far more resources than does cultivation of vegetables.

It is one thing to base your diet mostly on vegetables (and fruits). It is an important decision that, in our opinion, has nearly immediate and often long-lasting benefits.

Within this approach, however, there rages another argument: 'raw' vs. 'cooked' foods. Cooking a food often leeches it of its primary nutrients. So goes the raw-fooders' claim.

No matter your athletic emphasis, you will benefit from an improved nutrition regimen. This is common sense and a justified conclusion from empirical evidence.

Let's start with the obvious benefits of the vegetarian/fruitarian approach we have just outlined. You are eating better, reducing the intake of chemicals and high amounts of unhealthy fats, salts and the inflammation-promoting aspects of both junk food and excessive meat consumption.

You are taking in a range of vital nutrients without thinking about it - just by eating a large quantity of fruit and vegetables daily. How does this affect your overall health and fitness attributes?

1) Your body is stocked with a constant supply of nutrients, natural elements that replenish its reserves. This means an increase of energy;

2) The 'drag' on your system from the 'poisons' we have talked about disappears. Instead of your body working overtime to combat inflammation, it can take a rest and just function as it should.

3) You will be leaner: this will make working out easier and pleasurable. If you are a tennis player aiming to be Federer or a sprinter like Carl Lewis, nutrients translate into more energy and speed. The boost in stamina benefits distance sports too.

---