For this blog i'll be referring to the most comprehensive guide on healthy eating. The information found at the link is the culmination of over 75 years of work from the National Health and Medical Research Council. It has a ton of information and references on how the following guidelines were determined. Let's start with some basics:
Something Different. A Typical Meal Eaten by Elite Kenyan Runners. Chicken, Sakuma Wiki, Potato, Ugali, Bananas and Plantains.
The Macronutrients
Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat
The amount of macronutrients varies across individuals and depend on several factors including occupation, daily physical activity levels and type of sport/athlete. For example, a strength athlete may need up to 2-3x more protein and up to 6x more carbohydrate than someone who has a desk job and plays golf on sundays.
The Micronutrients
The vitamins and minerals are the micronutrients and are required in small amounts, milligrams or micrograms daily. The vitamins and minerals are a diverse group of essential nutrients that regulate most body processes involved in supporting growth and maintaining life. Unlike the macronutrients, micronutrient requirements do not differ much between individuals. Yes, that includes athletes. Even if it did an athletes increased energy requirements would make up for it.
How Much of What Do You Need to Eat to Meet Your Micronutrient Requirements?
Below is an example of a diet planned using the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. This example indicates how much and of what is needed to meet Micronutrient requirements.
Lets look at that in pictures. this is a powerpoint presentation so click on the arrows to scroll through the pages. The last slide contains some info about serves for fruits and vegetables.
To meet individual Macronutrient requirements, all you would have to do is adjust the quantities in this diet. So more meat, fish, nuts, fruits, grains and cereals or even lollies and chocolates if you are a calorie burning machine!
Hopefully after reading this blog you can see that it doesn't take much to meet nutrient requirements and that you don't need a fancy diet to be healthy. If you're getting your information from people on social media, know that most are trying to run a business and so they are more concerned about foods that garnish attention. Some people on social media may also have orthorexia, which is an obsession with eating healthy food that is beyond whats necessary.
To finish up, i'd like to share an excerpt from a book called Practical Sports Nutrition. It describes the diet of ELITE international athletes:
For individualised advice, send me a DM on instragram @walidhouli or send me an email @ mailbox@bodyengineering.info
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