Nutrition: Why It's An Individualized Thing

One size fits all when it comes to scarves and those plastic ponchos from amusement parks, but not when it comes to nutrition. Translating your body’s subtle (or not-so-subtle) responses to what you eat into an optimized master-plan for wellness is a skill that takes cultivating. But when you listen to your body, you can start to create your ultimate grocery list that will help you feel energized and radiant.   We solemnly swear that this blog will not end by pretending to have revealed your personalized nutrition plan from the divine heavens. However, our intention is to share a few resources that you can help you fill the gaps of what school systems and our parents forgot to tell us. They were all like, “Ehhh, they’ll figure it out later in life. Let’s play dodgeball instead.” One of the reasons one size does not fit all (and is actually damaging to most when it comes to nutrition) is because our bodies and lifestyles are incredibly different. Here are some of the factors that affect what foods your body really wants; let’s call them the three M’s.

Your Metabolic Type and Individualized Nutrition

Metabolic typing is the process of figuring out which foods work best with your body’s unique chemistry.  Metabolic types are usually categorized as follows:

• Carbo Type
• Protein Type
• Mixed Type

Each type corresponds to a recommended ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. It’s kind of like a fun personality test, but better. (I’m not sure why it’s better, but let’s roll with it.) Warning: it asks you to answer very specific questions about your body, like, “What is the texture of your saliva - is it thick and ropey?”. Yeah, you should definitely take the quiz.

Menstruation and Nutrition

Even if your body does not menstruate and never will, maybe one day you will have a partner, daughter, or friend who does. Read on, my friend. When you’re menstruating, your body uses its supply of vitamins B, C, and E at a faster rate than when you’re not menstruating. To balance this, or to attempt to balance this whirlwind of chemical changes, you can up your intake of the alphabet soup above. Resources below, yo. Vitamin B Vitamin B-rich foods include seafood like crab or shellfish. And certain kinds of meats too, such as liver and grass fed beef.  Some nutritionists recommend B12 supplements for vegans. If you're vegan though, you probably already know this and are annoyed to read this fun fact yet again. Recommended recipe: Mahi-mahi with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce Vitamin C Incorporate a little more kale, brussel sprouts, or red bell peppers into your days. C, this is kind of easy. Recommended recipe: Holy Honey Balsamic B-Sprouts Vitamin E You could eat a lot of spinach to get your daily Vitamin E or you could squeeze nut butter from a pouch (the ultimate health elixir) into your smoothies. We recommend adding our Superfood Sunflower potion to this lovely Green Machine smoothie. Sunflower seeds are rockin' the Vitamin E game.

Nutrition for Ms. Moody Judy 

A telltale sign that your diet could use some adjustments is if you feel sullen and catch yourself scowling at the world - and we are talking about more than just the casual RBF. This connection exists because of this little thing called the gut-brain axis (GBA from here on out). To feel happy, you need to make your amygdala happy. (My what?) Your amygdala, which is the emotional control center of that big ol’ brain of yours. Your amygdala, through the GBA, is in constant communication with your intestines. Check out this advice, curated from the nutrition-guru and RD Frances Largeman-Roth for a smattering of good-mood-food ideas. Kudos to you for taking the time to learn how to treat your body like the gift it is. Go forth and fine-tune! Or at least reduce the amount time you spend staring at the dairy section  of a grocery store thinking, “So should I buy almond, coconut, cashew, 2%, skim, raw whole,  goat, or hemp milk? Also, how do they milk nuts? Is dairy bad for me? Does goat milk taste like a goat? What will people think of me if I start drinking raw whole milk? “Oh hey Stacy, great to see you! Yeah I’m great, just questioning life as I gaze at all these milk substitutes, ya know! How are you?”