Are You Calorie Rich and Nutrient Poor?
Have you ever considered the concept of being Calorie Rich and Nutrient Poor and what that means? On my most recent health talk on Lunch With Leslie I discussed just that and quite a few people who had eye-opening revelations. This is not a concept that is being talked about much and I want to start the conversation. This is an epidemic and being calorie rich and nutrient poor is linked to obesity, chronic disease, and most common health dilemmas. If so many people are living their lives this way, why aren’t we talking about it?
What does it mean to be Calorie Rich and Nutrient Poor?
Let’s start with defining nutrient poor. Nutrient poor means lacking proper nutrition, either by not having enough to eat(which is not the case for most of us), not eating enough of the right things(bingo!), or not being able to use the food that one does eat (assimilation of nutrients). Now let’s look at the term calorie rich, which basically means foods that are calorie dense and contain a lot of calories and usually not a lot of nutrients. Things that are full of sugar and fat would definitely be considered calorie rich. Unfortunately, when you put nutrient poor and calorie rich together, you get a recipe for disaster. This is what the majority of people in our modern societies are facing today. Eating more than ever but getting less actual nutrients in the body. We are overfed and malnourished.
A massive study was done by the British Medical Journal The Lancet followed 19 million people from 1975 until 2014. The results were pretty astonishing. During that time the weight and BMI increased in most of the participants. If these trends continue, by 2025 18% of men and 21% of women globally will be considered obese. Severe obesity rates globally will also jump up to 6% in men and 9% in women. Does this scare anyone else besides me?
How Did We Get Here?
So the first question we need to ask ourselves is why is this happening? A big part of the puzzle is our food industry. Fast food chains and food manufacturers know that by filling our food with more oil, salt, sugar, and processed grains, our “food” will trigger a pleasure sensation in our brain, making us want more. The more food we want and eat, the more money they make. So yes, our food industry is trying to get us addicted to processed, high calorie, low nutrient foods. Ultimately though, it is us who choose what goes into our mouth, right? The Standard American Diet (SAD) consists of 54% of calories from processed foods, 32% of calories from animal products (which are nutrient poor depending on the quality of them), and ONLY 14% of the diet comes from fresh fruits and vegetables.
What about you? I invite you to take an honest look at what your diet is made up of and maybe see if you fall into the same statistics as the average American.
Why Don’t Our Doctors Help Us?
The next question I think we should all be asking is this; if this is such an epidemic here in America and soon globally, why aren’t our doctors asking about our diet? Think back to your last doctors visit, did he or she ask you what you are eating? Chances are they likely asked you these three things: Do you drink alcohol, how much exercise do you get, and do you smoke, that’s it. Unless you have a really amazing doctor or see someone who is a functional or integrative doctor, you probably are not asked about your diet even once. But it may not be their fault! The average American doctor only gets about 20 hours of education in nutrition during medical school. ONLY 20 hours! That’s not even one day! Your doctor’s main job is to listen and identify your symptoms and give you a “Band-aid” fix to treat these symptoms. They only focus on the complaint, never the root issue causing the complaint. Which could very well be hiding in your dietary habits. It is up to YOU to take full responsibility for your health and become the CEO of your own health. You make the choices of what happens in your body.
So what’s the solution?
Learn to eat better! Educate yourself on making better food choices, many of us THINK we know what foods are healthy when they really are not. Not all calories are created equal. Here are two examples of 100 calories; four cups of mixed steamed vegetables or four chicken nuggets. Which of those two do you think will leave you feeling full and satisfied? Some of us might look at a chicken nugget and think it’s healthy because it’s chicken, WRONG! Chicken nuggets are overly processed crap that is calorie dense and nutrient poor. Four cups of steamed veggies is the most opposite you can get, few calories and nutrient dense to the max!
Help Is Here!
We oftentimes think we know what’s healthy or might even say “Oh, I eat SO healthy but I can’t lose the weight”. Maybe you don’t know what healthy really is and you need some help! Education is key to being the CEO of your health!
People hire personal trainers to learn how to take care of their bodies athletically, why not hire a personal “eating” coach to help you take care of your health? Consider is hiring a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, like me, to help educate you and get you started. I’m not saying this as a sales pitch, but rather a lifeline! You can always reach out to me 970-775-0012 or talk2thehands@go2kitchens.com. I have a 4-week discovery program and when you reach the end you will have 28 Day Personalized Meal Plan, that I have designed just for you! It’s transformative and achievable! It is all based on your needs, lifestyle and the foods you like to eat but with maximum nutrient dense foods! If you are ready to start and don’t need to chat first you can schedule your appointments here: SAY GOODBYE TO BAD HEALTH!
Don’t Live with Regrets!
Because of medical advances people are living longer, but what about the quality of that life? The choices we make today influence what our future looks like. Do you want to be in your golden years of life feeling fit and healthy and able to walk, move, and take care of yourself? Or do you want your future to be in a nursing home and possibly in pain or discomfort for the last years of your life? These are the choices we move towards every time we put something into our mouth to eat.
copy by Marci West – taken from a live episode of Lunch with Leslie
