Various diet trends and ways of eating come and go, but that obviously doesn’t mean they work for everyone. Paleo might work great for a friend, but that’s no reason for you to feel pressurized into going that route.

We choose our diet based on our culture, religion, social and food preference, environmental and medical reasons, etc. – however, what we can all do is make the diet we choose as healthy as we possibly can.

Our current state of health is a product of our genetics, and our lifestyle to-date – and how we move forward is up to us, based on how healthy we are determined to be

So look to your genetics: If your parents are very healthy and ate a particular diet, then this might be what works well also for you. If on the other hand, they suffer from certain illness, and you carry the same risk, then take lessons from their diet and lifestyle.

If your own lifestyle and way of eating to date contributed to other non-genetic health symptoms, then it might be time to make some changes, or to see if a new style of eating will help.

Whatever diet you choose – Paleo, Vegan, Asian, Western, or a mixture of all the above, the important thing is to make the healthiest choice so that you consume the most natural, wholesome, nutrient-dense, additive-free, fresh food – ensuring your diet is varied and balanced. E.g. if you choose to consume dairy, aim for organic if affordable; but also enjoy milk, yogurts, and cheese from other sources – from organic rice, nuts, coconuts etc. That way you enjoy a wider variety of foods, and a broader range of nutrients.

In functional medicine, they talk about “food as information” – as food carries different messages to our cells, regardless of their ‘energy’ or calorie content. For example, a sugary donut gives the message to our body to produce insulin to control the glucose hit to our cells. Overproduction of insulin causes us to hold on to fat, can lead to an overworked pancreas, and eventually impacts our adrenals – which means our hormones are out of balance; meanwhile that same sugar depletes our body of existing nutrients.

On the other hand, the signal from a fillet of roasted salmon (same energy, or ‘calories’) with all the essential amino acids (complete protein) and those healthy fatty acids (omega 3s) is to nourish our brain cells, reduce inflammation, absorb fat-soluble vitamins, and strengthen our immunity. And of course, the ‘cleaner’ the source of food, the better.

So rather than thinking about food in ‘calorific’ or satiety terms, think about the message it sends to your body, and make your food choices based on this.

If you have symptoms that are bothering you, rather than make sudden changes, be your ‘own nutritionist’ by keeping a Health Journal for a couple of weeks; this is also a great way to step back and look at how healthy you are being overall – sometimes we get far too caught up in the detail, and don’t see the bigger picture.

As You Track Your Food, Water, Sleep, Exercise, Energy Levels, Health Symptoms, Etc:

You get a picture of the overall quality (and quantity) of your diet / sleep / exercise / hydration..sometimes we think we are doing ok in an area, until we step back and take a proper look. Be your own detective – often, our food / environment makes us feel tired and bloated, and/or causes our skin to flare,because we have a slight sensitivity, and possibly an allergy. Ongoing, this can eventually lead to something more sinister (leaky gut, auto-immune) so best ‘nipped in the bud’ earlier on.

Then there’s the other factors that influence how you feel – maybe your energy is low because you don’t fuel properly before a workout; perhaps you are dehydrated causing you to become constipated; being totally over-stressed might be impacting your thyroid health.

This detective work might be enough for you to decide what culprit to eliminate from your diet, to see if this makes a difference. It might become clear that you need to add nutrients to your diet (e.g. Omega 3s to help with inflammation, consume more fermented foods to help with leaky gut), and of course tests can also be taken to confirm if you are lacking in nutrients.

No doubt we’ve over-complicated nutrition – there’s a lot of confusion out there regarding what we should and shouldn’t eat, how best to prepare and cook, and how much we should enjoy. An example is whether or not to be gluten-free. My advice has always been to vary your intake of grains (or any food), so as not to be reliant on a single one. If you’ve no issue with gluten, and show no sensitivity to it, then continue to enjoy it in moderation.

However, with leaky gut, digestive issues, or with auto-immune, then going gluten-free is very likely to help, and is certainly work trying.

Probably the best way for me to give specifics regarding how food and certain diet styles help towards your improved health is to take some questions from you. I will endeavour to answer these.

Many thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you!

PS: If anyone would like access to the Health Journal that I use with clients, feel free to email me..

Visit the Health & Vitality page to find out more about Liza’s business.

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