Nourishing ourselves with nutritional therapy
As someone training to be a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (and a health professional!), I am often asked what kind of kind of diets this organization recommends. Should people give up all dairy? Go ketogenic? Just count calories?
Midterms are coming up for my Nutritional Therapy program, and one of the things we have to know is what kind of food we should recommend to future clients. First of all, this program stresses the importance of bio-individuality, meaning that each of us has a different genetic makeup, and different dietary needs. Some people may need to go gluten or dairy-free due to an allergy or chronic illness, for others, the ketogenic diet suits them the best.
But in general, the program stresses the importance of eating whole, unprocessed foods, similar to what our ancestors ate. It isn’t exactly “Paleo,” as dairy (preferable raw and organic) is a-ok if it works for you, and they also recommend sprouted whole grains if you can tolerate gluten. However, the regimen is still based on the principle that we as a species have not progressed physiologically from the needs of our ancestors, but the food industry has! So, while “Big Food” has made it convenient to reach for processed, refined foods, that isn’t what is best for our physiological makeup.
The NTA does, however, recommend a certain ratio of macronutrients. Consume a lot of pure, filtered water. From there, they recommend 40% of your intake as carbohydrates, 30% fats and 30% protein. They don’t stress counting calories, but I still do, because I’m also studying dietetics, and I do believe more calories in, can result in weight gain!
40% carbohydrates? I can almost hear people shrieking. But wait! They do not recommend eating refined carbs, white bread, sugar and so on. In fact, they suggest avoiding refined carbs. The carbs to reach for are whole grains (preferably sprouted), vegetables, fresh fruits, brown rice and legumes.
For fats, they suggest butter, ghee, coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil. For protein, they recommend eating free-range eggs, organic & grass-fed meat, sprouted nuts, whole raw milk (more about this in a future post), yogurt and fish. They also recommend taking in plenty of fermented foods to help your body get enough good gut flora.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? In reality, I’ve found that it isn’t! It is way too easy to grab convenient foods, and I have a sugar addiction, which I find myself continually combating. I do allow myself dark chocolate which satisfies that!
The NTA emphasizes the consumption of raw milk quite a bit in this course. I’ll discuss this more in a future post. It’s not easy to find raw milk, and I’ve been scared off from so many reports of it being bad for you, but I’m determined to try it. I’m lactose-intolerant, so I usually stick to almond milk ( I can handle butter, yogurt and cheese though.)
Hope this helps a bit!
