Eat nutrient dense, whole food with high bioavailability to be well nourished, fit, happy, and healthy.
Understanding and consuming a personalized version of a nutrient dense, whole foods diet may be the most powerful tool you can employ to optimize your health and performance.
Throughout history, we humans have spent the majority of our time and energy thinking about, acquiring, and consuming food. A common assumption is that we eat in order to provide the body with energy. Although this is true, as a calorie is a unit of energy, this is only part of the story. Carbohydrate and fat are our primary sources of fuel, but what about protein and vegetables and fiber? If we don’t consume them for their energy providing calories, why are they important?
Plants (think fruits and vegetables) and animal products (like fish, meat, dairy, and eggs) are packed full of the building blocks that control all of our physiological processes. These micronutrients have immensely diverse functions and play a role in everything from producing neurotransmitters (like serotonin) to regulating the immune system and preventing cancer.
If micronutrients are our building blocks, then the ideal diet is one that engenders our healthiest, most vibrant self. Here are some of the basic nutrition tenets that everyone can follow to improve their health, performance, and longevity:
- Nutrient dense: Focus on consuming foods that are packed full of micronutrients.
- Whole foods: Micronutrients are more abundant in most foods when left unprocessed.
- High bioavailability: The micronutrients in these foods are readily absorbed and utilized.
- Anti-inflammatory: By preventing inflammation we counter one of greatest culprits of disease and aging.
Although adopting a nutrient dense, whole food diet has health benefits for everyone, the specifics of that diet can be quite personal. Humans are unique- in lifestyle, in desires, and in physiological needs. Thus the ideal diet is unique not only to each individual, but also to specific times in a person’s life.
Personalizing your nutrient dense, whole food diet is an important step in maximizing your healthspan, reversing chronic disease, and increasing your athletic performance.
The following templates form the basis of many of our prescribed personalized therapeutic diets:
