Put Your Food to Work
on Ireland & a nutrition "ROI"
I just returned from an incredible trip to Ireland with my husband, Lyle. Ireland wasn’t originally on my bucket list, though after being there, I can’t imagine why not. Trip highlights came while exploring the vast, green landscape as we drove and hiked up the northwest coast (well, Lyle drove while I sat in what should have been the drivers seat but was actually the passenger seat and made gasping and squealing noises every time I forgot we were supposed to be on the left side of the road).
The greens of the grass, the blues of the ocean, the expanse of the sky, and the multicolored paint on the endless fields of shaggy white sheep couldn’t be fully captured in a photo. Truly stunning.
I returned home a few days ago with mixed emotions — anxious about re-entry into my busy life, yet excited to be home with my girls. Driving back into California’s wine country after 14+ hours of travel, I was struck by two things: 1) Gratitude for the beautiful place we live, and 2) Appreciation for our access to fresh produce. Because let’s face it, Ireland, you excel at many things, but fruits and vegetables aren’t one of them.
Cue the transition back to food & nutrition….
As a dietitian, I continually try to find ways to empower my patients to understand how food can work for or against their goals and how it is so much more than calories, a line item on a food tracking app, or a bite of guilt.
The “right” eating strategy can’t be summed up by a diet, a meal plan, or macro counting, because the food (aka fuel) your body needs is unique and varies day-to-day and throughout the seasons of your life.
This makes it daunting for me to write about nutrition because my words can only be generalizations. I don’t know you, and every word that I write with conviction will come with an exception.
Yet, everyone deserves high-quality nutrition care and education to move beyond the cliché what to eat to the why and how food can fuel the life they want to live. Nutrition is a science, yes, but a personal science that needs to come with open-mindedness and flexibility.
In the following series of posts, I’ll share the framework that goes through my mind while I’m working with patients. I’ll attempt to show you the many factors that determine your what, why, and how to work towards your goals in a realistic and sustainable way.
When I work one-on-one with patients, I have the luxury of spending an hour getting to know each new person I see. I ask about their lives, challenges, and goals. They’re often confused when I spend so much time asking about their daily routines, sleep, stress, and more before I ask a single question about what they eat.
As I listen, I develop a hierarchy of first steps most likely to impact their goals. You can think of this as a sort of nutrition “return on investment” or ROI. I am a big believer that health does not require perfection, and we don’t need to waste your time, or mine, talking about insignificant recommendations. No lectures about the sugar in ketchup here, unless you are consuming buckets of it, of course.
And after years of doing this, I’ve found that the hierarchy of interventions usually falls into one of three categories:
Modifying meal composition and/or timing — such as teasing out how carbohydrate type, amount, and timing affect energy, alertness, sleep quality, and more.
Understanding the interaction between nutrition and other lifestyle factors — how poor sleep, for example, affects appetite, cravings, and metabolism.
Testing and treating any nutrient-related deficiencies — like checking vitamin B12 levels in a patient who is taking a certain diabetes drug and experiencing fatigue and brain fog.
As you can see, most nutrition information overlooks the nuance of nutrition science between individuals and over a lifetime. Over the next several posts, I will do my best to let you in on how I think about the hierarchy of nutrition needs and empower you to Put Your Food to Work.
See you soon,
~Allison
Great article Allison. I’m excited to learn more about the science of eating. So happy you and Lyle enjoyed your trip.