This sector of nutrition is usually skimmed over when talking about diets with body composition goals, especially in those protocols for fast results, and this is worrisome.
I guess this is largely due to the fact that it be very complicated to prescribe something detailed (unlike an amount of calories and/or macronutrients), and it may be impractical or overwhelming to add even more layers of complications to the nutrition plan.
As always my idea is to create practical concepts to cover the needs of all the variables that will make a sustainable, productive, and healthy diet for whichever your objective is, and at the same time give the perspective for the reasons why we must consider them.
Far from being an expert, and with a long road still ahead of me in the topic of micronutrition, I hope to do my best to interest you on the importance to improve your consumption of nutritional foods and in a practical way.
Vitamins and minerals
In general this is the combo of words that we read and listen to in many articles about food, which are good sources of some vitamins and certain minerals, all essential to the body.
The general notion is that as long as we mainly eat whole foods as part of our diet, we can achieve a good balance of these nutrients. It’s not without basis that processed foods are devoid of them, that’s why the emphasis to minimize their consumption.
By nature being in a low calorie diet reduces the intake of vitamins and minerals, since we eat less than usual and the body is under additional physical stress, and may even require more of these compounds to maintain a robust immune system or simply to perform basic functions.
This by itself leads us to consider that in phases of caloric restriction we have additional reasons to consume foods that are rich in these micronutrients, the benefits of including more fruits and vegetables in these periods of diet are definitely are worth it.
There is no better time to reinforce the idea that the main source of your micronutrients should be fruits and vegetables, multivitamins have a possible role to play here, but the idea that they can replace the quality of whole foods is simply absurd.
One of the big reasons why I promote the idea of seeking nutrition in whole foods and not pills, is because of the amount of additional benefits they provide to our gut flora, and that the level of absorption is absolutely superior. And this brings me to another aspect of nutrition.
Gut microbiome
Our intestines are home to an astronomical amount of microorganisms that live in a mutualism with us, and this benefit is largely the result of a good balance in the population of the gut flora.
Unfortunately, this is an area where it’s not possible to quantify requirements to maintain a healthy relationship between them and us.
This means that we don’t have a specific way of measuring what we need exactly to have a favorable flora, and in a way this is because the understanding on this field is still developing.
The complexity of the population of microorganisms and their possible interactions with our biological functioning makes it much more difficult to determine qualitatively the diversity needed to get the best benefits for our body.
However, this is a department where even though the system is intricate, the recommendation is basic and simple. Although the research is still in its infancy there’s something we know for certain, and it’s that a diet based mainly on processed foods tend to degrade the population of beneficial bacteria for our gut health, and increase their negative counterpart.
So in the practical side of things we have a solution that at this point I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that I am a farmer with some kind of vested interest in consumers. You guessed it, fruits and vegetables.
Actually whole foods tend to be what provides the right balance here, their fiber contents and other phytonutrients found in them are the proper food to promote what so far is considered a positive diversity in our gut microbiome.
Fibers and prebiotics
While fibers are a type of carbohydrate, and therefore classified as a macronutrient, I want to talk about an interesting effect that relates to the topic of this article, its processing by the gut flora.
We already know that fibers are not digestible, and that we have two types called soluble and insoluble. The first as their name implies are soluble in water and the other isn’t. Additionally, in general it’s considered that the soluble ones are fermentable while the insolubles aren’t.
But this is not entirely true because it turns out that some insoluble in fact can be fermented, and some solubles actually aren’t. A bit of a confusing piece admittedly but bear with me, it’s not as complicated as I make it sound.
For all intents and purposes in this article we need only understand that there are fibers that are fermented and others that aren’t.
Starting with the non-fermented ones, the only thing I would add is that those are the ones that help us to be regular in the bathroom thanks to its effects on the intestinal traffic, perhaps the most known effect.
As for the fermentable there is much more to talk about, and although fascinating it can become a topic by itself to be discussed in a separate article, perhaps in the future. But for now the important thing to note is that these fibers also pass through the small intestine mostly untouched, and it’s in the large intestine where they are processed by the bacteria residing there.
Look at it as the food of choice for them (bacteria), of which they prosper and reproduce favorably. As well as we do, the processing of these nutrients by them creates a byproduct, in this case bacteria feeding on fibers have as a byproduct a few short-chain fatty acids, and these provide some calories as well as other metabolic benefits that promote a more efficient functioning of our body.
This is why fiber consumption is so recommended by all fields of nutrition and health. And this is the best place to say that not all fibers are created equal; fruits, vegetables, tubers, legumes and other types of foods where they come from have different structures, and provide different benefits.
The point I want to make here is to avoid what many people consider as a solution for their daily fiber intake, to buy a supplement to meet this need. This may have little impact on the positive effects that we seek.
In contrast when we eat fibers from different sources we make sure to feed a greater variety of species in the intestine, resulting in greater benefits for our body thanks to the byproducts generated. Once again, whole foods win by far over supplements.
Reality check
All of this makes sense when we see it from an evolutionary point of view, bacteria and other microorganisms have always coexisted with our ancestors, their relationship with us is symbiotic and this depends on our food mainly.
Understanding that the source of our foods always came from the earth and animals, it is a simple deduction that the more natural and less processed our diet is, the better this healthy balance will be.
“Let mother nature be your food processor, not the industry”.
Kimber Stanhope
We have all heard and read repeatedly that processed food is devoid of nutrients, but it’s normal that we don’t understand the impact of having a diet predominantly of these foods.
Now, this is a good time to mention that there is nothing inherently bad in junk food, it would be more appropriate to just say that there aren’t many benefits in them.
As always it’s a matter of fundamentals, and I like the idea that if your diet meets all your needs in micronutrients, adding an empty food won’t do any damage provided it’s within your calorie/macronutrient requirements.
I have an analogy of those I imagine when I’m in deep thoughts, which I entertain from time to time when thinking about the idea of quality foods versus empty foods that don’t contribute much to your body:
Imagine that you are part of an intergalactic intelligent species, whose purpose to hold its empire is to conquer planets for its resources mainly.
These may be minerals, gases, compounds, and everything that can form a planet in our fictional universe. We know that some planets have living organisms, and they produce certain elements not found in sterile and deserted planets.
They also have a very important impact on the quality of our main resources, some develop unique materials that are essential to the longevity of our empire in the future, others possess phenomenal defenses against stellar bodies that represent a threat to the planets, like asteroids and comets.
In general, our empire can survive with any variety of planets, the system only requires that on a macro scale, but the diversity and quality of those populated with living organisms provides us with a number of essential benefits to the performance and productivity of our empire in the short and long term.
Similarly, our body has a need for these microorganisms that produce different compounds for the functioning of our body, and indirectly help our metabolic systems. Therefore selecting those foods rich in them will give us much more than energy or building blocks.
On the note of food quality, where at the macro nutrition level two foods may be identical but not in micro-nutrient content, a metaphor I heard recently from Deanna Minich, when she spoke about the impact that consuming processed food has on our body as opposed to whole foods, it’s like trying to convey a message:
“You can either yell it and create an inflammatory message, or you can compassionately tell somebody what that message is and perhaps you get a positive effect”.
The idea is that while you can eat the same amount of macronutrient from one source or another, quality will determine the positive and beneficial effect of how your body will respond when digested.
Practical recommendations
First of all, let’s remember that even if the importance of this department of nutrition in health can be very relevant, for the effects of body composition and structure of a diet these considerations go after having set your plan in terms of calories and macronutrients.
This section seeks to refine your choices to something more positive to give you a better quality of life.
The Internet is filled with pages dedicated to learn more about the benefits of all vegetables, fruits, legumes, and other foods. Truthfully they all have good reasons to be part of our diet, but being honest nobody has such a variety of foods in their diet, or even less eat a little bit of everything.
General recommendations:
- For starters look for foods that you like and that fit within your calorie budget.
- Make sure you vary them, eating the same thing always is unsustainable. And this is the best time to try some new foods and be creative.
- Eat a variety of colors. Choose fruits and vegetables that are different in colors when you can, although green is the color that we are always taught for our salads, there are additional benefits in the coloration of others.
As for portions, Eric Helms in his series of The Muscle and Strength Pyramids gives what seems to me an excellent pragmatic recommendation:
Depending on your caloric budget, for every 1,000 calories you should include 1 serving of fruit and 1 serving of vegetables.
Simple as that, the goal is to eat daily our fruits and vegetables to derive the benefits that they provide, and with enough variety.
Conclusions
The majority of this article is information to convince you of the need we have to eat whole foods, nothing new or innovative, but oddly enough it’s something that we perhaps shun without knowing, largely for wanting to be practical, convenient, and/or bad habits of consuming processed foods.
Interestingly this is something that affects even regular gym goers and fitness people, who look phenomenal and represent the ideal model to every beginner, but whose diets are poor in this section for eating packaged foods by the supplement industry, promoted as healthy and high in proteins among other commercial tricks.
The lesson? Just because a diet based on macronutrients gives positive results on the outside doesn’t necessarily mean it does it in the inside. And here we are going to agree with grandma, nothing like eating whole food meals.
Thanks for reading, questions are always welcomed in the comments.
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