Nutrition, the world has gone mad about it, and by all means, this is a good thing. People are taking a much closer look at what they put in their bodies, and when done right, it can lead to healthier, longer-living people, right? If done right is the catch here. I'm studying my bachelor's in nutritional science as we speak, but by no means am I an expert on this matter. Everything I write is based on my own opinion.
I've thought about nutrition for a long time, I was a chef for 16 years, I've worked as a personal trainer for the past 6 years, and as I mentioned, I'm studying for my bachelor's in nutrition, so eventuallyI'll be a nutritionist, so I've had my fair share of exposure to food and people's eating habits. The main problem with personal training is motivating someone to change their eating habits. As many of you know, exercise is a very small part of getting in shape, and nutrition is literally the key to growth, weight loss, etc. I also understand peoples attachment to what they eat, I love my food like I 100% get it, but my logical brain also understands that everyone has a caloric amount that their body requires to function, to build etc. Emotion is the issue when it comes to food and alcohol, people eat and drink to deal with stress, eat and drink to deal being sad, the list goes on, asking someone to remove or reduce the thing they are using to deal with everyday life is hard work, sometimes near on impossible.
Now, my thoughts on this go back to our childhood and are aimed at education about food and fuelling our bodies. I've described this idea to a few clients before; it works best if you are a parent. When we have children we will do our best to fuel our kids with the best food we can afford to provide the best nutritional benefits to them as they grow, we limited stuff like sweets, cakes etc because we know that to much isn't going to be great for them, that doesn't mean they don't have that stuff altogether we limit it, everything in moderation. Of course, this varies with parents' knowledge/education about nutrition, but most will do their best. Now, most parents understand that concept, whether or not they've ever been taught it; it's just the right thing to do, right? But somehow that gets lost when it comes to their own nutrition.
Now think of it from the child's POV, think back to when you were a child, did your parents tell you why they were limiting your sweets? What did you have to eat those greens? Probably not and this is where the problem is, we are not educated when we are young as to why we have to eat our vegetables, our protein and why we have to limit our processed foods, instead we was most likely told no more candy with no explanation, forced to finish our broccoli without knowing what its providing, of course trying to explain why to a toddler would most likely fall on dead ears but continued education around food through young life would most likely vastly improve that child's life as an adult and then also the generation after.
We go through our childhood being limited on our diet with no explanation. It's no wonder that, as we move into our later teens and early adulthood, we get the idea: "I'm an adult now, I can eat what I want," because we've been restricted our whole young lives, with no idea why.
What I'm trying to say, anyway, is think about explaining to children more clearly why they are eating what they are eating, and if you don't know yourself, look for more knowledge in that space. Education in nutrition is vital to all human development. If it should be taught in schools, I have no idea why it isn't, to be honest, but that's another topic. Until next time,
Danny out.
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