From my friends at beach body!!
Ask the Expert: Is Healthy Food Really That Important?
By Denis Faye
I would love to answer this with, "Yes. Now sit down and eat your broccoli." Unfortunately, that's not a great response, considering you're probably not my eight-year-old daughter.
So I'll go into more detail.
Yes, the foods you eat matter for a huge pile o' reasons. Food is made up of three macronutrients necessary to human life. Carbohydrates are our body's primary fuel source. Protein is made of amino acids, your body's building blocks. Fatis another important fuel source, covering bases that carbs can't—adding structure to the lining of our cells, among other things.
Within these three macronutrients, there are also subcategories for each one. Carbs contain fiber, which we need to keep our digestive tract working and the flora in our intestines strong. Protein contains the previously mentioned amino acids, nine of which we can't create internally, so we need to get them from food. These nine "essential amino acids" serve thousands of functions vital to life. Fats also contain "essential" fatty acids required to keep you alive. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are crucial for regulating your immune and cardiovascular systems, just to name two functions.
Under macronutrients, you'll find micronutrients, a.k.a. vitamins and minerals. Each and every vitamin and mineral serves a vital role. Some just do one thing, such as iodine, which is crucial for thyroid health. Others serve several purposes, such as vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, a cofactor for enzymes, and an immunity booster, among other things.
But wait, there's more! Under micronutrients, you'll find phytonutrients, naturally occurring pigments that lend color and chemical protection to plants, and happen to be remarkably healthy for anyone who eats those plants. These compounds are a relatively new discovery, so science doesn't know a ton about them. We do know, however, that many have strong antioxidant properties. The best known phytonutrient is lycopene, the stuff that turns tomatoes red. It's also been shown to benefit the prostate and the uterus.
In addition to macronutrients, micronutrients, and phytonutrients is a hodgepodge of miscellaneous substances that benefit the human body in all kinds of ways. For example, probiotics help keep the bacteria in your intestines robust. You'll find them in fermented foods such as yogurt and tempeh. Then there's resveratrol, the phenol in grapes largely credited with causing the "French Paradox."
To make things even more complex, all these nutrients work synergistically. Fat-based vitamins A, D, E, and K need dietary fat to be absorbed. Magnesium works best in conjunction with B-complex vitamins. Vitamin C and zinc work great together. Soluble fiber works with intestinal bacteria to create beneficial short-chain fatty acids. It's a wild, tangled, beautiful mess that just works.
Long story short, a diet full of organic fruits and veggies, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, and meat from properly raised, drug-free animals is the best way to get all those nutrients. The moment you start tampering with the quality of food, nutrients drop off. The moment you harvest produce, it starts to lose vitamins and minerals, which is why fresh or flash-frozen are best. When you refine grain, you strip it of nutrients and fiber, which is why whole grains are better. When you roast seeds and nuts, it compromises the omega fatty acids, which is why raw is better. When you feed cows grains then pump them full of antibiotics and hormones, it lessens the "good" fats in the meat and passes the toxins onto you, which is why organic, free-range meat is better.
People often ask me if they can eat junk, but make up for it with a good multivitamin. If the person asking happens to be George Jetson, then I say, "Yes!" Otherwise, the answer is no. There's no way to get complete nutrition from a pill. Technically, you might be able to spend thousands of dollars and take scores of pills each day in hopes that you'll check all the boxes that a varied diet of real foods checks, but you'll probably fail.
When I write this, I'm not sandbagging supplements. They're great tools for targeting specific needs. If you're low on omega-3s, you'll need to eat a lot of fish to get the same amount that you'll get from a quality fish oil supplement like Beachbody Core Omega-3™. Also, supplementing makes for a great insurance policy in case your regular diet misses the odd nutrient, especially when you're on a low-calorie eating plan. This is where Shakeology® and ActiVit® are handy. But those should never be your primary source of nutrition.
The ultimate reason for this is that modern science doesn't completely know how food works. New studies come out every week uncovering how nutrients interact with our genes, our hormones, and our ability to function. Furthermore, the nutrients in whole foods work together synergistically in ways supplements have yet to recreate. Take carrots. Research has shown that orange fruits and veggies, particularly carrots, significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Do you know why? No? Well, neither do the researchers, although they theorize it's because of the synergistic effect of the many antioxidants in carrots.1 When you isolate these antioxidants, the benefit goes away.
But just for the sake of human "innovation," let's pretend that you mix all those antioxidants together in pill form, along with the other nutrients and fiber you'll find in this particular veggie. What's the result? Congratulations. You just made a carrot (a "frankencarrot," technically)—but even then, you probably missed some aspect of carrot nutrition that has yet to be discovered. Why not save yourself the headache and eat the real thing?
Makes your head spin a little, doesn't it? I hope I've cleared things up a little for you—or maybe I should have just stuck with, "Sit down and eat your broccoli."
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