Nutrition Tips for Healthy Families

I wrote a few weeks ago about what is on my reading list. One of the books on the list was “Nancy Clark’s Guide to Sports Nutrition” by Nancy Clark. There were several other books on the list, and you can read that post here.

I just finished the Nancy Clark book, and there are a few things I wanted to share from the book.

While the book is geared toward active people, whether they are competitive athletes or fitness exercisers, the book is really about using and enjoying food to fuel your body appropriately, and that message applies to everyone, no matter how active they might be.

It’s a great resource for healthy eating and gave me some good pointers (including a several recipes) for putting together a healthy diet for myself and my family.

Some tips, tricks and thoughts I’ll take from the book:

Focus on Food

• Food is fuel. Focus on it, enjoy it and make sure to eat a variety in textures, colors, food groups, etc.
• Chew food slowly so that you can listen to your body’s hunger signals. It takes 20 minutes for the signal that you are full to get to your brain, so if you’re shoveling it in, you’ll have eaten way too much before your body can even register that you don’t need any more food. If you have trouble chewing slowly, try it for one meal a day for a week or two, then two meals a day, etc., until it becomes habit.
• Eat things that are as close to their regular state as possible. I think the words Nancy Clark used were as close to the ground as possible. The more processed the food, usually the more sodium and chemicals it has in it.
• A combination of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, lean meats, low-fat dairy and whole grains will provide you with enough protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. You don’t really need extra protein or vitamins if you’re eating a well-balanced diet. Your body can only absorb so much of any vitamin, mineral or even protein. If you have too much of one vitamin or mineral, it can lead to adverse effects, or you’ll eliminate the extra in your urine. Further, the cost of the protein powders or bars are much more expensive per gram of protein than, say, peanut butter, a chicken breast or low-fat milk.
• Don’t focus so much on good and bad foods, but on eating the right amounts of what you like. If you’re eating healthfully most of the time, there’s no reason not to have an ice cream bar, a cookie or a slice of birthday cake sometimes.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you don’t start out eating enough, your body will think it’s in famine mode, and your metabolism will slow to conserve energy. Eat within an hour or two of getting up in the morning. Plus, if you’re not eating enough during the day, you’re more likely to overeat at night, which could blow your efforts to create a calorie deficit or calorie balance by the end of the day.
• Eat at least three different types of foods per meal. Examples: protein, dairy, fruit; fruit, vegetable, protein; etc.
• Carbohydrate (pasta, bread) is not the enemy. Carbohydrate provides the fuel for your muscles, which will allow you to workout at your peak level.
• A recovery meal or snack should come within an hour after working out and contain a mix of carbohydrate and protein to help your muscles recover — one idea is to make a smoothie and drink half an hour or two before your workout and half after.

Losing Weight

• The only way to lose weight is to create a calorie deficit over a period of time. People are most successful at losing weight and keeping it off if they do it slowly — .5 to 1 pound a week if you’re less than 150 pounds and 1 to 2 pounds if you’re more than 150 pounds. A pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories, so to lose one pound a week, you have to create a deficit of 500 calories a day through a combination of diet and activity.
• You can’t spot reduce fat, you can only tone and build up the muscle underneath the fat. AGAIN, the only way to lose fat is to have a calorie deficit.
• Fad diets often aren’t successful over the long term because they limit what you eat or tell you to eat too little. This sets you up for failure because either you get too hungry, need more types of food, or consider yourself a failure if you eat outside of the boring food plan.

Worth the Read

I could go on, but I won’t. I hope these points gets you interested in healthy eating if you’re not already. There are great resources in the book, not just the recipes, but also how to figure how many calories you need per day, discussion of nutritional benefits of several different foods, discussion on how your body uses vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, fat and protein, specific concerns for people at certain ages and stages of life, how to talk to your children about weight issues, recognizing eating disorders, and more.

I know this book will be one I keep turning back to.

Subscribe to the comments for this post