Nutrition is the definition of simple, not easy. It’s not complicated to eat the right kinds and right amounts of foods to help you get stronger, build muscle and improve health outcomes. It is, however, surprisingly challenging.
That’s because nutrition is all about building habits to remove the need to expend mental energy and willpower. Most people falter with their nutrition not because they don’t know what to eat or how much to eat, but because when it comes to making the right choice, they simply don’t feel like it. And the I-don’t-feel-like-it’s are the ultimate downfall of anyone who’s trying to develop discipline-based habits.
As if it wasn’t hard enough to eat right, the nutritional landscape is more saturated than ever with gurus who spout false, misleading and sometimes downright malicious information. Look no further than Liver King’s fall from grace as an example of the kind of nutritional bullshit that permeates every inch of social media. Just when you think you’ve got the “what” figured out and you’re ready to take on the “how,” some snake oil salesman comes along telling you that the secret to immortality is bull testicles and that vegetables will kill you.
Before we get to myth busting, I’ve got a brand new e-book, Fueled for Strength: 25-Day Healthy Habits Nutrition Guide, that’s free when you sign up for my newsletter. It’ll help you establish the three most important (and most basic) nutritional habits to help you get stronger, build muscle and feel better.
Now let’s clear up some of the confusion. Here are five myths that I see spouted way too often that can prevent people from taking that crucial first step toward taking control of their nutrition.
You Have to Eat Organic Food
I’m not sure there’s any worse form of nutritional gatekeeping than telling people they have to buy and eat only organic food. Not only does research suggest there’s no nutritional superiority to organic food versus conventional, but organic food is more expensive and generally harder to find.
Most of the small health advantages of eating organic food that is suggested in research can likely be explained by the other lifestyle factors demonstrated by those who regularly consume organic food: they’re younger, have a higher income, and exercise more. Correlation, not causation.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. Your total caloric intake and your macronutrient breakdown are way more important than if your kale is organic or not.
You Have to Cook All Your Own Food
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of meal prepping. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail, as they say. When you make all your own food, you’re in complete control of what you’re putting in your body. However, the time and energy needed to meal prep every week (or even multiple times per week) can be a huge barrier for some people when it comes to building quality nutrition habits.
Good news: there are plenty of viable options that don’t include cooking your own food. There are more healthy takeout food options than ever before, including plenty of places that will measure your food if you ask them (and if you don’t ask, the answer is always no).
Meal delivery services are plentiful as well, with tons of companies catering to the fitness crowd with meals based on certain caloric and macronutrient needs. If you’re willing to pay a little extra for the convenience, you can save yourself tons of time and guesswork by getting your meals delivered right to your door.
You Have to Buy Fresh, Local Food
There was a time in my life when I could drive to the local farmer’s market every week and buy fresh, local produce, meat, eggs and whatever other hippy dippy stuff my heart desired. Then I moved to an urban area, opened my own business and had kids. Excuses are like sphincters but driving to the local supermarket and buying a combination of fresh AND frozen food makes a hell of a lot more sense for my family.
It’s nice to look a farmer in the eye, pay them in cash and shake their hand as you depart with a burlap bag full of mustard greens and pastured-raised eggs. But if you’re already tripping over the starting line when it comes to establishing basic healthy habits, just go to Stop & Shop. Buy the microwave-in-the-bag vegetables. Get the rotisserie chicken. Do whatever makes it as simple as possible to get the job done.
Supplements Won’t Help Until You Nail the Basics
I have 100 percent perpetuated this myth in both written and verbal forms at some point in my coaching career. It’s a hardo move to claim that supplements are worthless unless your nutrition is already dialed in. Not only is this false, but taking the few supplements that actually work can be the easiest step a nutritional newbie can take to start establishing positive habits.
What’s easier: learning to count calories and macros? Or taking a couple fish oil pills every day?
There are only so many supplements that actually work anyway. Don’t hold off on these. Whey protein makes hitting your daily protein requirements so much easier. Nobody’s eating enough mackerel or getting enough shirtless sunlight to hit their omega-3 or vitamin D needs, respectively. And creatine helps you get jacked, like, immediately. There’s very little instant gratification in fitness, but the rapid gains with creatine are so motivating that they’ll likely have a domino effect in terms of other positive habits.
If a Caveman Wouldn’t Eat It…
Ah yes, the paleo disciple’s favorite logical fallacy. If a caveman couldn’t eat it, neither should you. Because fuck modern agriculture, right? We should revert back to perpetual food scarcity and a life expectancy a quarter of what it is today.
Rice making it really easy to carb up before a big lift? Sorry, cavemen didn’t have rice paddies. Enjoying an intra-workout pick-me-up from that Gatorade? Nope, no electrolytes in the jungle.
Because we have such accurate knowledge of what cavemen actually ate and drank… and can assume that whatever they consumed is “better” than what we have today.
The only one that comes close to this one is the anti-dairy sentiment, “No other species drinks another species’ milk.” I’m sure a starving calf would gladly nestle up to a goat teet if it were hungry enough. Daily protein needs are hard enough without having to feel weird about knocking back a pint of moo juice.
You have my permission to enjoy the nutritional luxuries of modern society. Cancel that simulated hunt, fire up the grill and chow down on some 80/20 burger patties that you didn’t slay with your own bow and arrow.
Fueled for Strength: 25-Day Healthy Habits Nutrition Guide
I am more than happy to cut through all the bullshit on your behalf. My brand-new e-book, Fueled for Strength, will help you establish:
- A healthy relationship with food
- A basic understanding of what your body needs to perform at its best
- Habits and behaviors to make nutrition as automatic and low-stress as possible
I’ve established a consistent approach to helping my lifters when they ask me for nutrition advice. It revolves around:
- Mindfulness: You can’t know what to do next if you don’t know what you’re doing now.
- Small habits: You can’t change everything all at once. Start small and simple.
- Consistency: It takes time to establish habits. Don’t move onto the next one until you’ve nailed the first one.
This guide will help you build three essential habits over 25 days so you can feel better, lift heavier and spend less mental energy deciding how and what to eat. And it’s yours for free when you sign up for the Bonvec Strength newsletter. Fill out the form below to claim your free download.