The ‘Nut’ in NutSEx™
Nutrition is the first and most important part of NutSEx™. Without the appropriate macro-nutrients, no amount of supplementation is going to provide the body with what it needs to function optimally.
The standard advice to eat healthy is as commonplace as it is misunderstood. Too frequently healthful nutrition or eating habits is associated, nowadays, with a diet rich in complex carbohydrates and fruit (and juices). A diet which is so devoid of taste and flavor and so unbalanced in its composition that it only results in creating a population of forever hungry, weight-gaining people who have continual headaches, chronic fatigue, depression, you name it.
In order to understand what eating healthy means, we have to understand the various macro-nutrients which make up the food we ingest every day. We need to find out their effects and side effects. Then we have to understand our bodies’ short term and long term needs.
The Macro-Nutrient Groups
Remember that your nutrient-extraction / waste-disposal system (i.e. your digestive system) will break down (or try to!) everything you ingest in order to obtain the basic building block materials needed to build, repair, defend and fuel the body. With this in mind, it is useful to think of the food we eat during the day as being composed of five major constituent groups. Some of those groups are simple, some are complex. The five macro-nutrient groups are:
- Water
- Protein
- Lipids (Fats and Oils)
- Carbohydrates
- Alcohol
All naturally occurring foods contain one or more of these macro nutrients. In order to become a conscious practitioner of NutSEx™, you have to become aware, on a minute-to-minute basis of what you are eating, and (approximately) what the relative values of the macro-nutrients are which you are ingesting.
Essential Macro-Nutrients
Of the five groups introduced above, three are essential. Essential, in this context, means that life cannot be sustained without ingestion of this macro-nutrient. I do not say ‘optimal life’, just ‘life’. If you do not have access to adequate amounts of these nutrients, you die!
The essential nutrients are: (1) Water, (2) Protein, (3) Lipids. That is correct! You do not (strictly speaking) need carbohydrates (i.e. plant based stuff) and alcohol. Life can be more pleasant with them, but they are not essential.
No Water? You Die!
No Protein? You Die!
No Lipids? You Die!
Don’t get me wrong, both carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, staples, desserts) and drinks (Corona, Cabernet, Margarita, Martini) not only can be very enjoyable, but even have documented health benefits! The point is, however, they are not essential to human life.
Non-Essential Macro Nutrients – Why Bother?
Just as Water, Protein and Lipids are essential for Human Life, Carbohydrates and Alcohol are not. So what’s the deal? Both provide some benefits to our well-being. With those benefits also come some serious dangers. In that respect, alcohol has gotten the bum rap recently. In the olden days, it was clear that, because of contaminated water supply, not only did you rather drink beer or wine than water, you even carried wine with you as a water de-contaminant. Indeed, there are documented anti-biotic properties in wine. Adding some wine (which you carried with you in a bladder) to the water – while traveling, was likely to keep you reasonably free of Montezuma’s or other revenges.
No Potatoes Bread Candy?
You’ll live …No Beer / Wine Margarita?
You’ll live …
At home, of course, you had ample access to beer or wine (depending on where you lived), and that’s what you and your family would drink, unadulterated or mixed with some water. Coffee and tea are late inventions. Infusions (tea) were used more for medicinal purposes than for quenching thirst. Firstly because they were harder to make, and secondly because the real danger of toxicity! Just because something is natural, and comes from a plant, does not mean it is harmless!
Just as alcohol, by itself and/or by association of the drinks it was incorporated in, has a good side, so do carbohydrates. Indeed, fruits carry both essential and beneficial micro-nutrients. Vegetables provide fiber, water soluble vitamins, minerals and other micro-nutrients essential for good health.
The problem is with quantities and quality. Just as an over consumption of alcohol can lead to both acute and chronic illness, so can the overindulgence in carbohydrates. Overindulgence in alcohol can lead to alcoholism and its complications, overindulgence in carbohydrates can lead to adult onset diabetes, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure and a plethora of other chronic conditions.