Do you find that if you mention weight loss, most people will respond with ‘eat less, exercise more’. This is trotting out the official government recommendations without pause.
Most healthy eating apps, except Cron-o-meter and Fooducate plus ones that provide micronutrient information in foods such as Nutrition Facts and Nutrition Info, feature millions of foods in their databases. As Lose It shows, these databases allow users to scan barcodes in to access macronutrient and calorie information for packaged foods.
Historically, food data regulations have required manufacturers to only identify the core nutrient values (fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, and protein). Other micronutrient data are not heavily regulated and therefore often not reported or quantified. For this reason, that data simply does not exist in our current food database.
To enable the tracking of other nutrients/vitamins would entail a serious overhaul of our food database (which is no small feat, considering the one you’re using has been built over 11 years!)
Studies now reveal what happens we restrict our calorie intake, the body acts to keep us alive and slows the metabolism.
This article shows why nutrient density is important.
If you compare nutrition in food in 1900 with 2000 for the item, say a carrot, the availability of micronutients in the carrot will have dropped. This means we need to eat more calories to get the same nutrients as a century ago. However, today our lives are on average much less active then thosed lived a hundred years ago for most social groups
It always seems to me that ‘advice’ makes assumptions, attributes behaviours to the advised and all of us know ourselves better than anyone else. This means that we already know how we react to certain foods and receiving information about certain foods may cement new understanding.
No matter how good any advice is, I think we all find it hard to slot it into our lives until we understand why it is so. Or perhaps we may only understand it following a poignant experience, which teaches us why it is important.
Meanwhile, easily accessible proven facts means that we can understand new experiences and slot the lessons learned instantly into our lives.
If we see the human body like a car, we know they run on fuel, which might be diesel, electric or petrol. We also know each of these fuels are made up of different components and if the wrong fuel is put in a car, it will not run at all or will run badly with coughs and splutters, which could lead to expensive repairs or even write off.
LIkewise, we know that human bodies vary in how they process food. We are so genetically unique that we all respond to food differently from each other, but we all need a certain amount of various nutrients for our body and minds to run efficiently.
What foods we eat and enjoy can be determined by various factors including how active we are or where we live, but also how our bodies store, make, use and absorb various micronutrients from various foods. Someone with dark skin living in a country that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight is likely to not get enough Vitamin D.
In the UK and other developed countries, our governments tell us to base every meal on starchy carbohydrates, eat a balanced and varied diet, restrict portion sizes, eat 5 pieces of fruit or vegetables every day and that we will get all the micronutrients we need in the food we eat.
That is one size fits all and only applies to demographics that can process all that starchy carbohydrate and gluten, is lactose tolerant, can handle the drugs in mass produced milk and can metabolise a decent amount of sugar. That is not many people.
In 2020, clinical trials still do not publish how many women took part in each drug test and how they responded. This means that modern medicine does not serve women’s health as well as men’s, nor Black and Ethnic Minoritry communities as well as white people.
Not reporting tests on women specifically is potentially dangerous for women’s health with bodies hosting the womb, egg creation and foetus development, with babies relying on nutrients gained from the mother until the umbilical chord is broken.
As a result of investigations, we now know that tobacco, alcohol, sugar, certain foods, medicines, painkiller or other drugs, gambling and other products are designed to be addictive and are aggressively advertised on TV.
However, government and industry advice on all these unhealthy commodities puts the blame in the lap of the consumer, not the producers. Meanwhile, organic, natural, independenty sold and produced and real, natural food sales rise each consecutive year without any advertising at all.
Therefore, we know that nutritious food is good for our bodies and minds, strengthens our immunity, helps us recover from infections, puts us in control of our weight and allows us to choose when to indulge in unhealthy or entertainment drinks or foods, when we want to.
Therefore, rather than being dependent on a healthcare system which focuses on understanding sickness not on what makes us healthy, medication, anti-biotics, calorie counting or one-size-fits all advice, Hearth Nutrition will allow users to find their diet, budget and the foods to eat to get all their essential daily nutrition.
Then the horse can pull the cart with ease once more.
Nutritious Meal Ideas 