Micronutrient Obsession

Excuse me while I blatantly generalize for a moment. Think about the last conversation you’ve had with your neighborhood health freak. What was nutritional focus of the conversation?

If I had to guess (and continue to generalize), I’d bet there was a ton of talk about wonderful vitamins and minerals. I’m sure there was no shortage of talk about amazing “nutrients,” either. There is a smaller but probable chance that terms like “fresh,” “seasonal,” or “organic” made their way into the conversation, too.

Here’s the deal. Vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and fresh, seasonal, organics foods are great. It’s literally impossible to knock them. The stuff is a great resource for health and vitality. Period. Furthermore, much of our country’s dietary habits are vastly deficient in these areas.

[Here comes the “but.”]

But…

Micronutrients are a small part of a much, much larger picture. Micronutrients are great, but let’s not miss the forrest for the trees here people. Let me introduce you to the forrest:

Macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat) take a broad strokes look at nutrition. And, to obsess over micronutrients without some quality and quantity control around macronutrients is big mistake. Oddly, it’s my observation that some of the most health conscious folks out there are so focused on micronutrient intake that they’ve juiced, fresh squeezed, raw eaten, and organically cooked themselves into carbohydrate overload. Meanwhile, they have huge deficiencies in critical proteins and fats.

To be honest, I was inspired to write this blog after having a recent carbohydrate party at the local Kreation after a heavy training day. Here I am having a cheat meal at a place that droves of people flock to get the healthiest nutrition they could possibly imagine via smoothies and juices.

The classic Americana of “more is better” has even crept into our standard health nut’s ideology. Let me ask you this, how much Vitamin C is enough? Is 10,000mg of Vitamin C better than 600mg? Here we have people passionate about health trying to see who can ingest world record amounts of antioxidants, but haven’t had a real food protein with a complete amino acid profile in three years.

Really?

I mean, there’s only three macronutrients. Not consuming fat, for example, is a pretty glaring one third-sized hole in your game. So, before we all get too far down the rabbit hole of making nutrition a micronutrient competition, let’s consider handling the basics first. Dig in!

 

Logan Gelbrich