Nutrition (also called nourishment or aliment) is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.The diet of an organism refers to what it eat. Simplified, it is the process of absorbing nutrients from food and processing them in the body in order to keep healthy or to grow.
The key phrase there being "keep healthy or to grow", kinda like a plant. Robb Wolf mentions that what we eat and drink is what we are watering ourselves with. You may have heard the common phrase: “You are what you eat”. If you try watering a plant with Diet Coke for a week, the plant dies. Yet humans consume gallons of diet coke and other liquid sugars, unaware of the damage being done.
Our bodies are more resilient to nutritional garbage than plants are, however recent research and studies show that poor and/or incorrect nutrition is one of the leading causes of inflammation, disease, and poor health in the United States. Poor diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as scurvy, beriberi, and kwashiorkor; health-threatening conditions like obesity, metabolic syndrome, and such common chronic systemic diseases as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
Proper nutrition is not a diet (which doesn't work anyway), it is a lifestyle and at first entails dedication and self motivation, especially with the mass marketing of junk food that brainwashes us on a daily basis. However, once you begin to eat properly and reap the benefits of this lifestyle change you will not want to go back to McDonalds. And if you do wind up there by chance, you'll know what to do to keep healthy.
Proper Nutrition means fueling our mind and bodies with the appropriate combination of nutrients to achieve optimal performance. Whether you are an Olympic weighlifter, ultimate fighter, super mom, CEO, or whatever matters to you, having proper nutrition is a key ingredient to success.
Where are we now?
The Western Diet: For several decades now, bad science and bad politics have joined hands to produce what is arguably the most costly error in the history of science—the low-fat diet. This fad diet has cost millions of people unnecessary death and suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and a host of different cancers and other chronic and debilitating illnesses.
You hear everyone saying oh the western diet will kill you. Eating high intakes of red meat, sugary desserts, high fat and refined grains can’t be good. It also typically contains high-fat dairy products, high-sugar drinks, and saturated fats. Eating this way is definitely not a healthy way of life.The heart risk, spread over five continents, is 30% higher for those who eat a Western diet, the study shows, than for those who adhere to a “prudent diet,” or one rich in fruits and vegetables. As a whole, the US is sicker than anybody else in the world. Mislead by Government and Bad Science we can get into a lot of discussion about the USDA and the recommended diet and how the rest of the world followed suit with us and are now facing the same chronic disease problems.
For decades the USDA had encouraged people to eat a diet rich in carbohydrates and poor in fats and proteins. Many experts agree that the USDA Food Pyramid is wrong and has been proven a dangerous and misleading dietary guide, contributing to the generally poor state of American nutrition. The USDA food pyramid has been guided by lobbyists from the meat, dairy and sugar industries which all have underlying reasons for pushing their products to the masses. These industries are driven by profits with little regard to human health and its consequences to society. -CFS
How to Get Started
Level 1 Easy Go Paleo: Eliminate all refined foods from your diet. Base your diet ongarden vegetables, especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar. Skip bread, rice, potatoes and other carb-heavy foods. Don’t eat anything that originated in a factory. If a cave man wouldn’t have had access to it, don’t eat it.
Level 2 Challenge Me - Dialed-In Paleo: Calculate your Zone prescription, and try to get your Paleo diet to conform to Zone proportions as much as possible. Strict weighing and measuring isn’t necessary -- just become more aware of portion sizes and the approximate number carb/protein/fat blocks you’re consuming. NO DAIRY.
Level 3 I am Hard Core - Paleo+Zone: Go 100% Paleo using correct Zone proportions.Calculate your Zone prescription and weigh and measure everything to make sure your in the Zone for the entire challenge. This is by far the most difficult diet program to implement. Even the most zealous dieter will find it challenging to stick with this -- so make sure you’re serious before you commit!
