#gymwisdom

1. Choose to Drink Water

...and make the choice to invest in a water filter if necessary.  Water is second in importance only to air for sustaining life, but there are many possible contaminants in our municipal drinking water (such as lead, bacteria or even asbestos!). Water is an important component of nutrition, and if you have any concerns about water safety, I urge you to ask the municipality to analyse for organic solvents, industrial chemicals, viruses and parasites. 

2. Switch Simple Sugars for Complex Starches

Monosaccharides and disaccharides like glucose, maltose, lactose and sucrose (i.e. what’s in fruit juices, cereals, white sugar and milk) are all simple sugars absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream quickly.  Polysaccharides are long chained starches that first have to be changed by salivary enzymes, pancreatic enzymes, and maltase enzyme before they make it to the liver --  a much slower process, therefore preventing crazy blood sugar spikes and crashes. 

3. Use Amino Acids for More Than Just Pre-Workout

L-tryptophan is great for sleep, L-lysine treats cold sores, DL-phenylalanine is good for pain, L-cysteine is an antioxidant, L-taurine and L-tyrosine help with depression, and L-glutamine can be super helpful with kicking alcohol and sugar cravings...                                                  ...just to name a few

4. Understand Your Daily Protein Requirement

...and understand that you probably don’t need  quite as much as the buff guy at the supplements store tells you.  Adults aged 19 years and older require just 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.

5. Fight the Urge to Fear Fat

Fats are a macronutrient.                    That’s macro, not micro.                                             Therefore we actually NEED them.  The problem is that often we get our fats from poor sources instead of making  healthier choices.  Healthy fats include saturated fats (e.g. coconut oil or butter); monounsaturated fats (e.g. olive or almond oil); polyunsaturated fats (e.g. peanut or sesame); linoleic acid (e.g. sunflower or wheat germ); and linolenic acid (e.g. pumpkin or walnut). 

6. Chew Your Food!!!

Chewing begins the digestive process.  Salivary amylase works to soften carbohydrates, and chewing begins to separate fats.  Using your mouth to manually break down the food takes a huge load off your stomach, pancreas and duodenum - more chewing means less hydrochloric acid and pancreatic enzymes. 

7. Know Your Requirements to Avoid Deficiency/Excess

In most Western countries, the real concern is excess.  If you are worried about excess, I recommend you reduce the consumption of red/organ meats, eggs and dairy products, and instead opt for low fat protein sources such as fish, turkey, chicken and legumes.  As a general rule, your goal should be to reduce dietary fat consumption from about 40% to 30% of your calorie intake.  If your concern is with avoiding deficiencies, increase the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in the diet, with an overarching goal of reducing saturated fats to about 10% of your intake with an increase in vegetable-sourced lipids. 

8. Do Your Best to Avoid the Big C

Avoiding obesity, reducing total fat intake, eating more high-fibre foods (particularly fresh fruit and veg and whole grains), eating less salt-cured, smoked and nitrate-treated foods and minimising the consumption of alcoholic beverages are all easy ways to be cancer preventive in your 20s. 

9. Take Care of Your Heart

Reducing the amount of total fats (and specifically reducing the saturated fat and hydrogenated fat), eating more cold-water fish, keeping blood pressure under control, and raising the ratio of polyunsaturated fats : saturated fats are all sure fire ways to prevent cardiovascular disease. Extra points if you don’t smoke and exercise regularly. 

10. Get Vitamins

...either in your food, or from a capsule.  Obviously, the preferential way is via whole foods, but sometimes that’s way easier said than done - especially if you’re already depleted.