When something feels wrong with my body, one of the first questions I ask is very simple: what have I been putting into it?
Not because every symptom is caused by food. It isn’t. But after a lifetime of paying attention to my health, I think nutrition gets overlooked far too often. We are quick to put a name on fatigue, brain fog, poor digestion, low energy, muscle weakness, cravings and all kinds of other complaints. Sometimes there is a medical problem that needs proper attention. But sometimes the body may also be telling us something much simpler: it isn’t getting what it needs.
Your Body Needs Raw Materials
Your body is rebuilding itself every day. It needs protein, vitamins and minerals, fats, carbohydrates, water and all the other raw materials that keep billions of cells doing their jobs.
You cannot continuously give the body poor-quality material and expect perfect results. That has always made sense to me. If I were building a house and somebody kept delivering lousy lumber, broken bricks and half the supplies I ordered, I wouldn’t blame the house when things started going wrong. I would look at what I was building it with.
I think the body deserves the same consideration.
Sometimes Symptoms Really Are Nutritional
There are well-established examples of nutritional deficiencies producing very real symptoms. Too little iron can contribute to anemia and fatigue. Vitamin B12 deficiency can affect energy and the nervous system. Inadequate protein can contribute to loss of muscle and strength. Other vitamins and minerals have their own jobs throughout the body.
That does not mean every tired person needs iron or every person with brain fog needs a vitamin. It means nutrition matters enough that I think it deserves to be considered.
Instead of always asking, “What can I take to make this symptom go away?” I think another useful question is: “Is there something my body is missing—or something I am giving it too much of?”
You Can Eat Plenty and Still Eat Poorly
One of the strange things about modern food is that a person can eat an enormous number of calories and still have a lousy diet. You can fill yourself up without necessarily giving your body the variety of nutrients it needs.
Highly processed food makes that easy. It is convenient. It tastes good. It is everywhere. And I am not pretending I have never eaten it. But if most of what you eat comes out of packages, boxes and drive-through windows, there is probably room to improve the quality of what is going into your body.
I would rather build most of my diet around recognizable food: vegetables, fruit, eggs, fish, meat if you eat it, beans, nuts, seeds and other foods that are reasonably close to the way nature produced them. I don’t believe you need to eat perfectly, but I do believe your body notices what you repeatedly feed it.
Protein Matters More as We Get Older
At 74, I think a lot about maintaining muscle. Muscle is not just something you need if you want to look good. It helps you move, balance, remain independent and continue doing the things you enjoy.
Protein supplies the amino acids the body uses to maintain and repair tissue, including muscle. That is why I think about protein as part of the bigger picture rather than simply counting calories.
Food also works together with movement. Eating well while sitting all day is not the same thing as eating well and actually using your body. That is one reason I put so much emphasis on changing the inputs and moving every day.
Pay Attention to How Food Makes You Feel
I think we have become disconnected from something very basic: paying attention. How do you feel after you eat? Do you feel energized or exhausted? Are you comfortable or bloated? Do certain meals leave you satisfied for hours while others have you looking for something else to eat 30 minutes later? Does your sleep change depending on what or when you eat? Does your digestion improve when you change something?
These are useful observations. They are not a substitute for medical testing when testing is needed, but they are information. You live in your body every day. You should be paying attention to it.
Your Gut Is Part of the Story
We are also learning much more about the organisms that live in the digestive tract. I am careful about making grand claims about the microbiome because it is complicated, and I don’t believe anybody knows everything there is to know about it yet.
But diet clearly influences the environment inside the gut. Fibre-rich foods, vegetables, fruits, beans and other whole foods give the digestive system something very different to work with than a diet dominated by highly processed food.
Again, I come back to the same idea: change the inputs and you change the environment. The body then has a chance to respond.
Don’t Make Nutrition More Complicated Than It Has to Be
I think people get overwhelmed because every week somebody is telling them about another perfect diet: low fat, low carb, keto, vegan, carnivore, Mediterranean and whatever comes next.
Some of those approaches may work beautifully for certain people. But I don’t think you need a religion around food to start eating better.
Start with the obvious. Eat more real food. Eat fewer things you already know are junk. Get enough protein. Eat vegetables and fruit. Drink water. Pay attention to how you feel. Then adjust.
Your Body Can Give You Feedback
I have always believed in experimenting carefully and watching the result. If I change the way I eat and feel better, I notice. If something makes me feel worse, I notice that too. If my energy improves, my digestion improves, I sleep better or something else changes, I want to know what I did differently.
That is not ignoring science. It is using your own experience along with everything else you know. I think too many people have been taught to ignore their own observations until somebody else validates them. I don’t operate that way.
Nutrition Is Only One Piece
I also don’t believe food exists in isolation. You can eat beautifully and still hurt yourself by never moving, sleeping four hours a night, smoking, drinking too much or living under constant stress.
Health is the result of many things working together. Nutrition is one of the biggest things we control every single day, but it is still only one part of the picture.
That is why my approach has always been broader: eat better, move, sleep, reduce harmful exposures and keep paying attention. That is also why I believe so strongly that prevention is the best health insurance there is.
Before You Assume Something Is Wrong With You
If you have an ongoing symptom, get it checked when it needs to be checked. But I also think it is worth looking honestly at the basics.
What are you eating? Are you getting enough protein? Are you eating any real variety? Are you living mostly on processed food? Are you drinking enough water? Are you moving? Are you sleeping?
Those questions may sound almost too simple. Sometimes simple questions are the ones we forget to ask.
My Bottom Line
I don’t believe every symptom is nutritional. I do believe nutrition has an enormous influence on how the body functions, and I think many people underestimate it.
Your body has to build, repair and operate itself from something. Give it better raw materials, then pay attention to what happens.
You may find that some things you thought were simply part of getting older, feeling lousy or “just the way you are” begin to change when the quality of what goes into your body changes.
That is not magic. It is giving your body a better chance to do what it has been trying to do all along.
To Your Health—and Insure Your Health Yourself!
