I never listen to podcasts, but something about the thumbnail and the title – maybe the fact it included Virat Kohli and that “top athletes pay millions for this food and fitness advice” caught my eye.
Nutrition has always been pretty straightforward for me. I’ve never had any allergies (that I’m aware of) past the age of 2. As such, my approach to nutrition was very basic – lots of protein, eat your veggies, a couple of fruits, and since I’m very active, don’t skip the carbs and fats. And of course, let’s not forget water.
However, Ryan Fernando, a celebrity nutritionist featured on this podcast, completely transformed my perspective on nutrition. I never could have imagined that the food we eat has such far-reaching consequences on us, from our mental health (no, not the oversimplified “chocolate makes us feel good”) to our careers.
You can’t eat everything
One of the major revelations for me in this podcast was when Fernando highlighted how humans, based on their genetics and geography, are predisposed to tolerating certain kinds of foods. While most of us misunderstand food intolerance as limited to us getting devastating stomach aches or diarrhoea, milder reactions like gas, that we often neglect, do not mean that the food we are eating is being accepted by our body.
For instance, consider the way in which North Indian diets consist of a lot of milk and dairy. The climate there was not very hot, so milk didn’t spoil quickly. Over a period of several centuries, milk has made its way to the South, and because of the hotter environment there, it has become curd (dahi) because otherwise milk would spoil. However, with the advent of refrigeration, South Indians are also able to consume milk in its natural form, but they’ve been carrying the gene of lactose intolerance for years!
There’s simply very little awareness of this, and the intolerance becomes accentuated when marriages and children come into the picture. There’s very little clarity or understanding on what the parents tolerate, especially if both of them are from different parts of the country. So, how will there be any help for the children (now a product of two different nutrition genes)? Consequently, perhaps a heavily lactose intolerant child will be force-fed milk and dairy products in their childhood because of its nutritional value, but nobody would have a clue as to why the child is refusing it or why s/he has a build-up of gas!
The same applies to gluten. Many of us in India have been raised by our parents to eat rotis, parathas, naans; it’s been passed down from generations that this is how we eat our food. People believe that because they’ve eaten it all their life and because their parents and their grandparents ate it all their life, they should also continue to eat it. But the reality is, as Ryan Fernando shared, we can’t eat what we want! Even a hundred years back, there wasn’t as much choice; you were restricted to select few items that you could eat, and that was it. There’s a bio-individuality to what we can eat, and the faster we discover that, the happier our bodies will be.
Psychological Impact
Food is fuel. But often, food is viewed as pleasure. The very essence of nutrition, as discussed in this podcast, is that when done right, it can fuel our performance, happiness, and success. By extension, making the wrong choices will deter us from attaining any of these, at least not optimally.
Did you know that the cause for poor mental health, depression, and suicide could be attributed to nutrition? Ryan Fernando was very stern in saying that we should go and get our gut checked. The food we eat isn’t based on science, it’s based on emotion and culture, and that’s where we end up going wrong.
If our nutritional intake is poor, our intestines and our gut, which digest and break down molecules and pump it into our bloodstream, will inherently be releasing bad bacteria. As this flows in our bloodstream to our brain, our muscles, it’s obvious that because of terrible eating habits, the production of the hormones essential for our mental health will also be destabilised. This occurs because we’re pumping rubbish into our bloodstream in the form of junk foods, foods with pesticides, and so on. We have to take charge of what we put into our body and consistently ask the question: “Is this food worth going into my body?”
Fernando discussed another example around mental health which was truly fascinating and was to do with toxoplasmosis. Sometimes this infection gets into the human body through the food we eat, and this microorganism, if in our bloodstream, can increase violent tendencies significantly. Did you ever think that the person on the highway who road rages at you violently and aggressively behaves in such a manner because of what s/he eats? This singular bacteria can alter our behaviour to such an extent! This certainly underscores the importance of good nutrition and was eye opening to me.
Finally, Fernando also mentioned how food drives our spirituality, mood, and biochemistry. Whether you’re an athlete or not, the food you eat is crucial—specific to your pursuit of excellence. This was a truly insightful piece of information that I learned from this podcast and really resonated with. Regardless of whether you work at a desk all day or you run ultramarathons, if you’re to excel at that, be the best you can be, it sure as hell won’t happen if you’re stuffing yourself with chips!
Additional Insights
While these were the key aspects of his discussion that stood out to me, there were some steps suggested that everyone should take with their diet and nutrition. What are the actionable steps to better health? What were some major takeaways?
- We eat too much as a species. Consider fasting and skipping 1-2 meals a week
- Walking 6-7km a day
- New found habits that are simple do take 21 days. But complex habits, like exercise and diet, will take anywhere from 67 to 254 days to stick! That’s why people struggle to stick to their gym membership but can easily make the habit of drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning.
- Get tested for what you can and cannot eat. If you can’t test, cut out certain things for a month (start with gluten/dairy), and judge the results based on your stool, skin, energy levels etc. It’s no surprise to me now why my grandparents outright reject certain foods; they’ve tried and tested everything, they know what they can tolerate and what they can’t! Better to find out sooner than later so it can propel us to be successful.
- Sunlight exposure as it sets
- Eat organic
- Blood test once a year
- 1 hour a day without technology
- 7 hours of sleep at a stretch
- Last meal of the day at least 3 hours before sleeping
Food is complicated. But after listening to this podcast (which I highly recommend, because what I learned was truly astonishing ), I now understand the value of nutrition and health. I look forward to taking the steps to optimise my body to prime it for success through my eating, thanks to this podcast.
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