When the subject of food and wellness comes up in a conversation there seems to be some confusion or a lack of understanding about the difference between diet and nutrition.
Why on earth would someone hire a holistic nutrition professional to help them reach their goals when there are so many free tools and diets out there?
To truly appreciate how working with a holistic nutrition professional can dramatically improve your health and reach your goals faster, you need to understand the difference between diet and nutrition first.
So what is the difference?
What are diets?
According to the dictionary a diet is "a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons".
Diets are usually designed only with weight loss in mind. A diet usually restricts calories or removes food groups for the sole purpose of shedding unwanted pounds. Any time you restrict calories or remove food groups you are going to lose weight.
However diets have their limitations. They do not consider things like:
hormones,
gut health,
detoxification, or
the emotional connection we have with the food choices we make or why we are overweight in the first place.
Nutrition on the other hand is an entirely different approach. Holistic nutrition professionals understand foods very well and their influence on the body systems. They understand the role sleep, stress, mindset and environmental factors play in the quality of your health.
Weight is usually a symptom of a much bigger picture. Holistic nutrition professionals take a look at the whole person by showing you the interconnections within the body and how an imbalance in one part of the body can cascade to other parts causing symptoms.
We use tailored food and lifestyle strategies to address these imbalances so that weight is no longer the symptom.
We can detect triggers that you may not have ever considered if you had continued going about it all on your own. We also provide emotional support and understanding and know which direction to steer you in to ensure your success because most of us have been where you are.
Weight isn't just a calorie issue. Things like:
toxicity,
food quality,
digestion,
inflammation,
stress hormones,
insulin,
gut bacteria,
sleep,
lifestyle, and
mindset are all underlying factors that influence weight.
Diets are a short-term quick-fix solution that leave you feeling deprived with no better understanding of how the body works. This is why we often gain it all back.
Nutrition is nourishment and a holistic nutrition professional will guide and support you to making the best choices and changes that suit your individual needs.
According to the dictionary nutrition is "the process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth."
Life-long results happen once we learn how to support the body and mind, listen and respect the messages it sends us and approach wellness as a daily practice instead of a short-term goal.