Food Dude!
JED WIGHTMAN PERFORMANCE/SPORTS NUTRITIONIST ADVANTAGE FITNESS LTD
This article has been written for Canadian Physique Alliance -November/December 2023 Edition
Yes, food is plain and simple, the way nature intended. I’m sure you can gather from the title what this article is about. But let me be clear, whole food, real food, food, the way our carbon-based biological forms were meant to intake, process, benefit from and then release.
In our world today, rife with processed everything, convenient all in one, packaged “food like” product materials. We are inundated with these imitations in daily life everywhere we go. Pushing further from real food, and so a very large portion of our society, culture and especially those of us in the western world have all but forgotten what the REAL food and its meaning for us, place and purpose actually is. So today let me take you on a little journey into “real food” and why I say to everyone I’ve worked with over the course of my career, when they ask me what the most important thing is regarding performance, fitness, health, and all of that which accompanies…
“Coach, what’s most important?” My response: “FOOD DUDE”.
What Does FOOD Mean?
Let’s start simple, what does food mean? Pretty easy right? Well is it? I’m sure most would say things that we eat, perhaps some would go so far as to say things that we need. Which would be more close to accurate. The official definition of food is as follows. “any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth”. That covers it for some. It leaves a lot to be discerned, Fortunately, for those of you reading today, we’re looking deeper into it. Dig in, we have some unpacking to do.
Ok so, Any nutritious substance that people, plants and animals eat or drink in order to maintain life and growth. So there it is… food, needs food, get it?… food that delivers us complete nutrition must itself be fed complete nutrition or it’s left devoid of essential elements that will leave us falling short. Food, yes, things that we need. When we see need, think nutritious, meaning nutrient dense, not craving and taste.
The provision of vitamins, minerals, and essentials that ensure our growth from young and our maintenance of healthy life, as we age. Basic essentials to this formula are fats and proteins. A perfect example for the young is mothers milk. Full of all the vitamins and minerals, essential fat and complete protein, necessary to kickstart the infants life health and development. No formula loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, vegetable and seed, oils, and soy protein. Grass fed Bison, a perfect example for growing and adult humans. Full of complete protein, vitamins, minerals, and essential fat. Not, the deli or fast food sandwich meat, chips, and soda. Full of inflammatory, highly oxidized toxic fats, inflammatory and insulin resistance creating high-fructose corn syrup, deep-fried starch, saturated fat, and all of the preservatives and poisons. The worst, like brominated white flours.
Friends you see, whole food is filled with essential nutrient dense elements, vitamins, minerals, complete protein, and essential fats. A far cry, from what we find, in what is classified and sold as “food” today. While packaged processed convenient rip top box calorie laden, food like materials contain fats and proteins. These are inadequate proteins, very often hormone altering forms, like soy. Chemically altered, oxidized, rancid, and in most cases, toxic fats. Any vitamins and minerals are there because of what’s called fortification. Meaning that these products, once an origin of whole food, now have been stripped of everything. Void of all vitamins and minerals, the manufacturers have to re-add vitamins, and minerals in the process of fortification.
Protein is not created equal, although all sources of complete proteins render 4 calories per gram. A piece of wild caught Salmon is essential fat, and healthy protein. Meat products in a deli or fast food sandwich even if originally from an animal is the inverse of healthy protein. All fats are not created equal, although all sources Render 9 cal per gram. Omega-3, rich in DHA and EPA found in cold water fish or a game or bison or beef that was raised on grass and the saturated fat from those animals if consumed in a carbohydrate free environment are all more than good for us. They are necessary for healthy cholesterol, balance, and the omega 3 is essential. Compared to the fat sources that you would see on the packaged ingredients, nutritional label of processed, fast food.
Carbohydrates are a most important and necessary part of the developing growing progressive bodybuilding, physique, and performance athletes nutritional regimen. Are not created equal, though all forms of carbohydrates render 4 calories per gram. Besides alcohol and some sugar alcohols which are 4.73 cal per gram. A pop tart while it may have 25 g of macro nutrient carbohydrate is packed full of inflammatory toxic materials. Super refined, processed sugars of the highest glycaemic potency. Let’s not forget about all of the food dye, coloring, preservatives, the vast number of long words (preservatives) mashed into the ingredient panel. Compared to organic rolled oats, or wild rice loaded up with organic honey. Perfect example of an awesome post training meal. A mix of Complex and simple carbs, fiber rich, nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, immune system boosting digestive quality producing, goodness.
“Healthy” Breakfast cereal on the label says high in fiber with omega-3. Friends, whatever insoluble fiber has been ground to nothing rendering little positive effect in healthy gut Microbiome, even less on healthy peristalsis, and colon cleansing. Omega-3’s, the backbone of all cells in our body. Essential for fat loss, hormone regulation, insulin sensitivity, muscle gain, immune system, boosting cognition, brain development, neurological processing, and synaptic response. Just to name a few, unless in the raw natural state consumed. They are useless. If not in the raw natural form unfettered, they are chemically altered. Exposed to heat and light processing, rendering them useless, and depending on the source, like canola grapeseed sunflower seed and vegetable oils, toxic, inflammatory, and can produce more damage to our heart, liver and organs than any substance we consume. Equal to that of liquor and high fructose ultra, processed corn syrup and super refined carbohydrate materials.
I know, maybe some of you might be thinking I have no time, who has time to cook. Friends, we are conditioned on purpose by corporations that advertise and feed us ready to eat convenient poisons to keep us sick, which mandates reliance and dependence on drugs to treat symptoms of sickness that are created from the foods and beverages we mindlessly put into our bodies.
Plan accordingly, I’ve been a nutritionist fitness consultant and professional coach for 20 years. I still am perfecting and streamlining the way I provide for my body and my families, best interest of health performance, recovery and longevity. So it’s not an overnight thing, it’s a conscious thing, it’s an effort, discipline, dedication, and commitment thing.
Lastly, I am not against supplements, I am actually a strong advocate of natural performance, health, immune and life enhancing supplements, vitamins, minerals. I am merely focussing on the food aspect today. Stay tuned for more next time on the most important supplements for our health performance, well-being, and progress.
Friends I can go on about this, so do you want more information? I encourage you to read 3 very poignant articles published within the last several years on our Canadian Physique Alliance newsletter, and also available to my subscribers at my website. These articles are, Metabolic Resetting, The Heart of the Matter, and The Estrogen Crisis.
Whole Foods, fats, and proteins are what our bodies are made out of. We are not made from carbohydrates, although they help us grow and recover. We are not composed of sugars, inflammatory oils, ultra, processed, nutrient, stripped, refortified, sugary food products. If we want the best for our health, life, well-being, progress and performance, we have a responsibility to ourselves, and to teach our children about whole foods and complete nutrition. Our world today is overrun with cancer, heart disease and diabetes, making up for 80% of all mortality rates in North America.
Downstream from there, are all of the comorbidity and symptomology attached. Fortunately for us, by eating whole food and relying on the right things nature has grown and produced for us to consume over the course of the last 2,000,000+ years of human existence. We protect ourselves, and can ameliorate so much of what we are otherwise inundated with, by going the convenient packaged to processed food like products and materials, route.
To you each and all, I wish you nothing but health, well-being, performance, and progression of mind, body and spirit. Every word I write is for you, to help each of us anyway I can along this path, we are on in life. So friends, take your time, cook your food! Source your good nutrient, dense, vitamin and mineral essential quality foods, And together.
FORWARD FORWARD ALWAYS FORWARD AF.
