Q: "I have a friend who says she's been taking Emergen-C for electrolytes and vitamins. I really don't know why, but that's what she's been doing. She's also been having a really hard time because she's dizzy ALL the time lately. It's been happening for weeks. Today, she researched Emergen-C and found it has MSG in it, so now she's raving about neurotoxins. She asked me "What's that stuff you use that you bought at the running store?". I sent her a link to Heed. I love Heed, but only drink it when I'm working out. She's freaking out about the Heed, too, because it has "natural flavors". I sent her their explanation of natural flavors and she's still freaking out.
My question to you is this: Do you have ANY idea what I can suggest to her? She's a very close friend, and I love her, but I don't have the patience to watch THAT closely what goes into my body. I've come to accept that unless I were to grow EVERY single thing and monitor my water supply, I will ingest poisons.
You're the only person I know who would even have a clue about this stuff. Like I said, I don't know why she feels she needs the electrolytes.
Thank you for your time, Guru. I appreciate all of your awesome advice, whether it's here or on Twitter. :) You're one of a kind!
Love Always,
Your Biggest Fan"
And my answer:
"Dear Biggest Fan,
Is your friend an athlete? I'm not sure why she would need electrolytes either. Has she tried drinking coconut water? What is she worried that she might be missing?
Some people need a serious smack into being a flexitarian... Meaning, that they need to remove the nutrition stick out of their ass and not worry so much about everything. Worrying and being anal retentive about food causes worse damage to your body than a bit of "natural flavors" ever could. She needs to follow the 90/10 rule: 90% of what I eat is healthful, making it so that the other 10% is irrelevant.
For example, I ate an assload of fruit and greens today. Then I ate a rice krispy treat. I'm still healthier than 99% of people in this country.
Thanks for the compliments. I'm always happy to help :)
Guru"
What do you readers think about this? Is a 100% healthy diet or an 80- 90% flexible healthy diet better in the long run?
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
10 comments:
80-90% definitely.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, actually. What is the damn point of eating healthy and exercising to keep your body strong if you can't enjoy yourself? To be a 120-year-old neurotic grouch?
I've also been feeling like there's a certain amount of nutritional one-upsmanship that goes on. You're a meat eater? I'm a vegetarian. You're a vegetarian? I'm vegan? You're vegan? I only eat raw. You only eat raw? I subsist on good Karma.
Don't get me wrong, good nutrition habits are vital. But that cookie isn't going to kill you!
Amen to that. I agree about the 90% thing. Particularly when you are working your ass off. You can't deny yourself the treats.. might end up setting yourself up for some MAJOR over doing it!
And Mrs. TheyTri.. so damn true. Oh yea.. well I'm better than you! :) haha
I used to think that nutrition was like one stop shopping. We should all be doing the same thing for optimum health, but as I learn more I don't believe that. We are all so different. Sure there are foods that bring great benefit from adding them to your diet, but nutrition is not one size fits all.
Definitely not 100% healthy. 90% seems a bit high but it's something to strive for. We all have a food vice, mine is dark chocolate. To deny that would be mentally taxing and would make me a boring, cranky, ass wad.
@Mrs. TheyTri - Good point with the nutritional one-upsmanship. I despise that because it completely ignores people's individual nutritional needs. Maybe just one-up those people by saying you're a breathatarian?
@Laura - In nutrition school they taught us "one man's diet is another man's poison". I completely agree with you.
@gaidner - You haven't been eating your daily dose of dark chocolate? That explains a lot ;)
90% does seem high but its nice to always strive for something. It's kind of similar to how we race to motivate us to be active (though we also do it for the friends and laughs and murdercakes). I recently had a few of my clients come up with a personalized 3-tier system. Tier #1 (top tier) is meant to be very strict and would work well for a cleanse or to refocus healthy goals for a short period. It's essentially 100%. Tier #2 is the everyday healthy diet (ideally) and is 80-90%. And tier #3 is the relaxed diet that focuses on the minimum required to feel "on the wagon" while relaxing more than usual. The bottom tier is useful for traveling, holidays, etc and would be about 60-70%.
Isn't that genius? I'll do a blog post with examples soon.
very interesting. i actually mix Emergen-C, Redbull and Gadorade into my water bottles all the time and think it rocks when it comes to a workout.
I totally agree with the 90/10 and I agree w @Mrs. TheyTri as well. I'm so sick of nutritional 1-uppers. Really, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the finish line.
In conclusion, if she has to take Emergen-C, she isnt eating enough veggies right?
@baker - Your conclusion is correct. I actually also responded, "you know there are electrolytes in real food, right?" One of my favorite sources is actually maple syrup. Yum :)
@holisticguru but that maple syrup has to have enough iron right? I hope I can find the right syrup at Trader Joe's. I absolutely love shoping there.
Not that this was the question, but per the emergen-c web site, there isn't MSG in emergen-c
http://www.emergenc.com/index.php/misc/faq
"Do your products contain MSG?
* No, neither Alacer nor our suppliers add or use MSG. Alacer uses natural fruit flavors that are of such high quality they do not require the use of MSG to enhance their flavor."
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