In nutrition basics are king. It doesn’t matter what church-ed up story the meathead at your local supplement store tells you about their new promotional-priced miracle powder made from endangered bat guano from the Amazon Rainforest. Three basics will make you healthier than 90% of those that try much too hard or those looking for the miracle shortcut that doesn’t and will never exist. I can’t take credit for this system because it is the genius system of my nutrition mentor and friend Joe Dunning. Joe got interested in nutrition through his bodybuilding career and then got the obsessive passion in it to help those with cancer after losing many of his family members to the disease.
Pillar one is blood sugar. The average diabetic in the US spends about $14,000 depending on what study one reads. I’d rather eat less sugar and drive a bomb ass BMW than spending my hard earned money on metformin, insulin and amputating toes. I’m not saying we all need to turn into ketogenic evangelists and avoid all carbohydrates like spam calls on your cell phone. I’m saying keep your carbohydrate intake to 25 grams per meal (for reference that’s an apple or one piece of bread) because that is all your body can use without going into storing it in butts and guts. Without blood sugar balance the other two pillars are meaningless.
Pillar two is pH balance. pH is a measure of acidity (low pH) or alkalinity/base (high pH). Don’t misunderstand me here because pH of blood is tightly controlled by a buffering system in the body otherwise be will quickly die. We are talking about extracellular fluid pH (the fluid between the cells) which can range based on what we stuff in our pie holes. There are acidic forming foods and alkaline forming foods. In general with very few exceptions fruits and vegetables are alkaline forming and meats, junk food, sugar, grains, soda, and booze (sadly even that made with tasty grapes) are acid forming. I love a dead cow as much as the next guy, but we need to eat a large variety and bulk of our food from fruits and vegetables and treat meat more like the side (I preach but very rarely practice if you have seen my glorious baby back rib creations on Instagram). Our goal is to be as neutral pH to slightly basic (7.4 with 7 being neutral) as possible and those in very poor health like those on their death bed from cancer or kidney failure have very acidic pH.
Pillar three is micronutrients. Most people have things ass backwards and start here because it seems like a shortcut to the finish line. Without the first two pillars you are just creating very expensive poop by pooping out the bat poop that jersey shore arms sold you at the supplement store. You need blood sugar balance. Then you need pH balance. Then your cells can actually use the micronutrients we feed them. Let us back track to discuss what a micronutrient is. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals essential to your health (note that doesn’t mean bat guano) and macronutrients are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and (because I’m a nerd) ketone bodies. Supporting your local multilevel marketing vitamin queen at the end of your block does you no good if you don’t have blood sugar and pH dialed in. Real food should be eaten over pills because ascorbic acid pills don’t have the same healthful benefit as a fresh orange from your farmer’s market with all the additional phytonutrients in the orange. Shopping at the farmer’s market helps you support your local farmers and ensures that orange wasn’t picked last year in South America while totally unripe and devoid of nutrients. Real food nutrient compositions also have a synergistic effect that make the micronutrients more available to the cells.
When you’re thinking about nutrition think of the 3 pillars in order, support your local farmers, and HEB before GNC.
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