Nutritional assessment

How should you eat to ensure you're getting the best nutritional value from your food? Our nutrition expert Dax Moy has devised a questionnaire to assess which foods will work best for you.

Have you ever noticed how many diet and nutrition books there are in the bookshops right now?

It seems that the areas of weight control and nutrition are amongst the most popular reading materials, with many well-known stores stocking no fewer than 80 different diet plans! That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing, but examine the content a little more closely and I guarantee you'll be left totally confused and bewildered about how you should eat.

You see, there are so many different approaches out there right now - from high protein to high carbs, from macrobiotic to food combining and everything in between - that, for most of us, food choices come down to simple preference or best guess.

And don't expect science to help you out, either.

Each of the current food philosophies that are popular in the media are all backed up to the hilt with 'scientific evidence' that claims to 'prove' that their approach is the right one. Yet how can this be so? One claims proof that high protein is good for you, while another says the exact opposite. So what's the truth? Why is there so much variance in nutritional advice?

The answer is quite simple, really… we're all different!

Just as no two people have the same fingerprints or iris patterns so, too, are we different in other ways. Our chemical make-up varies from person to person (this is evident in our skin tone, hair colour, blood groups, body odours, etc) and as such is directly affected by the foods we eat. How? Think about it – when you mix any two chemicals together you get a certain specific response based upon the relative amount of each. Now, why should we as humans be any different? We are merely a collection of chemical compounds (as are the foods we eat) that respond in a similar way to any other chemicals. All sound a bit too simplistic to be true? Okay, think about this, then.

Do you know anyone who reacts badly to eating any particular foods, seafood for example? You know the type, every time they eat prawns they are physically sick or have stomach pains. Why do you think that is? What about the recent 'may contain nuts' warnings on many of our pre-packaged foods? Why should these foods cause us problems? Are they bad for us? No, not at all! It's just that for these individuals, the reactions between their own unique biochemistry and the chemicals in the foods they ingest are creating allergies and intolerances.

So, you see, we all have our own unique biochemical individuality and so relying on the off-the-shelf approaches that are heavily promoted by celebrities (who are being paid handsomely to promote them), means selling ourselves short and rarely, if ever, reaching our goals.

The answer lies in taking the individual approach and finding out the unique mix of nutrients that help us to function at our best while removing those that don't. And it's not as difficult as it may sound, either. Metabolic typing (the science of matching nutrients to biochemistry) can be assessed by way of a simple questionnaire that determines your dominant fuel types.

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