BodySpace Spokesmodel Contest, and Principles of Nutrition - Derek

I have recently entered a competition through bodybuilding.com for a chance to become the BodySpace Spokesmodel of 2011! If I win I will get a chance to be on the cover of Iron Man Magazine and attend the Arnold Classic and Mr. Olympia contests. A great opportunity, and extra motivation to get well and get back to training. To win I need the most votes on my photos, so check them out Here and vote! You can vote once per day for the month of November so repeats are especially appreciated! (my screen name is Treesize and contestants are listed alphabetically).

I also wanted to go into a little more depth on some highlights from my Plant Based Nutrition certification. Dr. T Colin Campbell outlined his lessons in nutrition with 8 Nutrition Principles. While nutrition is an extremely complex and integrative topic, these 8 principles were designed to answer many fundamental questions about nutrition and to provide a simple guide to healthy eating. I want to cover the first three here:

1. Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless food substances, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When you consider that each whole food has literally thousands of compounds within it, many of which are unknown and/or unstudied, imagine the possibilities for beneficial synergistic effects when many whole foods are eaten together. I talked about this when I discussed phytochemicals in an older post.

2. Vitamin supplements are not a panacea for good health.

In other words, eating terribly can not be made up for by taking some isolated vitamins. Dr. Campbell describes nutrition as operating as an infinitely complex biochemical system involving thousands of chemicals and thousands of effects. Isolated nutrients cannot substitute for whole foods and may have dangerous side effects. Studies cited in the course described Vitamin A and E supplementations as being associated with an increased incidence of caner - something to think about!

3. There are no nutrients in animal foods that are not better provided by plant foods.

Animals products across the board are rich sources of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol (which is only present in animal foods). Plant foods, on the other hand, are good sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants (with the last two only being present in plant foods). Many indicative charts were presented that showed the striking distinctions between these two categories, but plain and simple: Plants have more nutrients and less calories, while animal products offer the exact opposite.

I will follow up with more nutritional principles soon. So, in the meantime make sure you check out my pictures and vote, and eat your Beans & Greens!