Holistic Nutrition for Optimal Health and Wellness

Ideas of what makes for an ideal dietary intake are numerous. The bottom line is that regardless of your dietary pattern, it should be a holisitic nutrition plan and follow the principles set forth by the Paleo Diet. Holistic nutrition conforms to the needs of the body as it changes with time and various demands placed upon it. This is the opposite of the ones size fits all diet idea. Diets are temporary changes that rarely show any long term benefits, and they certainly do not universally apply equally to everyone.

Do you Really Want to be on a Diet . . . Neither Does Anyone Else!

Let’s face it, no one wants to be on a diet. Diets are boring and monotonous. What is worse is that they feel restrictive. The very nature of a diet makes you feel like you are going to give something up. Do you like giving things up? I don’t and you shouldn’t have to in order to obtain an improvement in your health. In fact, since I started eating a more holistic nutrition, or Paleo Diet, pattern, the number of foods that I now consume has vastly increased. The restrictions that are part of a diet also make them not a good fit for most people. We are all unique and have our own requirements. Each person’s body functions different. This is a fact that I have become very understanding of after practicing functional medicine and holistic nutrition for over a decade.

What Holistic Nutrition Offers You

First off, we have to move past the idea that what worked for our friend or the person in the magazine is going to work for us too. This may not be the case at all. Why? The answer is that each person has their own individual makeup that alters the way that they respond to the foods and the nutrients that they consume. There are some core concepts that we should all adhere to, but even within this context, we are all unique. As an example, your friend may be able to lose weight by consuming higher fats and lower carbohydrates. Yet when you need to drop a few pounds, that same dietary approach left you frustrated because the scale would not budge. This was not the right approach for you.

To accurately apply holistic nutrition, there are a couple of key tools that I use. The first of these is going to be advanced lab testing. This is not the out-dated traditional lipid / cholesterol panel that leads to a generic recommendation of eat less fat. Instead I am referring to assessing your genetics and looking at the use of numerous aspects of your nutrition from your diet to any supplements you might be taking. This is the way holistic nutrition is best practiced. Only from this can you establish your inherent dietary and nutritional needs. We are not clones; therefore we have no reason to think that we are all going to respond equally.

What Can Holistic Nutrition do for You?

Holistic nutrition is the basis for good health and wellness. Without it, you have one option, sickness. Do you want to be a statistic of the traditional medical system? Of course you don’t. And the dirty little secret that is rarely talked about is that a growing number of the clinicians that work in traditional healthcare don’t trust their health to it either expect in the most dire emergency situations. This is because most everyone had rather take care of themselves than end up in a doctor’s office. But holistic nutrition is not just about prevention. I run into patients all the time that don’t have a basic understanding of nutrition, so from the start they are on a path to bodily dysfunction that starts as symptoms and progresses into disease.

The great thing about nutrition is that with a little effort the basics are easily understood. So with that said, I want to impart probably the most important concept that you need to understand to set you on the path to a lifestyle that incorporates holistic nutrition to support your entire body. This concept is eating real foods as close to the way that you would find them in nature as possible. It does not matter version of the Paleo diet you are eating, the key is eating real foods. The great part is that this is consistent with everyone’s genetics. Regardless of your most unique needs, your body only wants clean, unrefined, pure forms of food. So therefore, when you are curious about where to start with your journey into holistic nutrition, or even maintaining it, you should always come back to one of the most core ideas of the Paleo diet; eat real food.