The most interesting of conversations often happen in the most unlikely of places. After a very early morning swim in the sea, we were delighted to find a coffee shop that opened at 6:30am and I was introduced to ‘the bullet’ – a short coffee blended with coconut oil. And as often happens, I am asked for my opinion.
Hesitant to ruin what had been a lovely therapeutic start to the day, I was
Achieving all these holy grails of nutrition has become so much hard work. More guilt-infused than a Jewish mother. I feel exhausted.
A few hours later I was talking to my friend, colleague and fellow cold water swimmer Annelie Smith, one of the most competent nutrigenomics dietitians I work with. I was sharing my concerns about this new and unforgiving nutrition ‘religion’. We were reminiscing about what it was like being a dietitian 20 years ago. How our patients attained great health, vitality, and weight loss, even with dairy and carbs in their diet, the wheat and gluten variety.
I’m not saying there isn’t good solid science for the changes we are making to our client’s diets, but I also believe that many of the problems we are encountering are emanating more from our food systems and the industrial-agricultural complex producing our food, than the food itself.
I do think we need to be more cautious with our absolute conviction of what is good and what bad. We have been down the egg, margarine, anti-oxidant road before and we know we get it wrong. Nutrition is so damn complicated, yet we act as though we know so much. For myself, I think it’s time to reflect, be humble and to step back, just a bit.
Yael