Diet and Hydration

“Have you ever wondered why the same diet can help a person

lose weight but another person gains weight?”

...

“This is because we are all unique, and there’s no

‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to eating.”

Good news... there's a method for knowing what foods suit your unique body type, and this may be a lot simpler than you think!

In this module;

Discover your ideal diet for your Metabolic Type

Learn how to fine-tune your food choices based on how you feel

Identify if you have potential food intolerances and allergies

Learn how and when to drink water

Metabolic Typing

What is Metabolic Typing?

Metabolic Typing diet is science based, with the belief that each person has a unique metabolism, and that the proportion of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) are optimal for one person may not be for a second, and could even be detrimental to them. The MT diet suggests that, these factors determine your metabolic type: protein type, carbo type, or mixed type. And, your metabolic type determines what types of food you should eat.

The three

metabolic types

Here’s a summary of how the the protein, carbo type, and the mixed types metabolisms function. The protein type has a fast metabolism, carb type has a slow metabolism, and mixed type has an average metabolism. People who eat with their metabolic type in mind, will vary their diet based on the speed of their metabolism with protein types need slower digesting foods, carb types need foods that digest quickly and the mixed types can fluctuate between.

A closer look at each type

Protein types have a fast metabolism and need to eat slow-digesting foods like fat and protein. They need to follow a diet consisting of 45% to 50% protein, 20% fat, and 30% to 35% carbohydrate.

Carbo types have a slow metabolism and need to eat a diet consisting of foods that digest quickly. They need a diet high in carbs and low in fat and protein with 70% to 80% of calories coming from carbs, 5% to 10% from fat, and 15% to 20% from protein.

Mixed types have an average metabolism and don’t burn calories too slowly or too quickly. A mixed metabolic type needs 40% to 45% of calories from protein, 50% to 55% from carbohydrates, and 10% to 15% from fat.

Focus on your macronutrients

For the Protein Types, foods are high in purines such as organ meats, red meat, dark-meat poultry, herring, and mussels. Fat should come from eggs, cream, and cheese. Carbs should come from mainly low in sugar vegetables.

For the Carbohydrate Types, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are the focus of the carbo-type meal plan. The diet recommends carbo types eat a small serving of a low-purine protein with each meal, such as white meat poultry, haddock, and flounder. Carbo types can also have low-fat dairy products.

As for the Mixed Types, they types can eat complex carbohydrates, all types of proteins, and an assortment of fats. However, they need to listen to their body more so as not to over indulge in one of the macronutrients.

Identify Your Type

Observing the responses to your proteins, carbohydrates, and fats is by far the best way to eat consciously. Try using the adjustments beneath to assist you in choosing the right macronutrient ratios.

Too many proteins

Feeling bogged down, low energy, sugar cravings, and other stimulants are common signs and symptoms of too much protein.

Add more carbohydrates and reduce either the fat or proteins and see how you feel.

Too many carbohydrates

Energy highs and lows, and feeling jittery and anxious are the common signs and symptoms of too many carbohydrates which often means there is stress on the liver, pancreas, and hormonal system.

Add more protein and fat to your meal and see how you feel.

Too many fats

Feeling lethargic, dull, full, heavy feeling, headaches, and even knee pain are the common signs and symptoms of too much fat.

Add more carbohydrates and reduce either the fat or proteins and see how you feel.

A very important aspect of when eating right for your type (or eating in general) is to identify if you have any food intolerances and allergies.

Because, even if you're eating healthy food, with your correct macronutrient ratios, according to your metabolic type, some of the individual foods might not be compatible causing potential food intolerances. These intolerances may present as a runny nose, bloating, gas/flatulence, and/or headaches.

Then, your digestive system organs, when compromised by eating foods that are not right for your type, will be in “competition” with the muscles which have nerve connections to these organs. This will then inhibit these muscles because the organs have a hierarchy over the muscle.

We definitely can not survive without organs but can without muscles, so the body compensates accordingly. This is one of the reasons why gut health is so important because the associated muscles effectively “switch off” and this results in chronic pain in many regions of the body… Have you ever had back pain and then passed a huge stool only to find the back pain disappears? This is an example of this.

NOTE: As a Physical Therapist, it’s important for me to know why you’re in pain because sometimes bodywork will not completely move the symptoms unless you eat right.

Screen for Food Intolerances

Score each question and then add up your total score.

1. Do you feel lethargic soon after eating?

Score Outcome

0 - 9 It's unlikely you have a food sensitivity

10 - 20 It's possible you have a food sensitivity

20+ It's very likely you have a food

sensitivity

Ref: Dr. John Briffa, Bodywise: 10 Steps to Permanent Weight Loss and Wellbeing

What next?

If you have scored 9 or less then this would indicate that you're rotating your foods and/or that your gut is in good health.
If you have scored from 10 - 20 then it is recommended that you try a rotation diet as illustrated in the next section.

If you score higher than 20 then it's highly recommended you have further testing. Consider sending me a message and I can refer you to an expert in the field of testing for food intolerances.

The Rotation Diet

As an easy and inexpensive way of identifying and reducing food intolerances, you can try rotating your foods on a 4-day basis.

Food rotation not only increases food variety, and nutrient availability and decreases the load on the immune system, is an effective means of lowering overall stress and calming down the nervous system, enabling better Rest and Repair… resulting in enabling the body to detox more effectively.

Moreover, rotation dieting greatly enhances a person’s awareness of what foods his/her body does and doesn’t handle well, resulting in being less likely to overstimulate the immune system.

Plus, reducing inflammation improves the health of the gut wall (the small intestine being the most important), decreasing leaky gut syndrome, and the gut let more than just water and nutrients through, toxins can pass through also.

Bowel movements generally improve, sleep quality is enhanced, greatly improving organ and gland, brain and nervous system functioning, tissue regeneration, and recovery from stress and exercise, while reducing inflammation and much more.

With better food choices and often one is less hungry, and this is pivotal in the reduction and clearing of fungus and parasites, which decreases inflammation and toxicity significantly.

Here’s how to implement the rotation diet

This can be done from 4 - 7 days depending on how much variety you prefer and how much time you have for food prepping.

Basically, don't repeat the same food more often than every four days. Don't eat from the same food family more often than every other day.

For example, you could eat chicken on Day 1 and pork on Day 3. Don't repeat chicken until the next time you're on Day 1.

Make a list of meals and snacks for each day, based on your rotation plan. Choose simple recipes with few ingredients (try no more than 3-4). When shopping, choose whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible.

Create a journal for your food entries and if you have any of the following symptoms from 5 mins to 2 hours after eating, note these in your diary;

Symptoms of food intolerance include:

Abdominal (belly) pain.
Diarrhea.
Gas and bloating.
Headaches or migraines.
Heartburn.
Nausea.
Upset stomach.

Then let's say chicken gives you one of these symptoms, remove this from your next chicken day and replace it with another protein and observe again. This process is to be done for all of the macronutrients; proteins, carbs, and fats.

Note, if you live and food prep with others;

It's a very easy system that does require discipline, motivation, and very importantly, cooperation from those you eat with. So ensure when you being that your family is informed and supportive of this process. Otherwise, you may consider prepping for yourself only.

Hydration

Good quality drinking water helps almost all of your body function and perform better. It carries and moistens oxygen for breathing, protects vital organs, helps your body absorb nutrients, and removes waste. Good quality drinking water is vital for body temperature regulation, especially during hot weather your body requires even more fluid to maintain its normal body temperature. Without drinking enough water you can cause fatigue, frequent Illness, constipation, poor skin health and dehydration.

Quantity of water

KG (Body Weight) X 0.03 = H2O L

Consider following this formula for your minimal amount of drinking water per day;

KG (Body Weight) X 0.03 = H2O L

This means that if you weigh 70KG and multiply this amount by 0.03 you will need to drink a minimum of 2.1 Litres of water per day just to stay hydrated.

Considerations for drinking more water

If you live in a very hot climate or have a very physical routine and you’re perspiring frequently, then consider drinking up to double this amount.

If you experience a dry tongue, dry skin, sluggishness, dry eyes, an increased heart rate, headaches, nausea, or dizziness; then you need to increase your daily water intake from the minimum amount to better serve your climate conditions and/or physical output.

You can look at your urine and if this is dark yellow to amber then this means you may have mild to severe dehydration. You can usually tell you have healthy hydration levels if your urine is very light in colour.

When to drink water

When you wake up, you should drink 2 glasses of water first thing, or at least straight after you use the toilet. Then before each meal, it is recommended you drink another 2 glasses – 20 minutes before eating. This will help lubricate your digestive tract and prevent constipation. Note: that constipation can be caused by mental and emotional stress also.

Do not drink during meal times or within 2 hours after eating because you can over-hydrate your digestive system and reduce the enzymes' effectiveness to properly assimilate nutrients.

Avoid tap water

In the case that you are drinking tap water, you may like to avoid this for health reasons. Even though it is easy to access for most people and usually a safe source of water compared to some third-world countries; tap water contains the chemicals chlorine and fluoride.

According to Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, a recommended safe chlorine-to-water ratio is 5mg for every litre. However, tests have shown that chlorinated drinking water of similar ratios can have a very negative impact on the digestive system; causing tumors in the intestines and colon, and also reducing the good bacteria needed to assist with food assimilation.

With regards to fluoridation in drinking water, according to the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), fluoride is in the top 20 of 275 substances that pose the most significant threat to human health. They also referred to the impact on tooth decay: and that the world’s largest study on dental caries looked at 400,000 students, revealing that decay increased by 27% with a 1ppm fluoride increase in drinking water. And in Japan, fluoridation caused decay increases of 7% in 22,000 students, while in the US a decay increase of 43% occurred in 29,000 students when 1ppm fluoride was added to drinking water.

Drink quality water

The good news is there are many options when it comes to sourcing quality drinking water. Depending on where you live will determine the access you have to good quality water. For this reason, in most cases, drinking from a reverse osmosis water filtration system is ideal for people because it’s easy to access and it’s relatively inexpensive. A reverse osmosis water filtration system works by removing the contaminants typically found in the water by using pressure to force water molecules through a semipermeable membrane. During this process, the contaminants are filtered out and flushed away, leaving you with clean drinking water.

If you can source either a reverse osmosis water home kit or locate a vending machine nearby, then in the long run these options are your lowest in price. You can, however, purchase reverse osmosis water from your local superstore but you may find this to be a lot more expensive and you will use up lots of cardboard as they come in a big 10L casket.

If you have access to a natural spring water provider, then this could be the healthiest option. A natural spring is a special type of groundwater source where pressurised water emerges from the ground in a steady flow. All natural springs are the result of an aquifer which is a body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater. If tested and approved by the local authorities, natural spring water is by far the healthiest and most natural option.

Note: avoid drinking directly from a stream as there could be dangerous bacteria such as worms or parasites. Always purchase this from a certified provider.

How to drink water

With each sip, consider swilling the water around your mouth to wash down your much-needed digestive enzymes. Also, consider adding a pinch of good quality sea salt to each glass of reverse osmosis water and even with natural spring water if it has been filtered. This will re-mineralize the water and prevent the extraction of minerals from your bodily systems, especially if you perspire lots. Only add enough salt so the water so it appears thicker, but not salty. Taste it and see. If it’s very “naked” on the palate, then try a pinch of salt and see how it tastes and feels.

Note: be sure not to pour the lightly salted water into your kettle as it could cause rust on the elements inside!

Adding apple cider vinegar to your first-morning glass of water is a great way to start your day. It can kill pathogens, including bacteria which are prevalent in the upper regions of the digestive track first thing in the morning. Another of the amazing capabilities of apple cider vinegar is that it balances the pH levels of your stomach allowing your body to digest food more efficiently, which in turn can minimize bloating and acid reflux. Apple cider vinegar can lower blood sugar levels and can improve insulin sensitivity to help fight diabetes.

Alcohol and Coffee

If you drink alcohol or coffee, then you need to drink twice as much in the water as you do in alcohol or coffee, on top of the minimum amount required. And as extreme as it may sound consider if you’re drinking alcohol when eating, reducing the carbs will reduce the inflammation because alcohol is a very high glycemic carbohydrate. Plus, having meals with extra protein and fat will absorb the alcohol and reduce the blood sugar spike. If you need to drink alcohol then consider Gin with Sparkling Water and the juice from a few lemons. At least you’ll be hydrating and adding digestive enzymes, and Gin is lower in the glycemic index.

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