Supplementing with a Balanced Diet
Supplementing with a Balanced Diet
It's essential to understand where your food choices and the ingredients that make up your diet are coming from. The growing, harvesting and processing of our food and supplements have a tremendous impact on our overall health, performance, and the ability to recover. Recently we have seen bans on importing food products and ingredients from China where growing and manufacturing conditions are poorly controlled, and contamination is a significant problem.
You are what you eat as the story goes. Our bodies are made from amino acids, salts, essential fatty acids, sugars, vitamins and minerals along with other essential nutrients obtained from our diet and lifestyle. Vitamin D from the sun, electrolytes from clean water, and fresh oxygen all help to maintain optimal health, build protein chains (hair, fingernails, skin, joints), supply energy to our brain and muscles, rebuild torn tissue, as well as maintain cellular functions. All are contributing to what is referred to as homeostasis in the body, balance.
Anything our bodies do not use from our diet to maintain, repair, or as a fuel source will either be stored as fat or excreted out through breathing, urine, sweat, and bowel movements. A balanced diet gives the body everything it needs to recover, grow, and perform. Supplementation is necessary through times of stress or when the diet is lacking balance.
As you read through, I have provided some thoughts, information, and valuable tips. All with the hope that I can inspire you to look closer at the food you consume and consider what it is doing for your body so you can achieve your own balance.
Diets
There are more diets than anyone could keep track of from; 5:2, vegan, keto, paleo, carnivore, intermittent fasting, HCLF, HFLC, pescatarian, proletarian, FODMAPS, SIBO, the snake diet, the lion's diet to name a few of the more recent popular diets and protocols. Although, Is any single diet better than the other, or do they all share universal underlying principles and protocols when it comes to treating health issues, weight loss, weight gain, or performance.
Protein
It doesn’t matter if its weight loss or muscle gain, it's crucial to have the appropriate amounts of protein each day to help achieve your goals. Most respected nutrition studies will suggest eating 1g of protein per 1kg bodyweight divided evenly by daily meals for inactive individuals right through to 2.6g per kg body weight for performance athletes and comp cuts.
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and minerals are all found in whole food sources. Supplementing vitamins and minerals with a multivitamin may be necessary in times of stress on the body, when the diet is lacking balance or even if the whole food ingredients where grown or processed under poor conditions, meaning they may be lacking essential vitamins and minerals.
Amino Acids
There are nine essential amino acids, including three branch chain amino’s and 11 non-essential aminos. Essential meaning our bodies cannot make them, and we need to supplement these nine essential amino acids in our diet to form protein chains. Amino acids are linked up by branch chain amino acids to form full protein chains. You get sufficient amounts of amino acids in your diet when eating a balanced diet of meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts & seeds.
Common Supplements
Pre-Workouts are marketed as energy-boosting, stimulants, or fat burners to help you gain extra energy and focus while raising thermogenesis (body temperature) through your workouts. 1-cup of green tea or black coffee is just as good.
Testosterone: A balanced diet of essential fatty acids supplies the body with sub straights to synthesis all endogenous hormones. At least 50g per day for ladies and 60g per day for males of essential fatty acids in the diet. Testosterone supplements are made from 5-Tribulus Terrestris, a plant compound found in bindi head seeds.
Creatine: Creatine involves a loading phase to achieve muscle saturation before taking effect. This means starting with 20g per day for 7-10 days before cutting back to 5-10g per day. Creatine helps to hold water weight in the muscles while helping to provide a further energy source in strength athletes.
Fish Oil: Omega6 to omega3 ratios are profoundly out of proportion in the standard western diet. Research suggests humans evolved on a 1:3 ratio, whereas today's modern diets are closer to a 16:1 omega6: omega3 ratio, which was found to be an underlying cause of inflammation in the body. As a result, most health professionals will recommend a fish oil or omega3 supplement to uptake omega3 intake to a more natural ratio found in a natural diet.
Fish oil, omega3, or DHA/EPA is three different names for the same product. Krill oil from your pharmacy is the safest supplement source. The best real food sources of DHA/EPA are found in
1. Salmon
2. Tuna
3. Krill
4. Algae/kelp
Note:
The supplement industry is poorly regulated, so there are some essential things to look out for on the labels when supplementing a deficiency in the diet. Check that the nutrition labels say;
*made in a GMP facility
*sports safe or USADA safe
*ingredients sourced from Australia, New Zealand (these two countries have the highest food standards quality and manufacturing laws).
*no added colors, flavors, or preservatives.
*single compound nutrients with dosage instructions
*stimulant-free
The packaging is also essential as UV lighting will penetrate anything that is not in amber glass and kill off amino acids, proteins, and enzymes when not stored and packed correctly.
The Energy Equation - What's your Balance
Energy balancing implies to lose weight; you need to burn off more energy than you consume. Whereas to gain weight, you need to drink more energy than you burn off. Think of energy balancing as your bank account. The more money or power coming in, the larger your bank balance grows, where, on the other hand, if your spending more money than you are saving, your bank balance is going to be left looking very thin, possibly even put you in a deficit!
Tips and Meal Prep
Tip: Drink 2 Litres of clean water, 8hrs sleep, 1hr exercise daily with a balanced diet and clean oxygen is the most proven 'magic pill' everyone is looking for.
Meal Ideas
Breakfast
*1/2 cup rolled oats
*30g Greek yogurt
*20g chia seeds
*30g walnuts
*60g blueberries
*1-cup milk
1. Place all ingredients into an air-sealed container and leave to soak in the fridge overnight.
2. Grab overnight oats from the refrigerator in the morning, and breakfast is ready.
Lunch
*2 eggs
*25g soft cheese
*1 slice sourdough
*1/2 avocado
*1/4 lemon
*1/2-cup sautéed onions, mushrooms & tomato
*1-cup green tea
1. Boil, poach or fry two eggs with your preferred cooking method.
2. Heat a frying pan to medium-hot and sauté onions, mushrooms and tomato by continuously stirring
3. Toast one slice of sourdough.
4. Once eggs are cooked, and mushrooms and onion have been sautéed, plate all ingredients.
Snack
*20g peanut butter
*20g strawberry jam
*2 rice cakes
*green apple
*600ml water
1. One spoon equals roughly 20g.
2. Spread one spoon worth of peanut butter and one spoon of jam on two rice cakes for peanut butter and jello snack before workouts.
Dinner
*160g meats
*1-cup root vegetables
*2-cups greens
*600ml water
Portion sizes are more important than whether you prefer chicken, beef, or lamb. Meat sizes about the size of your palm are the recommended serving size.
1. Heat a frypan or grill to medium-high and place your choice of meat on the grill.
2. When blood pooling on top of steak starts to turn clear, your steak is ready to turn (or sooner if you like rarer steak).
3. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and place in your 1 cup of root vegetables and 2 cups of greens, reduce to simmer, and leave for 5-10min checking as necessary.
4. Strain vegetables and plate.
5. Plate meat and leave to stand for 5mins before eating.
Supplement recommendations
Whey/collagen Protein: grass-fed whey/collagen sourced from Australia or New Zealand.
Probiotics: refrigerated multi-strain biotic (practitioner-grade is always preferred).
Fish oil: shelf-stable or algae-based EPA/DHA (fish oil can oxidize over time).
All other supplements: Practitioner grade or single compound nutrients stored in glass amber jars with correct dosage advice in bodyweight ratios.
*Not intended as medical advice, always consult with a health care professional before starting any new treatments.
From our expert at Combat Nutrition
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