I haven’t forgotten that I’ve committed to the realm of the transcendent for this editorial, but I am after all, a professional meathead. Therefore though I promise to deliver an important and unique thesis today, first I must use the analogy that birthed this revelation as it pertains to some nuances of nutrition. Following, I will give a few examples of physiology responding to dietary choices that will reveal a pattern for your recognition. Please understand that to avoid getting you lost in the sauce I’m attempting to keep it fairly simple, but there are many more proven similar instances and they are much more complex than I’m reducing them to.

In the wild, mammals that hibernate will often eat an increased volume of sweet vegetation like honey, fruits and berries as they approach the winter. This is not necessarily a conscious decision, as they rely mainly on instinct, but additionally because those sweet treats cause a hormonal response that affects the animals’ brain chemistry making them feel more hungry the more they eat. As well, these high-sugar foods give them the energy needed to consume the huge amount needed to survive the winter asleep. By the way, we may not hibernate, but we are mammals, and many foods (natural or not) that contain high levels of sugar affect us in a similar way.

Recent studies and anecdotal trends have been reported on exhibiting interesting examples of school-aged children having extreme changes in behavior when avoiding artificial food coloring in their diet. In increasing numbers, this narrative tells of a child with some sort of attention deficit, unruly behavior, or a combination of both. After exhausting traditional outlets for these issues, the parents of the child would then restrict the child to only eating foods without artificial food coloring. Within a matter of days, most of these stories revealed better behavior, focus, sleep and all around well-being. Some of these examples even reported a reversal of medical diagnosis in cases like ADHD.

There’s a common misconception that ultra-processed foods provide you with less energy because they aren’t “natural” and therefore don’t digest well in our bodies. The fact of the matter is actually quite the opposite. These “foods” have fallen under scrutiny recently and the definition of what I’m even referring to may be murky. For simplicity’s sake, think of fast food, things that contain more than 3 ingredients, and anything with ingredients that you don’t know or can’t pronounce. These ultra-processed foods are actually more calorie-dense, meaning that they provide more energy than “natural” or whole foods. In addition, because digestion is a form of processing, these foods are actually easier and more rapidly digested than real food. Therein lies the rub. Finally, while these foods digest easily and contain more energy, they have far less micronutrients like vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals. Due to all of these variables, these ultra-processed foods are extremely well designed to be over-consumed as well as create the illusion of less energy through the lack of micronutrients. Therefore, we eat more of them, feel worse, and blame our metabolism, genetics or stress.

While it may now seem like I’m yelling at you for your terrible diet, I want you to detach from that conceptualization and look at these examples objectively. Where’s the common thread? What I’ve recognized through these examples, along with many more like it, is that your diet is much more a game of knowledge, psychology and behavioral modification rather than simple discipline and good decision-making. You may have already opened up a few doors to things you didn’t have any clue about in regards to nutrition just in this blog, and that’s the point. But at a more fundamental level, this issue isn’t about science, calories, nutrients, or motivation. It’s about understanding what elements of the equation are inputs, outputs and outcomes. We view every bite that we take as a conscious decision, and whether we (or Science) deem it as good or bad, it’s unequivocally an input into the equation. That’s where most of us have gone wrong. A bite, a snack, a meal, an entire diet is not just an input. Depending on the chemical makeup of what we eat, it can (and most of the time it does) influence how we feel and affects our microbiome, neurological system, psychology, and in turn - our decision-making for the next meal. Without this articulation, we spiral into eating more and more garbage, continuing to feel worse and worse, becoming less and less motivated to exercise because we can’t keep up, and this rabbit hole can easily lead us into a storm that looks a lot like depression. That’s a subject for another day, but the point remains: inputs are not always just inputs. This very real concept can easily be spotted in patterns of other aspects of life, and it has. But this is where I’m going to leave you today. It’s up to you to determine the depth and breadth of your inputs in morality, exercise, business, school, parenting, religion, relationships, etc. Your actions are rarely 100% accurate. Many times their impact reaches far beyond your intended effect. Examine this, and you may just discover the current culprit in your life.