3 Myths to nutrition - de-bunked.

As a clinical nutritionist and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, I am committed to improving nutrition practices and protocols. With the growth of the nutrition industry, myths and erroneous practices inevitably arise. Let’s tackle three common misconceptions that have far-reaching implications.

So, this is half right.

Yes, you’ll need to have an idea of caloric intake as any excess each day will be stored as adipose tissue in the body. The amount of increased fat storage is dependent on that caloric excess level. That seems pretty straight forward and sensible, therefore any daily deficit gradually builds up to a loss of fat.

However, and it is a rather big however, the constituents of calories all behave differently in the body. This is why I cannot accept that it’s “all about calories in versus calories out”.

Concerningly I’ve heard, read and seen coaches telling clients that it doesn’t matter what the make up of the calories are, just as long as the total calorie consumption is under the calorie expenditure of the body. There’s all sorts wrong with this statement, the first being that carb based foods and how they behave on both neurotransmitters and hormones in the body (and brain).

Carb based foods trigger insulin from the pancreas, unlike proteins and fats. Insulin is always present in any growth, whether it’s muscle or fat. Additionally carb based foods trigger serotonin which happens to be a pre-cursor to melatonin, so if you have a serotonin deficiency you can guarantee the other will follow, thereby causing sleep disruption.

Monitor your calories using an app, but don’t think the body wont find a way around the consumption of low grade, near-toxic proteins, or refined sugars or processed foods. It will simply store body fat in areas you are going to hate; in men that will be the pecs and stomach and in women and men it’ll be upper back fat and that band around the waist.

The type of nutrient calorie and the timing and ratio of each (fat, carb or protein) is essential for optimising body composition.

Carbs are not bad but do understand that they behave differently in the body and require a different process to digestion. I would suggest you need to ‘earn’ your carbs, they will store as glycogen in the body and if the stored energy isnt being utilised it’s going to change your body composition over time. Your body also converts about 10% of your protein based foods to glucose which is another reason the ‘anti-carb’ group feel this macronutrient does more harm than good.

Carbs are needed but equally need to be handled with care. With myself having a somewhat suspect HBA1C marker through more genetic factors, it is true my body prefers proteins and fats to carbs but I do recognise the symptoms of going too low on my glycogen stores in the reduced eye sight, poor brain cognition, a reduction in muscle cell size and slight sleep disruption. It’s for this reason that I consume my carbs nearer to a resisted training workout and toward the evening to help induce serotonin.

I wish it were that easy - We eat a healthy food and we derive all the nutrients from it. Unfortunately there are so many people out there committed to a healthy eating regime but lack the digestive enzymes to really optimise the food ingested.

The truth is, we are what we digest, assimilate and absorb. Not what we eat.

Gut health is an expansive and complicated field of research but fortunately more companies are coming forward with extremely effective digestive enzymes combinations that are making a massive difference to the absorption rate within the body.

The easy and standard way of testing if you have any reduced absorption ability is to gauge how well your body digests a large serving of dense meat, such as a piece of steak. Additionally if you regularly suffer from IBS or IBD like symptoms, this could also point to an insufficiency or down regulation of the body’s natural stomach enzymes, and in that car may need additional supplementation support.

• Use any food tracking app (Myfitnesspal or macrofactor) to start giving the absolute accurate insight on just how many calories you are consuming, you will be surprised just how far away you are from “optimal”

• Start enjoying a wider range of foods again, enjoy your meals and take a look at my 7 recipe books that you can download and access immediately of which there are hundreds of meal plans to choose from.👉 Healthy Recipe eBooks.

• I personally highly recommend Bio-Optimiser “Masszymes”. They are incredibly at supporting the digestion process and are gentle enough to be considered a starting point in your quest for improved overall digestion and assimilation of nutrients.👉 Masszymes Supplement. 👈