Pillars of Food: Quality, Amount, and Timing

Mind if I just cut through the bullshit on health?

First, the great tripod of human health is food, movement, and sleep.

Yes, there are other important factors like time in nature, community, and mindset. The first three are what really move the needle.

Second, we’re each slightly different. Some of us respond well to more meat, some respond well to more veggies.

Thinking that works for YOU is what will work for everyone else is an indication that you need to pay more attention to the world, NOT that you should continue telling the world to do it your way.

Third, not only are we different from other people, as we age and change we become different from ourselves.

This last point is slightly more complex than just not eating the same diet at 40 years old you ate at 20.

Let’s talk about food.

As we age we seem to become more sensitive to food in quality, amount, and timing.

What does this mean for you as you move further and further away from being able to turn 6 late night pizzas into a 6 minute mile?

Quality: A 21 year old human is basically a machine for turning any type of food into close-to-peak human performance. As you age you’ll find that it makes a real difference to actually eliminate low quality food and only eat higher quality food.

Amount: Try eating less. Basically, the less you eat while still responding to real hunger signals (not emotional eating, sugar craves, or the cultural “3 square meals a day” demands), the healthier you are.

Timing: Take more time between meals. 3 meals a day is usually way more calories and more frequently than you need to eat. Your digestive system needs time to process what you eat, usually about 8 hours. If you eat at 8 AM, you may find that waiting until 4 pm for an early dinner makes a huge difference to both how you feel and the quality of your sleep.

Ok, more to follow on movement and sleep. For now, if you want to radically change your health and want to do just one thing, try starting with changing the quality, amount, and timing of what you eat.

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Nik Hawks

Author

Nik Hawks helps run the show at Paleo Treats. Fascinated by humans in all their strange glory, Nik is harnessed in and pulling hard in pursuit of excellence with the rest of the PT Crew. Enjoy!

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