5.26.20 Does 'One size fit all' in nutrition?
Bio-individuality
You’ve probably had an experience in life when you realized ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t really work all that great! When you think about it, almost everything we do is tweaked to fit our individual needs. The clothes you wear, your morning routine, the way you clean the house, your exercise regime, how you organize your cabinets… Everything you do falls into a pattern that is most efficient for you, suits you best, checks the boxes that YOU need checked.
Why then do we think that following the latest fad diet or eating like this or that celebrity is going to be perfect for us? During my schooling at the Nutritional Therapy Association, we were reminded over and over again that there is no ‘one size fits all’ in nutrition. We are taught skills and tools to help us learn about you as an individual in order to best support your body. We don’t slap the same protocol down for all our clients. We know that someone with gallbladder trouble will probably not do great on a ketogenic diet for their first step. We aren’t going to recommend stomach healing nutrients to someone that has immune distress, just because the last client we worked with felt so much better on that cabbage juice. We take a look at you as a big picture. What is your past? What do you have going on now? Where do you want to be with your health? We make recommendations dependent on you as a whole person, not just one symptom or goal.
Bio-individuality is not just learning about each person, but also how we change at different ages, stages, and phases in life. As a teenager I could eat 3 solid meals and at least that many snacks a day and be a healthy weight. Now I need to focus on getting a good macro ratio with less calories to make sure I have steady energy throughout the day because I can’t eat so much any more! Your work, your play, your hobbies, your age, your fitness, your stress levels; they all change from time to time and with it your nutritional needs change.
I make it sound like science and all complicated! In some cases, if you don’t feel well with how your health is, it would be good to take a close look at your nutrition to see how it can better serve you. But for many who are feeling well, have good energy, stable moods, regular bowel movements, healthy cycles, what they are doing is probably intuitively how they need to be eating. So I say if you’re feeling healthy, don’t overthink your diet! But if you have any concerns about your health, diet is one of the first places to look! And remember: you are uniquely you so find what works for you because you and only you can live in your body!