This week I’m breaking down the 10 Principles of Health as we have defined them at RxFIT.
- Health is synonymous with fitness.
- Optimal health is achieved by athletes who prioritize sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindset, and connection with others.
- Go to bed early.
- Strive for more plants, not supplements.
- Eat less to lose weight. Eat more to gain weight.
- Train to improve performance, not aesthetics.
- Constantly vary workouts with functional movements and high intensity.
- Dedicate time to think, read, and write without distractions.
- Loving relationships improve longevity.
- Doctors are experts in medicine. Coaches are experts in health.
“Nutritionism”
Nutrition should be simple: Eat when you’re hungry. Don’t when you’re not.
But “nutritionism” inside our culture would have us believe that it’s a lot more complicated than that. “Nutritionism” is a term that refers to food as the sum of all its individual nutrients, vitamins, and other components.
A classic example of this was when “lycopene” was discovered in tomatoes. A supplement company decided to sell lycopene in pill form. Research later found that these pills didn’t have the same antioxidant benefits.
In other words, there is something powerful about eating lycopene inside the tomato that is lost when you take it out.
#5 Explained
There are benefits to the academic research of food scientists, but when it comes to deciding what to eat for dinner tonight or whether or not you eat breakfast tomorrow morning, stick to grandma’s advice.
Because grandma knows what tomatoes are and doesn’t know about lycopene pills.
She also knows this about whole foods: When you eat less, you lose weight. When you eat more, you gain weight.
Takeaway
Nutritionism causes food panic — eat the tomato.
And eat it in the appropriate quantities (i.e. when you’re hungry).
Tyler