So what is a healthy diet? Answer to this question is very relative since we have a lot of dietary options available & each one is considered to be healthy in some way of the other. One solution does not fit all when we talk of diet & fitness, however ever food should have basic characteristics of a healthy diet such as:
- Diet should be nutrient dense
- It should be made up of whole foods
- It should not consist of any refined or processed foods
- It should be nourishing & should offer all macro nutrients in right proportion
Nutrivore diet has all the above mentioned characteristics. This form of diet provides all necessary micro-nutrients for keeping you body healthy.
This diet is made up of nutrient dense & anti-inflammatory whole foods such as :
- Meat
- Fish
- Bone Broth
- Various fruits & vegetables
- Seeds
- Nuts
- Starchy Plants
It excludes inflammatory foods such as industrial seed oils, refined flour & processed & refined foods & excess sugar. This form of diet is not as restricted as other diets are. You are not bound to hit particular macro-nutrient ratios to be called a Nutrivore. It is all about having a nutritious diet that will nourish your body & provide required macro nutrients. The diet has more to offer than Paleo since you can have dairy ( besides legumes & grains) in your diet provided your body is not laco intolerant.
Taste & need of all individual are different so is the definition of a healthy diet for them. There cannot be one optimum human diet. Someone would prefer a diet with high healthy fat intake while others would like high in fibre & protein diet.
Why eating standard American diet is one step further towards making your body sick & why nutrivore is a much better option?
Simply put standard diet is full of refined & processed foods that are high in calories & low in nutrients. It is closely associated with an increase in chronic & lifestyle diseases. Such diet consist of low nutrient foods such as
- Refined Flour: This can spike blood sugar level & lead to hell of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, weight gain hypertension etc.
- Industrial seed oils: This can lead to inflammation, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease
- Excess sugar: This can result in gut issues, impaired immune function & metabolism dysfunction.
With the advent of the industrial revolution & advanced food processing techniques, we humans have given up whole & real food consumption & have adopted American diet. This abrupt dietary shift is hurting our health.
The nutrivore is an awesome antidote to this standard awful american diet & eliminates inflammatory foods. Instead opting for an eating pattern that closely relate to what our ancestors adopted. Becoming nutribore & adopting a healthy lifestyle will go a long way in adopting ancestral health & overcoming the genetic mismatch that has been responsible for chronic disease. This essentially means adopting a nutrient rich diet having high quantity of micronutrients & amino acids that helps our body grow. Our body needs around 40 micronutrients & the only way we can get that is through consuming right food. Such healthy food can help us overcome all deficiencies & associated health problems. List of foods with high nutrient density include:
- Organ meat.
- Nuts & seeds
- Herbs & spices
- Cacao
- Fish & Seafood
- Vegetables
- Pork
- Eggs & Dairy.
Quality of micronutrients has more bearing on healthy body than quality of macronutrients. It does not make much significant different if you are following a low carb or low fat diet but nutrient dense diet does have an impact on health quotient.
Here are some of the tips to eat like a nutrivore:
- Include plant & animal foods: A nutritious diet must have mix of nutrient dense plant & animal based foods. It is surprising to note that risk of deficiencies is much higher in non meat diet. Vegans & Vegetarians can be face deficiency of nutrients such as Vitamin B12, Calcium, Iron & Zinc, Vitamin A & D, essential fatty acids EPA & DHA & Creatine. We get a variety of essential and nonessential nutrients from both plant and animal products, which is why it’s crucial to include both in a nutrivore diet.
- Give due weightage to calories & volume: There is difference between calories in volume. Given that animal food are likely to have more micronutrient it does not mean that your plant should be 70% meat & 30% plant based foods. Remember, animal foods are high in calories so it should be fine if your plant has 25% meat & rest plant based food. The ratio of meat to plant based foods will vary depending upon individual preferences & goals.
- Experiment with different foods: You should try different combinations of nutrient dense diet so as to assess how your body reacts to them. The best is to set 30 days reset model where you overcome gray areas such as dairy, grains, legumes & alcohol that cases reactions. After you remove these foods from your diet for 30 days, re-introduce one by one & see the impact on your health & body.
