NUTRITION – WHO CARES?…

Imagine an island, in the Meditation sea, where sun shines 350 days a year, fish jumps right from the sea to your plate and oranges get squeezed into your glass directly from a tree…

Correct, the island that I am talking about is Cyprus! I had lived there for more than 7 years and can tell you for a fact, that Cypriot diet is historically balances with appropriate amounts of VEGETABLES, MEATS, MILK and GREENS. Thus, people there have no concern about nutrition whatsoever and the term “ORGANIC” is never heard. Paradise places, like Cyprus are simply blessed with everything being freshly caught, cut, cooked and served.

Wait, what about Canada, what about us? We do not have a luxury of having a freshly caught fish every day. We have to travel miles to work daily. We do not have time to cook ourselves. We do not have time or resources to balance out our food intakes regularly. Sometimes, we barely have time to eat at least something, and most of the time it’s not the most heathy or nutritious choice we make…

Well… the situation is NOT HOPELESS for us!

Photo by Tristan Gassert on Unsplash

Nowadays, the topic of nutrition is becoming more and more popular among the masses. There are 3 major concerns that, I believe, influence will continue to stimulate the growth of the importance of nutrition among a population. These are:

  • HEALTH & FITNESS
  • ETHICS
  • ENVIRONMENT

With a great help from various media, NUTRITION IS GROWING ITS’ POPULARITY. Influential talks (e.g. Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech at Oscars in 2016), documentaries (e.g. Netflix original series “What the Health” and “Cowspiracy”) and other promotion activities, all impact the attitude of consumers.

People are becoming INCREASINGLY CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR FOOD CHOICES and overall nutrition. They want to be healthy, they want to be fit, they are warried about the ethical side of butchering animals, they are concerned about the environmental footprint of farming and so on.

It is well-known, that where there is an interest, there will be demand, and where there is a consumer demand, will be supply. At this moment, I believe we are on the verge of our escalating interest to be turned into a stable and maybe even growing demand. Thus, the supply from the culinary industry is not too far away, after all.

As it was said above: it’s not all that bad and there is a LIGHT AT THE END OF A TUNNEL!

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Trying to meet the growing demand out there, more and more nutrition websites appear. Most of them cannot be trusted, unfortunately.

One should consider the following to determine the website is credible:

  • Credentials of the author/s. A credible nutrition author is a Dietitian, for example.
  • Is the website trying to sell/promote something? If the website that is offering you ways to purchase a product/service that is being described, it is more likely to not be so credible.
  • References to actual nutrition studies.

The best example of such a credible website would be the World Health Organization website. All the posts published on this website, had been written by accredited authors. WHO is not trying to sell us anything apart of good health. Finally, all the opinions are usually supported by studies.

A non-credible website, on the other hand would:

  • Provide mostly personal opinion and examples.
  • Not discuss other/contradictory opinions on the subject.
  • Heavily advertise just 1 kind of a product/brand.
  • Contain contradictory opinions and statements of the author.
  • Have an author that cannot/does not provide a clearly supported argument to defend his/her original statement against the contradictory comments from the audience.

Many of the nutritional blogs, could not be considered credible, based on the above criteria. A specific example of such a non-credible website would be Sarah’s Day blog. An author does not mention any personal certifications, or credentials in nutrition. As a support to her nutrition philosophy, she provides mostly the blogger’s own experience and examples. Sarah is constantly trying to sell her e-book and other merchandise. Her opinions on nutrition also vary throughout periods of time, based solely on her own experience, and not on any actual studies or theories.

So just be cautious, and do not believe information on every website out there!

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If you read up to this point, it can be stated with confidence that my readers are all highly concerned about nutrition. I, myself am especially interested in a PLANT-BASED NUTRITION, the ways of balancing PB meals and the positive and negative effects of such a diet. I am hoping to learn more about the influence of a PB diet on fitness, and share this information with you, guys. How to stick to a PB diet and grow muscles at the same time, without taking in any extra supplements; or if one does take supplements, how to balance out the rest of the diet to avoid malnutrition? This is a hot topic, that interested if not all, then most of the vegans around the world right now. Hopefully, we will know the answer to it very soon.

 

Thank you for your time and please stay tuned! More blogs are on the way.

 

P.S. NUTRITION ACTUALLY MATTERS!

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