What Is The Best Diet? Part Two

By John LoDrago, Senior Trainer at fitness CF.

By now hopefully, everyone has had a chance to read part one and what is the best diet. Where we took a journey through the history of dieting dating back to the 1700s.

In part two I mentioned we will look in a little deeper into why there is no one-size-fits-all diet that is better than another. As a check, holistic lifestyle coach, and Precision nutrition coach one book that stands out to me among all the others is the metabolic typing diet by William Wolcott.

In this book, there is a great profiling Test to help you pinpoint your proper fuel mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

This is known as your metabolic typing profile.

So what is it?

Metabolic typing profile is designed to pinpoint a person’s bio chemical individuality. Each person has a very unique metabolism, and nutrients that are appropriate for one person, maybe inappropriate for a second, and even detrimental to a third.

This assessment is designed to give you an idea of which food you should be avoiding and even more importantly, which food you should be focusing on.

Your metabolism is as unique to you as is your fingerprint, and using this tool to help identify your metabolic type, is the first and most important step toward a healthier lifestyle of good nutrition.     

Let’s take a look a little deeper on why having the proper amount of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats is such an important part of a healthy diet.   

One Man’s Food is Another’s Poison

– Primitive cultures have virtually perfect teeth and health, but whenever they abandon their native diets they rapidly develop health problems

– Macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats – the fundamental dietary “building blocks”, most essential to sustaining life. Animal and plant sources contain at least some.

– People who inhabit tropical or equatorial regions have a strong hereditary need for diets high in carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes). These foods help provide fuel for those that live in warm humid regions

– People from cold, harsh northern climates tend to burn through body fuel quickly so light vegetarian food is not ideal. They can easily digest and assimilate large quantities of heavy protein and fat.

– BOTTOM LINE: a diet considered healthful in one part of the world is frequently disastrous for people elsewhere in the world.

– This principle of diet being linked to genetic requirements is seen throughout nature. Every animal species is genetically programmed to feed on specific sources of food. They’re not guided in their food selection by their taste buds or manipulated by advertisements telling them what’s “good to eat”.

– Ideally, you want to imitate the diet of your ancestors/ethnic background but with how diverse our world is now it’s almost impossible to pin point your exact genetic heritage.  Other factors also play a role – such as environmental conditions, specific nutrient deficiencies, and your level of stress or physical activity.

– Your nutritional needs are highly unique. Just as we all differ tremendously with regard to outward physical characteristics, we are all unique on an internal (biochemical and physiological) level as well. Thus we all process foods and utilize nutrients differently.

– Our poor health is a direct result of serious dietary deficiencies or imbalances. But these problems persist simply because we have lacked the clinical technology to enable us to evaluate and correct nutritional problems on an individual or case-by-case basis.

– Benefits of metabolic typing diet:

o Prevent and reverse degenerative disease

o Strengthen your immune system

o Achieve and maintain your ideal weight

o Optimize physical energy and mental clarity

o Overcome mood swings and depression

o Enhance athletic performance and endurance

– Metabolism: the sum total of all the chemical and biological activities that are necessary to sustain life. Nutrition, transport, respiration, synthesis, regulation, growth, and reproduction.

– When optimum energy is available to your body on all levels – to all your cells, organs, glands, and systems – then optimum (balanced and efficient) functioning, or good health, is possible.

– What distinguishes metabolic typing from other disciplines, metabolic typing is:

o Applicable to chronic health disorders – useful in the treatment and prevention of chronic health disorders (80% of all human health problems).

o Produces reliable, predictable clinical results. Modern nutritional science, like orthodox medicine, is primarily focused on the diagnosis and treatment of specific diseases and symptoms. Metabolic typing focuses on the needs of the person with a given disease rather than on the disease itself.

o Offers a highly integrated approach to building health. It’s based on the concept of optimizing health by building the strength of all the systems, organs, and glands simultaneously.

o Relies on the body’s innate intelligence. Its ultimate effectiveness is owed not so much to science or technology, but to its ability to utilize simple, subtle, natural methods that support the body’s own innate ability to regulate and heal itself.

o Represents a logical new paradigm shift. Metabolic typing relies on the very same information that supports current, mainstream belief systems in medicine and nutrition. But it provides an entirely new way of interpreting that information, and in turn applying it, in a practical way, to people’s everyday lives.

– It is on the cellular level that all metabolic activity takes place and efficiency or inefficiency is determined. Unless you acquire all the nutrients for which you have a genetically programmed need, your cells’ ability to perform their functions will be impaired.

– Types of oxidizers:

o Slow oxidizers: require low – protein, low-fat, high carb diets

o Fast oxidizers: require high-protein, high-fat, low-carb diets

o Mixed oxidizers: require relatively equal amounts of proteins, fats, and carbs

So, what is the best diet?

The answer is simple, there isn’t one. If food is more complicated then just feel, and good nutrition is probably more complicated than “following the rules“.

Take a minute to answer this question.

What is good nutrition?

An old friend of mine once said, “good nutrition is a matter of choice, not Chance“.

Good nutrition controls energy balance.

As we’ve seen, food is more than fuel… but it does give us energy.

Without enough energy coming into the body, we just don’t work right. Our body starts to shut down processes that we don’t absolutely need to survive, such as reproduction, some aspect of metabolism, and brain function.

Too much energy coming into the body also causes problems. We can become resistant to two important hormones (such as insulin or leptin). Inflammation may increase. Plaques conform and vessels and blood pressure can go up. We risk getting many chronic diseases

Good nutrition helps control energy balance. We don’t eat too much or too little this means we can stay healthy, fit and strong. We feel good, and our bodies show it.

My name is John LoDrago and I have been a certified personal trainer, fitness and nutrition coach for over 25 years. Holding a number of certifications, and creating a number of team training group programs, such as little champs Core camp summer programs At champions fitness. I have also been the owner and operator of a nutrition And retail café called Re-Fuel nutrition that drives you for over 10 years. I have also spent some time competing as a natural bodybuilder, winning the 2001 NYS masters overall championship. Writing customized menu plans for sports performance athletes, and stage competition. I have also been a regular guest speaker on the radio talk show forever healthy in Syracuse New York. I little over seven years ago my family and I made the move to Clermont Florida where I started working for fitness CF formally Golds Gym. In that time I have been involved in helping build a team of trainers at our Mount Dora location for two years and have had the pleasure of working with some of the most knowledgeable and amazing people in the industry. My goal in life is to pass on the knowledge I have learned to those who seek a healthier way of living. And to always remember that your life will take on purpose only when you bring purpose to others.