Nutrition (also called nourishment or aliment) is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.
However in our developed modern world there is a high proportion of the population that have a very unbalanced diet, often rich in simple sugars and therefore calorifically high, whilst at the same time nutritionally very poor.
The result is a population consisting of many ‘over weight’ individuals, and many of these can be classed as ‘obese’.
The latest Health Survey for England (HSE) data shows that in In 2014 62% of adults in England were classified as overweight (a body mass index of 25 or above) or obese, compared to 53% 20 years earlier. More than two-thirds of men and almost six in 10 women are overweight or obese.
The Foresight report, Tackling Obesities: Future Choices project, published in October 2007, predicted that if no action was taken, 60% of men, 50% of women and 25% of children would be obese by 2050
The irony is that whilst to the eye this group of the population eat vast amounts of calories they may be very deficient in key and essential nutrients, and food groups.
A healthy diet is an essential part of all training programs; essentially food is the fuel for the body and depending on your goals, aims and dietary requirements determines what components your food is proportionally made up from.
A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve health. It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of water. Nutrients can be obtained from many different foods, so there are numerous diets that may be considered healthy. A healthy diet needs to have a balance of macro-nutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), calories to support energy needs, and micro-nutrients to meet the needs for human nutrition without inducing toxicity or excessive weight gain from consuming excessive amounts.
Sports nutrition refers to food and fuel sources that can optimise your performance, for the serious athlete this might be reaching a little extra distance or quicker time or being able to reach a higher level threshold of performance. For the fitness enthusiast optimum nutrition will help in weight controlled goals and in lasting a little longer in your workouts and may help to work at a higher level.
One of the first things we as health and fitness trainers do is encourage our clients to fill out a food (and drink) journal and then do an analysis of its contents, we base this analysis on the ‘eatwell plate’ which is all about a balanced healthy diet.
If you would like an analysis of your food journal then get in touch via our CONTACT US page
We’ve teamed up with Arbonne, recently voted #1 in the world for healthy products, their ethos, and ours is all about healthy on the inside and the outside. All the products (both nutrition and skin care) are vegetable based, therefore easy to digest, they are vegan friendly as well as gluten free, being chemically pure, they look to eliminate any and all allergic reactions, fused with natural sugar cane and being low on the GI, they are also great for diabetics.
