Day 12 - A lesson in holistic nutrition

For about four years I have been going to the best ever trainer in Temple.  Celebrate Fitness is all about the whole person--getting fit, staying strong, eating right, being healthy and being spiritually fit as well.  I have two one-on-one session each week with Kathy, and she has made a huge difference in my life--well, most of it!  I am still quite guilty of not eating well--I eat a lot but I don't eat the right things at the right times in the right quantities.  This is what makes her the best--she cares about my health and that of all her other clients and so tonight she invited a nutritionist to come to her studio and speak to her clients about how we can go beyond getting our bodies fit physically and work on putting the right things in our bodies to make them the wonderful temples of God that we are created to be.  For an hour and a half or more, we had a class on what our bodies need to work as they are created to work.  I learned lots of things I didn't know so I'll share a few of them with you.

1.  We must have properly prepared foods, a balance of fatty acids, blood sugar balance, mineral/vitamin balance and hydration in our nutrition.
2.  Blood sugar balance means watching the amount of refined sugars in our diet.  The average American eats 140 pounds of sugar each year!  So we must lower our refined sugars and processed carbs (bread, pasta) intake which has been scientifically proven to affect many things, but a really scary one she mentioned is memory issues as we age.  Some forms of dementia are beginning to be associated with high levels of sugar.
3. Artificial sweeteners and soft drinks are absolute no-nos!
4. Some sweeteners that are ok are coconut sugar, whole leaf stevia, raw unfiltered sugar, pure maple syrup.
5.  Fatty acids are crucial to our health.  The idea that we should eat no or low-fats is counter-productive to how our bodies are created.  The three kinds of fats are saturated, mono-saturated and poly-unsaturated.  Saturated are the best for our bodies despite the hype about heart disease, etc.  These include butter from pasture-raised cows, coconut oil, lard, tallow--all natural products.  Mono-saturated oils are olive and avocado oils, and they are fine to eat but frying with them at high heats can change their makeup and make them less than good.  Also learned that olive oil should always be in a dark container of glass and should be stored in a dark, cool place or its characteristics change.  Learned about a product called Ghee which is a butter I had not heard of but is good to use.  No poly-unsaturated fats are good and that includes canola oil, sunflower oil and grapeseed oil.
6.  Hydration--we all know we don't drink enough water!  Water in fact is the most common low nutrient intake in America.  Also learned that drinking a lot of water with a meal is not good because it washing out the acids needed for digestion that reside in the  stomach.  So only sips of water with a meal and drink the majority of your water at other times throughout the day.  The amount of water you should drink a day is your weight divided by 2 = ounces of water to drink--but not more than a gallon!

This was so much good information and encouragement to eat clean and healthy.  Thanks Kathy!