I’m sure you’ve heard from many of the diets above and we’re sure you’ve heard plenty of good things, maybe even bad, but why are there so many and what's the best diet? This is a trick question because there isn’t one, let us explain.
As you see in elite level sport, it takes all shapes and sizes to be at the top of the game such as the body of a marathon runner probably wouldn’t be all that successful when thrown into the middle of a sumo wrestling contest. For this reason there’s no individual training plan that we can hand out to each athlete as they walk through our door, so when it comes to Nutrition, why would it be any different? Without delving too deeply into the genetics of the human body, we have 3 different body types (see if you can work out which one you are).
I Types (Ectomorphs) Are usually skinny, don’t build muscle easily, built with a light frame and they’re quite fidgety. I Types will generally burn through energy much quicker than other body types and adding carbohydrates to their diet seems to be a good fit. We’ll talk more about this in later chapters but for now take the time to discover the basics and build from here.
V Types (Mesomorphs) Are generally quite lean and find it easier to build muscle. Their bone mass sits right in the middle of the 3 body types and any excess calories go toward building muscle, dense bones and strong connective tissue. You would expect to find a V Type participating in sports such as soccer, wrestling or even hockey players where the athlete combines all round strength, speed and agility.
O Types (Endomorphs) O Types have a larger bone structure and are often carrying a higher body mass and fat mass. An O Type doesn’t tend to burn calories in the same way an I Type would and therefor any unburnt calories are stored as fat.
So by simply taking the time to read through these different body types, you’ll notice that whilst we’re all human, we’re not necessarily built to function in the same way. Here are just a few things that we need to think about when we consider the “best" diet for a client/ ourselves.
Financial Situation: Not everyone is a CEO of a big bank and therefor money has to be treated as if it’s gold. There would be no point in us telling our client to buy only organic vegetables and only the premium meats (which is out of reach for a large portion of the population) when we’re talking to a student or a mother/ father of 5 children, it’s completely out of reach so therefor, this won’t work for them.
Time: We live in a very busy world, food can be bought on any corner where it will only cost you $10 and 5 minutes of your time. Coming home after a long day at work only to have another hour in the kitchen is most likely the last thing you want to do, so preparing our client a list of meals that require preparation and cooking time not to mention the time spent in the supermarket may simply not work for them either.
And whilst we have plenty more reasons why there is no such thing as the best diet, we’ll finish with this one.
Age: Yep, whilst most of us are trying to hide from the fact that we’re getting older (we are) our body hasn’t let it go unnoticed. Things change, we hold onto fat in places that we never had before, our metabolism slows down and it takes time for us to realise that we’re not as young as we used to be. Over time we may not tolerate our favourite “go to” foods and we need to start experimenting with new foods in order to find what works best for us.
So there you have it. There’s no such thing as the perfect diet (sorry to dangle the carrot) due to the different body types, different requirements and due to our lifestyles, one diet may work for your partner but not for you.
Keep reading through the preceding chapters to find out more about the human body, what makes us tick and to find out if there’s anything that can be done to change our genetics.
Justin Beard Pn1