Who taught you how to eat and drink? And how do you decide now what to consume? Mostly importantly, why does it matter? Registered Nutritionist Stephanie Polson from upstatuss.com shares some informative advice when it comes to understanding what and how we eat. 

Most of us go through life and never actually learn from a nutrition professional – failing to learn when it may be best for us to eat, what to eat and drink for our current age and stage, how to maintain foundations for the long-term and why any of this matters. 

Perhaps your parents taught you how to eat and drink simply through what they consumed. They influenced the foundations of your diet and now you are also influenced by what is offered around you and what everyone else does. 

So, why does any of it matter? To put it simply, diet is one of the biggest levers you can pull when it comes to your health. What makes this most challenging is the modern world and the way that we live. It feels hard to make good food choices consistently. Limited edition chocolate and ice cream pop up in advertisements, what feels like every other week.

We have food available at our fingertips, literally. Ring the takeaway store, order food delivery via an app or pick up pre-made meals from the supermarket. 

Because of the busy lifestyles we live (and the fact that these foods taste so good due to SOS – salt, oil, sugar) nutrition easily slips down the priority list. You’re tired. You’re busy. And in that moment, nutrition isn’t the priority. In that moment you desire taste and convenience. 

Ultra-processed foods are a relatively newly coined term that is gaining traction across the globe. Some of the foods that are currently defined as ultra-processed you would recognise as occasional foods, such as fast food, biscuits, salty snacks, pastries to name a few. Others, you would recognise as everyday foods such as some breads and breakfast cereals.

A 2020 University of Otago study on 800 Dunedin children showed that at 12 months, 45 per cent of their energy intake was from ultra-processed foods and this increased to 51 per cent by five years of age. 

Although we don’t have this data for New Zealand adults, in Australian adults 40 per cent of their energy intake comes from ultra-processed foods. You may be sitting there thinking that you are not part of that statistic as you believe you eat ‘pretty well most of the time’. 

In New Zealand only 6.8 per cent of adults aged 15 years and over eat the recommended amount of vegetables and fruit each day. For children aged 2–14 years this is even lower at 5.7 per cent. Compare that to 53.7 per cent of children eating fast food at least once a week; or 6.8 per cent three or more times a week.

The way Kiwis eat and drink isn’t setting them up for success when it comes to health. Many over-consume salt, added sugar and saturated fat; and under-consume fibre, phytochemicals, quality protein and some micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). 

Nutrition will be able to help you in profound ways, ways that you don’t even know about yet! 

Many of you have some sort of an exercise regime, which is excellent, but what is your nutrition regime?.