Nutrition is simply the fuel for your body’s metabolic and physiological requirements throughout your daily activities. Even though it sounds simple, it is not and unfortunately people seem to neglect the effects that proper nutrition can have on the quantity and quality of life you shall have. It is a Discipline and a Science and as all sciences must be treated with respect. Whether your goals range from general well-being to fighting a pathology or even improving athletic performance, nutrition will play its role.Undoubtedly a vital factor to human survival is food. The only source of metabolic energy that humans can process is from nutrients and bio active compounds with direct health benefits, and these come from the food that we eat. And just when some people can probably get away from natural-born diseases or environmental toxins, they cannot get away from the food they ingest and its consequences. We basically are what we eat.Benefits of NutritionAs stated previously, even if your goal is targeted around body composition, although desirable, it is not the only benefit you will enjoy.

Improvement of bio-markers

Improvement in gene expression

Improved mental focus

Reduced risk of Metabolic Syndrome

Reduced risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Reduced risk of Cancer

Improvement in the quality of life for patients undergoing cancer treatments

Improvement of Neurological disorders

Improvement of Autoimmune disorders
The list is simply too large to be included in full, needless to say that ongoing studies will bring more benefits to the surface but we will just have to wait for the data to be released. However, we see that within the range set by genetics, a person’s choice of diet influences long-term health.Why is it so Hard… ?As with any good deed in life, adopting a ”SMART ” and beneficial feeding style is hard and will drive most people crazy. We are now living in huge modern cities where food is constantly been promoted and there is simply no escape. Whereas an alcoholic can most likely come off the addiction by simply quitting the booze and avoiding the bars, the obese individual has a harder path to follow… there is simply no escape from food… It is everywhere… and it is addictive… !People decide what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and even whether to eat in highly personal ways based on a complex bundle of genetic, behavioral and social factors rather than on an awareness of nutrition’s importance to health.

Ethnic Heritage

Genetics

Personal preferences

Habits

Social interaction

Media

Convenience

Financial

Availability

Psychology

Religion

Lifestyle
SMART NutritionAny nutritional strategy you use to improve your health must be:

Specific: You are unique so the nutritional strategy you choose must be tailored for you and not the ripped dude you got it off from the gym. Specific data coming from you such as goals, age, weight, gender, medical history, activity levels, BMI. LBM. TEEE and previous nutritional habits are vital for creating a custom nutrition strategy.

Measurable: Any good strategy will require data in order to keep it in track, observe progress or even break plateaus. Calorie counting, calorie partitioning, weight measurements, body fat measurements and even bio markers will provide sufficient data to keep everything in check. Any protocol promising you results without the use of data, is a waste of time.

Affordable: There is no point in going on a diet that requires your whole salary to be spent on food and supplements. I know that proper nutrition is expensive but it can be tailored accordingly.

Realistic: Going on a low carb diet when you simply cannot live without carbs is not realistic neither is consuming 1.5gr/lb of protein if you are not training but decided to go on a high protein diet. Other variables such as meal timing and frequency will also need to be addressed according to your schedule

Tolerable: Diets that starve you to death at best are not tolerable let aside the metabolic damage they produce. The strategy you choose must include diet breaks, meal freedom once in a while and rewards. I hate the word cheat meal as it is of a negative nature and messes up with your psychology. A reward, is more self-fulfilling and boosts your ego!
So the next time you pick the latest diet frenzy or dogma at least make sure it fits the above requirements as we are all unique beings having specific lifestyles thereby making a ”one size fits all” kind of diet impossible to exist. By the way, do not use the term diet as it brings out negative feelings and makes the effort of sustaining a proper nutritional strategy horrific. My preferred use of words for me and my clients will be a ”nutritional strategy”. Now by simply changing from a diet to a strategy, you boost all sorts of positive feelings and suddenly you feel like a General kicking ass in war… That’s the exact kind of mental focus you will need!Summing UpI hope I did not bore you with stuff that you already know but realize that many people will need to be thoroughly educated in the areas of nutrition in order to take control of their lives. For all the science geeks out there waiting for data to be revealed, this was a general overview targeted towards the general public, but I will be analyzing several nutritional protocols with serious data in future articles, so be patient.The benefits of a proper nutritional strategy are now more evident than ever, so choosing to adopt a S.M.A.R.T Nutritional Strategy is clearly the smart way to go.Good luck with your nutritional journey.

Mental health is simply the state of successful performance of all our mental functions. This is difficult to describe but when one is mentally healthy one is able to perform there day to day activities successfully and is able to manage healthy inter personal relationship, be able to cope with change and handle diversity. While in our normal day to day life we do not observe what mental health is all about it, we only get curious about it once we notice something is wrong or the absence of good mental health and even then most of the times we choose to ignore it.Good mental health is something that has been ignored by most of us, while we do notice a slight headache we ignore to recognize sudden mood swings, low tolerance levels, being gloomy and blue all the time as a sign that something may be wrong with our mental health. More people worldwide suffer from mental illness than is ever understood, in the United States alone every year around 6% of the population goes through some form or the other of depression and depression is just one of the many mental disorders that exist. Most of the times our failure to recognize this stems from being unaware or being ashamed of admitting that “something is wrong with my mind”.Is Mental Health separable from physical health?While popularly it is thought that mental and physical health are separate in most cases one’s mental illness is caused by some physiological changes in the body and indeed many cases of depression in women are caused in and around the time of menopause or in men when they are going through nights when they don’t get enough sleeps because of work pressures. The body goes through stress and is fatigued by it and because of that the mind also reacts to it and develops some sort of disorder.
The other way round is more obvious and when the mental health of people deteriorates the body takes its toll and that is more visible.
What this essentially means is taking care of ourselves physically is also an important aspect of maintaining our mental health.Public Attitude about Mental Health and IllnessEven in developed societies like the United States where there are a large number of information sources and any one can just go to the internet and take self diagnostic tests to see whether they are suffering from any form of mental disorder a large number of cases go unreported. This is because of the public opinion that mental health is a given and there is some degree of stigma associated with the fact that a person’s mental health is suffering from one reason or the other.People suffering from one type of disorder therefore will go through a long phase of denial where in they will refuse to acknowledge that something seems to be out of ordinary. This will translate into the patients developing multiple disorders which will become more difficult to cure or even diagnose. It will also result in the disorder getting deeper entrenched and will make it that much more difficult to cure it as well.Use the InternetAwareness is the key to fight mental illness, awareness about the fact that more people than you can imagine suffer from it in some point or the other in their lives and awareness about the fact that once diagnosed it can be easily treated through a combination of talk therapy and medication.
Internet is a good source of information and you should learn to leverage it to your best use. The first step is to understand what changes in behavior are you experiencing which is possible to do for most people in the early stages. The next step after making a list of symptoms is to take a few self diagnostic tests which you can do anonymously and see where it takes you. There are a host of mental disorders and chances are that after taking a few of these tests you would be led to specifically one or the other. Then you can do more in depth study about it and even if you think it not necessary visit a doctor at least once to double check whether you are suffering from that particular disorder, something else or it was just a false alarm.The key thing to remember is the faster you realize what is wrong the faster and easier it will be to cure that thing.

Low carb shakes can be part of a low carbohydrate eating plan. If we have a desire to lose weight, our choice of diet or exercise routines seem endless. Whatever we choose, our nutritional plan should include a healthy balance of food groups including a blend of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.The fats and proteins in our diet are converted very slowly by our bodies but carbohydrates are converted into glucose much more quickly than the fats and proteins we eat. Carbohydrates are found in a many foods including fruits and vegetables and milk products. Breads, grains and cereals are some of the carbohydrates that can include beneficial fiber.The fast conversion of carbohydrates, especially white breads and refined flours that have little nutritional value, can cause elevated sugar levels in our blood. When there is excess glucose or sugar in the blood then the body may be signaled to store it in the body’s fat cells.This is very significant, when there is excess glucose or sugar in the blood our body will produce insulin to bring the blood sugar level back to normal.Insulin is a hormone that manages the body’s energy and fat storage systems. So while the insulin works to reduce the blood sugar levels, it also increases the amount of fat cells in our body. Further, the Insulin also prevents the release of our stored fat, making that fat unavailable for use by our body as energy. As this stored fat cannot be burned it becomes increasingly difficult to lose weight.Most low carb diets claim that reducing carbs such as sugars and grains, and some fruits or vegetables, is very effective. Some of the well known diets we have all heard about such as The Atkins Diet or South Beach Diet rationalize that reducing carbs, or having a good balance of fats, carbohydrates and protein in every meal will lead to weight loss and improved health.Ideally our low carb diet plan can help with weight loss, but should be combined with an exercise routine so that our body burns more fat and reduces its tendency to build fat stores. A reduced carb diet of healthy grains, fruits and vegetables, supplemented with low carb shakes can be a very effective way of shedding some extra weight and realizing health benefits.Make the goal of your program a life long and enjoyable journey to improved health.