What is health and where does nutrition fit in?

I have yet to finish talking about fat and the role it plays (at least should play) in our lives.  And based on the response I got from my first post, there are a lot of intrigued, yet skeptical people.  Not to worry; I’ll keep the facts pouring in and have you eating more fat and getting healthier in no time.  But first I wanted to take a step back and discuss the term “health” (especially since I’ll be throwing it around on a regular basis), and the link between health and nutrition.  I’ll also get into the basic guidelines everyone should design their diet around to promote a long, healthy lifestyle.

What does it mean to be healthy?  If you ask your average person on the street to define health, your answer would most likely be along the lines of “the absence of disease”. Even our good buddy Webster knows it as “The state of being free from illness or injury: ‘he was restored to health’; ‘a health risk’”.  But shouldn’t it go beyond the simple lack of disease? 

Check out this definition of health from Dr. Andrew Weil: “Health is an internal state of resilience and balance that allows you to move through life and not be harmed by all the things that have the potential to harm you.”  Now that is a good definition.  Quite frankly, I believe that should be the only definition for health.

To clarify, we’re talking about the ability to come in contact with germs and not get sick; or allergens without having an allergic reaction; toxins and not be harmed; carcinogens without developing malignancies. Sound impossible?  Actually, according to Dr. Weil, it is a trait we are all born with, but it is up to us to maintain and enhance that trait with proper lifestyle behaviors.

What lifestyle behaviors you ask?  In short, nutrition, exercise, and stress management.

Nutrition is arguably the most important factor to one’s health.  In fact, it is estimated that it accounts for up to 70% of health goals (if not more). Exercise and stress management take silver and bronze, although that shouldn’t diminish the impact that either one of these behaviors could have on your health if not properly managed.  Both exercise and stress management will have their time in the spotlight, but for now I’d like to focus on the link between nutrition and health.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition, but you probably already knew that.  There are a lot of competing points of view of course, all of which boast how their nutritional approach can get you “healthy”.  On one side of the spectrum you can have a vegan who insists on eating no animal products, and they can show you someone who is “healthy”.  On the other hand, you can hear from someone preaching a carnivorous, high-protein diet, and they too can present a “healthy” individual.  In between these extremes are countless other dietary theories also claiming to deliver health. But are we talking about the same health as Dr. Weil so elegantly defined above?  Probably not.

Our society is notorious for focusing on weight.  While weight is certainly and indicator of health, I think we can all agree that it is not an absolute factor.  Clearly we can have someone of appropriate weight who isn’t healthy.  In fact, I believe someone might be considered “overweight” yet still possess the qualities of true health.  Yet the term “healthy weight” has overtime been reduced and accepted as just “health”, and thus many fad diets have emerged and erupted due to the effects they have on weight loss.

Please do not get caught up in this obsession with weight.  It’ll inevitably lead you down a long road of deprivation and failure.  Rather focus on your (true) health and let the rest fall in place.  I’m talking about having your cake and eating it too (ok, maybe not the best saying to use, but you catch my drift).

I do believe there is a very basic starting point to successful nutrition that leads to life-long health. It is a way of eating that has been around long before even the first homosapiens graced this earth; the first “diet” if you will, known as the Paleo Diet. 

The paleo diet is a way of eating that emulates the way our pre-agricultural ancestors ate.  Why do we want to do that? Here are several reasons as listed by Robb Wolf (considered one of the leaders of the modern paleo movement):

1-    Archeological and anthropological data indicate our pre-agricultural ancestors were largely free from modern afflictions of Westernized cultures including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases.

2-    Modern molecular biology, immunology and endocrinology offer mechanisms that support the observational data we have obtained from the above.

3-    Modern interventions with a paleo diet and ancestral lifeway (restoration of sleep, exercise and micronutrient patterns) have proven successful in resolving a host of diseases and improving both subjective and objective indices of health. This has occurred in both controlled clinical settings and in crowd sourced N=1 experiments (folks try a paleo diet, get better, share observations).

“Those are three small points that represent staggering sums of research.  For the uninitiated (of which most of our medical and academic community unfortunately belong), common counter points such as hunter-gatherer lifespan, acid based balance, micronutrient sufficiency and other concerns seem to present obstacles to the adoption or recommendation of an evolutionary biology based approach to eating and living.  Well, like I said, the research exists to answer these issues, it’s just a matter of getting people to read it!”

“What is the Paleo Diet?” robbwolf.com. Sep 29, 2011. http://robbwolf.com/2011/09/29/what-is-the-paleo-diet/

When looking at the scientific research, the “why” is pretty black and white; because it works, and there is a ton of data to back it up.  The “how” is a little more grey.  Just like the rest of the nutritional world, there are differing opinions with the Paleo diet, but all revolve around the same basic principles: 

-       Eat lots of high quality plants and animals;

-       Some fruit, nuts and seeds;

-       A little bit of starch;

-       Avoid sugar, grains, legumes, and processed vegetable oils. 

That’s it!  Not too bad, right?  I will go into further detail about the diet in later posts, answering such questions about where dairy fits in, possible acceptable grains, and more.  Each of these questions has a different answer from person to person (known as bio-individuality), but for now, look to structure your diet around the guidelines listed above, and you’ll be well on your way to a healthier lifestyle.