Fit to SURVIVE
The fire fighter’s guide to health and nutrition
So, You Want to Change
Your Nutrition Game BY ALEX BOERSMA, ACTING CAPTAIN, 415-A
Confused about the state of nutrition science? Not sure what you should or should not eat? Frustrated by the incessant onslaught of conflicting dietary narratives being hyped in the media? Well why wouldn’t you be? One day, the World Health Organization proclaims that eating red meat is on carcinogenic par with cigarette smoking. Only a few months later, the largest meta-analysis ever on the subject tells you that the quality of evidence condemning red meat (even processed red meat) is so unconvincing that it should simply be disregarded. And literally the next day, Netflix airs a compelling yet decidedly biased documentary indicting meat and suggesting that plantbased diets are superior for everything from general health to high performance athletics to saving the planet.
There are some fundamental principles which are common to almost every successful dietary strategy. If we can adhere to these common principles, we should be able to experience enduring vitality. So instead of perseverating over the controversial fringes of any given dietary approach, why not try putting into practice the common elements upon which almost all these approaches agree?
Of course, the media loves to portray nutritional approaches in this binary, black vs white context. Controversy always gets more clicks than nuance. But this doesn’t mean that consumers should feel obliged to take an all or none approach to eating. The truth is, long term health is much more likely to be realized by exploring the commonalities between differing nutritional approaches than by disputing the extremes which divide them.
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