PSN No. 6: Nutrition

Nutrition comes after “Sports” but never underestimate its power. Its potency goes way beyond what most people can even comprehend. Nutrition is what every living thing requires to sustain itself, to sustain its life and to enhance its tolerance to any form of stress.

Sports Nutrition is what anyone engaged in the sport of life needs to sustain themselves, because Life is a Sport and we’re all athletes engaged in the Sport of Living.

Another name for nutrition is ENERGY. They are one and the same. The reason we consume food is to obtain the energy that we require. We also need the micronutrients hidden in natural food, those invisible factors we can’t see with the naked eye called vitamins and minerals. They must be present in our food otherwise we can’t utilize the energy in the food.

In the game of life and in the sport of living we need nourishment, but we don’t need just any kind of nourishment. We need a special kind of nourishment, we need optimum nutrition. We need the very best of food, meaning the highest quality of food. Fresh, whole, organic, real, food from both plants and animals. That’s what real nutrition is.

Real Food isn’t fake food, it’s not artificial food, it’s not junk food and it’s not fast food. It’s slow food. It’s real food from nature. It’s the real deal.

Now let me tell you what I mean by Bridging the Gap. Bridging the Gap is about blending the consciousness of health, science with fitness and nutrition. The bridge is education and rational thought, and it is this bridge that allows one to cross over from the science of fitness without prejudice to the science of nutrition. Fitness and nutrition are equally important to the achievement of optimum health. Remember my equation for health. H=(nf)²

Nutrition is sustenance, its food. It’s a text book of such enormous size that in terms of thickness, depth and research, if all the pages were lined up end to end they would extent from here to the moon. That’s 384,403 km or approx 30x the diameter of the earth.

We must get the importance of nutrition, at least in our own heads, and obviously, based on how the masses are eating, there is a huge flaw in the system. The flaw lies in with how the truth is being hidden, suppressed and corrupted from the source and then transferred incorrectly to the people.

Nutrition is misunderstood, misapplied and taken largely for granted. Huge numbers of people think they get everything they need from the food they eat. What a pipedream! Nothing could be further from the truth, except perhaps Wall Street, National Banks and governments. But that’s another story.

Most people have no idea what they need and if we were able to scrutinize their diets we would discover that they are faulty and incomplete in many, many ways, even and often especially, in those who say they eat well.

In fact when someone says they eat well, assume that statement in and of itself is a cover for the fact that they don’t. At least that’s been my experience. Nutrition is very personal and for some, even a religious experience. Few people are comfortable with revealing what they actually eat day-in and day-out.

Perhaps one of the reasons some people don’t want to have their diets scrutinized or even discuss nutrition, is because they know they are way off course and are embarrassed by their lack of restraint. Here’s where the number two rule of Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled comes to mind. Delay Gratification. The first rule is: Life is Hard and Then You Die. Get over it!

Another important nutrition factor we must discuss is biochemical individuality. As unique as we are we must embrace the fact that no one single diet system is ideal for everyone. Different strokes for different folks as it were.

Obviously some people are allergic or intolerant to certain foods. Some people get indigestion, others gain body fat or suffer with silent inflammation, while the same foods, provided they are whole and not refined, seem to fit like a baseball in a catcher’s mitt for others, nice and snug like the ball was made to fit.

And here’s where we should mention responsibility, as in personal responsibility. We must seek out and understand first the principles that guide us towards health and wellness, and then slowly master the art and science of sports nutrition. We must supply our biological demand. This is our Prime Directive. The CHI Prime Directive. Supply our biological demand.

Now what does that mean? It means we must first understand who and what kind of animal we are. Before we can supply the demand we have to know exactly what the demand is, and that’s the challenge of nutrition, to know exactly what we need. What we want for the most part is easy. Anything that tastes good! But that approach will only get us into trouble, unless what tastes good to us is from nature. However, what tastes good to most people is salt, sugar and grease.

What types of carbs, fats and proteins should we eat, as well as what percentage of carbs, fats and proteins? How much of what vitamin and mineral do we need?

There are guidelines to help us get started, but after we dip into that pie you soon find out that the fine details that relate to our unique biochemical requirements aren’t covered or even considered in the DRI system used currently in Canada and the United States.

DRI is an acronym for Dietary Reference Intakes. The DRI system replaced RDA’s as a single reference in 1997. RDA stands for Recommended Daily Allowance.

The current DRI system is composed of 4 divisions:

Estimated Average Requirements (EAR)
Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA)
Adequate Intake (AI)
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL)

The Estimated Average Requirements are expected to satisfy the needs of 50% of the people in that age group based on a review of the scientific literature.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance is the daily dietary intake level of a nutrient considered sufficient by the Food and Nutrition Board to meet the requirements of nearly all healthy individuals in each life-stage and gender group. It is calculated based on the EAR and is usually approximately 20% higher than the EAR.

The Adequate Intake applies where no RDA has been established, but the amount established is somewhat less firmly believed to be adequate for everyone in the demographic group.

And finally, the Tolerable upper intake levels which caution against excessive intake of certain nutrients that can be harmful in large amounts. The UL is the highest level of consumption that current data have shown to be safe.

This ultra-conservative DRI system is based on so called “average” people which don’t exist and the erroneous assumption that food can provide everyone everywhere with what they need. The system is obviously fixed in favor of the lowest common denominator, that being, those who are non-athletic and vertically ill.

Of course Big Pharma and the major food conglomerates that produce and distribute all the mainstream agrichemicals, processed food and prescription drugs, absolutely influence and control the Food and Nutrition Boards that set the dietary guidelines for the population. This is achieved through subsidies, grants, lobbying, legal pressure, media advertising and huge financial contributions to political parties. So much for objective science, justice and fair play.

“Never trust a fat dietitian” ~ anonymous

PSN No.6: Nutrition - Clinical Review (Audio Tutorial) SNU V10N3

As always...stay well and live free.

Dr.C