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Whole Foods and Your Metabolic Needs
by author Nadine Cyr, ND

Roman healer and philosopher Lucretius observed 2,000 years ago that "One man’s food is another man’s poison." Like other great medical thinkers, he recognized the importance of physiological individuality.

Just as human beings are unique in their external physical characteristics, so are we all unique on an internal metabolic/physiological level. As a result, we all process foods and utilize nutrients differently. These individual nutritional needs explain how some people lose weight and feel completely energized on a diet high in protein and fat, while others experience the exact opposite. They only feel healthy and energized on a diet higher in carbohydrate and lower in fat and protein.

Our individual dietary needs were partly determined by our ancestral heritage: people in different parts of the world lived on their indigenous food supply and so fulfilled their nutritional needs from food sources. Those living in cold, harsh climates tend to burn fuel quickly. They require heavier foods to sustain them. Inuit, for example, are can easily digest and assimilate large quantities of fat and protein. In more temperate climates, however, people survive on lighter, vegetarian food.

Today, our need for certain foods may be influenced by lifestyle and environment as well as determined by our biochemical/ metabolic individuality. All peoples, however, thrived and survived on whole, unprocessed foods grown without chemical aid.

Biochemically You

The idea of biochemical individuality is a theory that made its humble beginnings in the 1930s and 40s with research into the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the important role it plays in regulating the body’s metabolism and predicting the types of foods and nutrients people require for optimal health. What this research revealed is that while good health is dependent on a balance between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system, which are the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems, most of us exhibit a dominance of one of the two.

Some of the characteristics which are found to be associated with sympathetic nervous system dominance include conditions such as heartburn, insomnia, hypertension, high blood pressure, low appetite, irritability and hyperactivity. Parasympathetic dominance, on the other hand, demonstrates tendencies to allergies, low blood sugar, chronic fatigue, excessive appetite, tendency to procrastination and lethargy.

Finding what your metabolic type is actually quite simple. Before making any changes to your current diet, keep a "diet diary" for one to two weeks in which you write down all the foods you eat and in what proportions. A few minutes before eating, note how you feel both physically and emotionally and then how your energy and/or your mood may have changed following that meal.

Be aware that our metabolic individuality is dynamic and can be influenced by environment (such as high-stress periods or change of seasons). Remember to keep reassessing and fine-tuning your diet as needed.

Our bodies were designed to be healthy. By consuming the right foods for our unique metabolism, we are providing our bodies with the raw materials it needs to regulate, regenerate and repair itself daily.

Your Metabolic Type

1. People who do well on protein are considered fast oxidizers or "parasympathetic dominants." They tend to have strong appetites and gravitate towards rich, fatty foods. They are predisposed to low-blood sugar problems and need a diet comprised of relatively larger amounts of high-density proteins as well as liberal amounts of natural oils and fats. This metabolic type requires lower amounts of carbohydrates than the other metabolic types. The protein type can best achieve optimal health by eating the following ratio of nutrients at each meal:

Nadine Cyr is a graduate of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. She practises in Toronto, ON.

Source: alive #214, August 2000