Embracing change and applying it to your life
NOVEMBER 16, 2016 by OLIVIA NEELY, RDN, LD
It’s that time of year again: when one season evolves into another and brings with it a whole new beauty to the day. After living in Texas for the past few years I for one am so welcoming this change in seasons. It is amazing what can be taken for granted if our experiences and exposures remain stagnant. As a dietitian here at The Moday Center I see this in my job everyday.
As many of you know by now nutrition is so very individual. There is no one-size-fits all approach in the nutrition world. That’s what makes it so confusing – we read one week that grains are an essential part of a healthy diet and then read the next that we will receive the most health benefit from removing them completely from our plates! Some thrive on a vegetarian or vegan diet while others get sick without proteins from animal sources. And don’t even get me started on the controversy regarding fat in the diet. I am the first to admit there is no shortage of conflicting dietary advice out there. Change in this advice can lead to confusion and frustration,
Change is something we tend to lump in the “I don’t have time for this category” and we just want to know what to do and what not to do. Today I encourage you to embrace this change while learning to navigate your way through it effectively to find what nutrition can do for you.
Change is good. Change is essential – in all aspects of life. Nutrition is a science and that means it will always be changing and evolving as we learn more about how the food we put into our bodies contributes to our INDIVIDUAL sickness or health. This is a concept called nutrigenomics. Nutrigenomics is defined as the scientific study of the interaction of nutrition and genes, especially regarding the prevention or treatment of disease. As you know, when we enter the world of genomics there are literally limitless possibilities!
As much as I encourage my clients to get involved and learn more about nutrition, there is a fine line to walk here. This doesn’t mean reading every single “new, groundbreaking scientific study” on your Facebook each day that usually promises something like drinking ten glasses of wine is better for you than exercising. Many of these headlines that catch our attention (because who wouldn’t want that to be true??) simply pick and choose and manipulate a single statistic from the real scientific study into a simply false and way too simplistic conclusion.
The real story is – that article most likely has nothing to do with you and your unique nutrigenomics. Currently, the best way to dive into your unique nutritional needs is through targeted functional medicine labs that give us an insight into how your body digests and assimilates nutrients and in the end uses them as energy (or stores them as fat). Then, based on this information we begin to navigate through the science of nutrition as it applies to YOU, your current lifestyle, your medical history and health goals. By achieving these steps, we have started on the process of change in your body and mind.
So, I ask you, let’s give change and nutrition a chance. Let’s learn to navigate through the plethora of this “one-size-fits-all” nutrition ramble and stop looking for that magic pill or quick fix. Explore functional medicine and functional nutrition today and what it can do for you.
