3 Nutrition Facts That Changed the Way I Think About Food as a Dietitian

Nutrition has become a bit of a buzzword. We weaponize it to deem certain foods as “good” and other foods as “bad.” We try popular diets in hopes of weight loss or greater longevity. We take vitamins and supplements to account for any dietary deficiencies.

But nutrition, when it’s discussed scientifically, is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. Relatively speaking, providing yourself with adequate nutrition (AKA feeding yourself) should be one of the most basic, straightforward things in the world, but in practice, it’s not always so easy.

Every day we are ridden with conspiracy theories, dangerous diet trends on social media, and overall misinformation about nutrition. The line between true and false becomes increasingly blurry - with good reason!

Are seed oils really that bad? Is everyone deficient in protein? Do I need to adopt a plant-based diet to live a long life? How many carbs are too many carbs? Substantiated and vague claims like these make it hard to differentiate between what’s true and what’s false - at least on the surface.

That said, feeding yourself can be challenging when nutrition fads often offer conflicting advice and usually don’t even last long enough for you to be able to decipher what was true and what was false.

Turns out, there are some key, foundational facts that I’ve learned as a dietitian that have completely changed the way I think about food. When the diet culture noise gets too loud, these 3 truths can help cut through the noise and guide your every day feelings about food and eating decisions.

1. Yes you’re eating for your body, but you’re also eating for your brain.

Understanding that the food you’re consuming is fueling your brain too is huge in unlearning much of what diet culture has taught us. So many of the nutrition decisions we make are focused solely on our physique: Low carb diets for weight loss, high protein diets for muscle hypertrophy. Did you ever stop to think about the fact that your brain needs nutrition too? Chances are, you haven’t. And despite making up only about 2% of the body’s weight (a brain weighs ~3 pounds), the human brain consumes about 20% of the body’s total energy - or glucose obtained from the foods we consume - every day. In order to function at optimal capacity, your brain needs around 125 grams of carbohydrates per day, as glucose is mainly derived from carbohydrates. A balanced diet is a diet that includes all of the major macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins). Neglecting one of these groups - say in a low-carb diet - in the hopes of losing a few pounds usually isn’t in your brain’s or your body’s best interest.

2. Protein is cool, but have you met fiber?

If you’ve so much as opened the internet in the past year, you know that we’re in a protein craze, and it’s hard to ignore. Not only is it everywhere in the grocery store (what is high protein pasta?), but influencers and medical professionals alike have convinced us that most people are woefully deficient. In the protein craze, we’ve lost site of another important nutrient - fiber. Dietary fiber is a nutrient under the umbrella of carbohydrates that offers a range of health benefits like healthier guts and reduced risks of chronic conditions like heart disease. You can find fiber in any whole or minimally processed plant-based foods like legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. And while we’re so caught up in getting enough protein, we’ve neglected fiber, and few people consume enough of it each day. In fact, the estimated average daily intake - 16 grams - is around half of what’s recommended for women (25 grams) and men (38 grams). Fiber-rich diets tend to be high in vitamins and minerals and they support a healthy gut microbiome - making bowel movements all the more enjoyable.

3. Being thin isn’t the same as being healthy!

Like I mentioned earlier, so many of our food choices are driven by our physique goals. Not only do dieting and weight cycling promote rigid, negative thoughts about food and nutrition, but they lead to physical health complications as well. We are entrenched in the idea that being skinny means being healthy, however if you’ve achieved your body size and weight by restricting food, I’d argue that you are physically and mentally unhealthy. You might look thin to others, but inside your body, your cells and brain are begging for nutrients!