I was asked the other day by my coach, if I was to give a TED talk about my work what would be my message?

My answer: use nutritional advice and guidelines very sparingly!

Heresy you say!!!!

Let me explain.

I am a nutritionist and for almost 10 years I put lots of attention and focus on nutrition through dietary guidelines, nutritional prescriptions, supplementation, and detoxification programs – for my patients and myself. Over the years I noticed there was a lot more going on in a person that diet couldn’t address. I started contemplating questions like:

 

• Why were some people healthy despite their diet being ‘ordinary’
• Why were some people who ate so well, followed rigid plans of sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, grain free etc – still suffering from autoimmune diseases, chronic digestive disorders, heart disease  etc
• Why do people find it so hard to maintain healthy eating habits knowing full well the benefits?

 

Why use nutritional advice sparingly 

Conflicting information

Each week an ‘expert’ in nutrition comes out with another diet which promises everything. A quick scan of your local bookstore you’ll instantly feel overwhelmed. But the information from so called experts is conflicting so we end up following one trendy diet after another.

These diets make food the enemy; we say goodbye to saturated fats, full cream products or carbohydrates, and them we embrace Vitamin E, calcium supplements, green juices or medication like aspirin.

Nutritional guidelines are focused on weight loss, counting kilojoules/ calories – this is not health promotion. Yes, obesity is unhealthy, but why are people obese? Why are they eating the wrong foods? Hint: it’s not about willpower!!

In the 70’s, a high carbohydrate Pritikin diet was promoted as the answer to obesity and fight heart disease. Then it changed, apparently the life saving benefits were in the Atkins diet, which focused on high protein and virtually no carbs. Then we had the sugar busters and south beach diet, now we have the vegan diet versus the paleo! Both very different, yet, both deliver results. So there’s obviously more to it than just what we eat!

“We put all of our energy and focus on extremely specific food ingredients, as if this will unlock the secrets of health. In the end, all it does is have us fighting against our own internal cues about what to eat and what our body needs”

Intuitive eating is what we did as children before the dieting industry got hold of our vulnerable minds and told us which foods are “good” and which ones are “bad”. This has shaped our relationship to food.

There was a study on children and intuitive eating. The purpose was to find out if children were given the option to eat whatever they wanted for a week, no limits, then what foods would they choose.

Initially, they ate junk food for the first day or two as was expected by the researchers. But then, for the remainder of the week, they choose a variety of healthy meals and snacks. So even with the permission to eat anything, they still choose the foods their bodies wanted, not only what they “couldn’t” have.

 

You are unique as your fingerprint

Nutritional prescriptions are not a ‘one size fits all’ model. Our nutrient requirements change depending on our environment, work, stress, mental health, personality type, self-esteem, physical condition, emotional health, sleep, genetics and much more. How can, for example,  a low carb diet take all of that into consideration?

Yes you need to know about basic nutrition, but there is also common sense about what nourishes the body: Nature didn’t grow Mcdonalds,  fill our springs with coke and it didn’t sprout packaged foods. These are man-made foods and create man-made problems and diseases. Living in alignment with nature we thrive just like plants and animals do.

Whether you consider a Paleo or whole food plant based type of diet, they both agree that grains, sugar and processed/ packaged foods are not conducive to health. The decision on what to eat should come down to your body. You have to pay attention to which foods fulfill you, provide energy, satisfy you and leave you feeling good after eating, and are naturally found in nature providing life force.

 

 

Our food choices are determined by psychological, spiritual and emotional pain

Diets aren’t sustainable. People commence new dietary regimes but soon relapse back into old behaviours, and each time feel a sense of shame and failure. Because it doesn’t address why we make the food choices we do. Our biggest problem is that we live with varying amounts of emotional, psychological and spiritual baggage.

Our unhealthy behaviours and habits are what we use to survive our emotional pain. It’s this pain that shapes our choices and our life experience. Without addressing the suffering that creates these “unhealthy” behaviours, how can we be expected to sustain positive habits.

I’m not discounting the importance of proper nutrition, but if I see someone, for example, with obesity or heart disease who has little joy in their life, family priorities they can’t manage, or struggling at work, have negative thinking and they feel helpless – then I’m not going to prescribe them ANOTHER dietary program! They need support – emotional, psychological and spiritual support, otherwise all I’m doing is taking away the very things that provide them comfort, helping them to cope with life.

 

Carolilne Myss “Why people don’t heal and how they can” sums it up perfectly:

“You can be vegetarian and run 6 miles a day, but if you are in an abusive relationship, or you hate your job, or have daily fights with your parents, you are losing energy and you will get sick. On the other hand, if you call back your energy from negative beliefs, you can eat cat food and stay healthy”

 

 

Green juices and kale won’t help you live your full potential

I get frustrated when I see people with rigid diets, or obsessed with detox programs, or excessive exercise, it’s punishing for the body.

The point of life is to be happy, peaceful and enjoy yourself while you’re here. The point of a healthy body is to help you do that. If you’re too rigid in your pursuit of health, and it gets in the way of overall life satisfaction, you're missing the bigger picture and you need to re-evaluate.

We all want more than just a healthy body! Ask yourself,  if you ate all the right foods and you felt fabulous, skinny, vital, your skin was glowing and hair lustrous, if you were in the best shape and health ever:

How would your life be different?

What would you do differently – at work, relationships, creatively?

How would you live that is different to now?

What would be able to do that you couldn't do before?

 

Because that's what you're really chasing! The experience you feel a healthy body will bring you 

 

Maybe the experience is: you'll feel beautiful and sexy; confident; maybe it’s the confidence to get a new job beause you feel so damn good about yourself and no longer want unsatisfying work. Or maybe you’ll travel, take adventures, maybe you’ll wake up happy every day. Perhaps you’ll feel more in control of your life and resilant to whatever comes your way. Maybe you'll seek loving relationships.

Maybe you’ll trust yourself. Or maybe it's being pain-free  which means you can play a sport, maybe it’s never having to think about your situation or symptoms again so you can go on to REALLY LIVE and do something radically different with your life – move overseas, write a book, sing, start a business, do philanthropy work…anything you want.

 

We want so much more than just the right breakdown of proteins, carbs and fats, or the best green juice formula, or the best body – we want to live our full potential! We don’t want to be controlled by fear anymore!

We want to go beyond our usual sense of health and happiness, we want to live with passion, purpose, intimacy and joy. We don’t want to settle for ordinary health or an ordinary life.

Life can get tough and we will all struggle with issues in our lifetimes. However, living fully rests in being kind and compassionate to ourselves, living skilfully with our struggles, rather than searching for the next “holy grail” to optimal health.

The most serious “health” problems are not, at the most basic level, about exercise, obesity, or heart disease but the loss of a sense of belonging, connection, and meaning.

In future articles, I will provide nutritional information that has helped my patients, but again, use this sparingly and listen to your body!

 

Much love,

Vesna

 

Coming soon: Mind-Body Nutrition program!

• Stop following diets and learn intuitive eating
• Nutrition begins in the mind of the eater
• Discover your relationship with food
• Learn how you can alter your biology and transform your body with the mind
• Learn how overeating is not a lack of willpower
• Learn how food is information – food talks to your body
• How hexing your food “good” and “bad” alters your body chemistry in response to food
• Eating for pleasure – why the French have it right
• Why dieting lead to oppression of women
• Your life experience determines your food choices
• How self-esteem is essential for life enhancement
• How to recognise your emotional, mental and spiritual pain – and what you can do about it (it involves taking non-dietary action)
• Mind-body medicine approach to extraordinary health
• Scientific studies where people with less than ordinary diets, have achieved health through social, environmental and psychological care
• And so much more

Contact me for more information: hello@vesnahrsto.com.au or sign up for my newsletter