Ep 06. Diet and Nutrition

Hello, hello, hello. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of The Zealous Disposition Podcast. Today I will be sharing some thoughts I have about Diet and Nutrition.

How is your diet and nutrition?  Are you practicing good nourishment?

I ask because it hasn’t been that long since the New Year passed.  And as we all know, the New Year is when many make resolutions to become a better person or improve certain aspects of their lives.  One of the most common resolution is to get in shape…or you can say, something centered on Diet and Nutrition.  That’s why we see a spike in gym memberships and articles promoting diets during the beginning on the New Year. 
Before we continue, let’s define Diet and Nutrition so we can be on the same page.
Definitions
Diet: noun
1.  food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesome article of diet.
2.  a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.
3.  such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight: No pie for me, I’m on a diet.
4.  the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.
5.  food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.
6.  anything that is habitually provided or partaken of: Television has given us a steady diet of game shows and soap operas.
verb (used with object), dieted, dieting. 
7.  to regulate the food of, especially in order to improve the physical condition.

Nutrition: noun
1.  the act or process of nourishing or of being nourished. 
2.  the science or study of, or a course of study in, nutrition, especially of humans. 
3.  the process by which organisms take in and utilize food material. 
4.  food; nutriment. 
5.  the pursuit of this science as an occupation or profession.

Nourish: verb (used with object)
1.  to sustain with food or nutriment; supply with what is necessary for life, health, and growth. 
2.  to cherish, foster, keep alive, etc.: He had long nourished the dream of living abroad.
3.  to strengthen, build up, or promote: to nourish discontent among the workers; to nourish the arts in one’s community.
(*Definitions from Dictionary.com*)

Our definitions are now establish…now let us explore more on diet and nutrition.

So how did this topic come about?  As I mentioned earlier, the New Year just passed which yields the whole “get in shape and be healthy” goal. It’s just about everywhere we look. The topic seems to be pushed down our throat as we’re almost forced to think about diets. As for me, I can tell when I haven’t been eating good and maybe you can too. I have a lack of focus, feel sluggish and unmotivated, and daily stress effects me more when I eat too much junk food. My productivity at work drops, I don’t feel like exercising, and I’m too tired to be present when I get home. I don’t like feel like that and I know having the energy I need takes more than an Red Bull and a pack of delicious Little Debbie mini chocolate frosted donuts. I have to be mindful of what I take in…I have to be mindful of the quality of my diet…my nutrition level…and how I nourish my body. Why? Because I owe it to myself and I owe it to my family to be as healthy as I possible can. Another reason is because what we take in greatly impacts what available to give out…quality in, quality out…junk in, junk out.

So to help me combat the temptation of Red Bulls and mini donuts, I’ve started to research Dieting and Nutrition. I began with the basics which landed me at the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines on the Healthy.gov website.  What is the Dietary Guidelines?  The Dietary Guidelines is a report from the U.S. Department of Human Health Service and the USDA containing nutritional and dietary information and guidelines for the general public.  Pretty much…It provides information and recommendations for health eating. Speaking of recommendations…one area that I like in the Guidelines is the Key Recommendations section. This section list healthy eating pattern which includes eating… A variety of vegetables…fruits…grains…fat-free or low-fat dairy…oils…and a variety of protein foods, such as seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, legumes (beans and peas), nuts, seeds, and soy products.  The Key Recommendations section even list what to limit for healthy eating patterns which include Saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars, and sodium.  So it looks like the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines may be a good starting point for the basics.

But what if I have specific needs and wants…there has to be something out there. Right? And there is…there’s different types of diets to address that. So, let’s look at a few of the different types of diets real quick.  We have the…
1. Atkins Diet…dealing with low-card intake.
2. The Zone Diet…deals with have 40% carbs, 30% fats, and 30% protein.
3. Vegetarian Diet…eating mostly veggies.  There’s subcategories in this diet.
4. Vegan Diet…don’t partake animal-base.  
5. Pescetarian Diet…seafood based…excludes land animals and birds.
6. Mediterranean Diet… emphasis is on lots of plant foods, fresh fruits, beans, nuts, whole grains, seeds, olive oil, cheese, yogurts, fish, poultry, small amounts of red meat, and low to moderate amounts of wine.

Those seem like pretty good diets with different nutritional values to help nourish the body. Looking at those diets and referring back to the definitions…we have…for diet: things that are habitually provided or partaken of…for nutrition we have: a process of nourishing…and for nourish we have: something to strengthen and build up. Now the list of diets is definitely longer than the 6 I just mentioned. But there were two diets I didn’t find that I think would be beneficial to a healthy lifestyle. These two are the optical diet and the auditory diet.

The optical diet…the diet of taking in what we see. In other words, what we watch on TV…what we look at on the internet…the type of things we read…the things we take in with our eyes. The auditory diet…the diet of taking in what we hear…the music we listen to…the stories aka gossip. These diets are often paired and combined as one but can be experienced as a stand alone diet. They can either be good or bad…positive or negative. It all depends of what type of lifestyle we want and which lifestyle we feed. Using the same definitions…an unhealthy lifestyle can be unhealthy things that are habitually provided or partaken of…could be a process of nourishing what’s unhealthy…and something to strengthen and build up the unhealthy negative aspects of our lives. Conversely, an healthy lifestyle can be healthy things that are habitually provided or partaken of…could be a process of nourishing what’s healthy…and something to strengthen and build up the healthy positive aspects of our lives.

Our diets and lifestyles has to compliment each other.  A healthy diet compliments a healthy lifestyle.  We slowly become what we digest. And what we digest directs our minds, our thoughts, and our actions. We can’t intake junk and expect to be healthy or expect to perform a optimum levels.

As we wrap up this episode, I leave you with a verse…
Proverbs 4:23 NIV Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Remember…what we take in greatly impacts what available to give out…quality in, quality out…junk in, junk out. And now I close with the same questions I ask in the beginning…

How is your diet and nutrition?  Are you practicing good nourishment?

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at zealousdisposition@gmail.com. Thank you for listening to The Zealous Disposition…and remember, as iron sharpens iron so one man another…sharpen yourself and sharpen those around you.