We all know that proper nutrition is one of basic requirements for health. Therefore, we need to be careful when it comes to what we eat, avoiding unhealthy food and focusing on natural, nutrient-rich meals. However, many people are not aware of their nutritional requirements, let alone the types of food they should consume. Nutritional counseling is great for these purposes since it provides all the information and support people need, as far as diet and lifestyle are concerned.
What Does Nutritional Counseling Stand For?
Many people believe that nutritional counseling is something you need only when you get sick. Naturally, this is not true since every single person can improve his/her lifestyle and well-being through nutritional counseling.
The goal of this type of counseling is spreading the word about the healthy aspects of certain types of food and the overall importance of a healthy diet. Also, it concentrates on helping people boost their energy levels and their immune systems. Another aspect of nutritional counseling is detoxification and revitalization of the body as a whole. Finally, nutritional counseling has a goal of keeping you healthy and safe from illnesses and all other health problems, through teaching you how to maintain a healthy diet.
Since nutritional counseling is not a single type of teaching and philosophy, there is more than a single way of learning how to achieve health through nutrition.
Types of Nutritional Counseling
One of the several types of nutritional counseling is Ayurvedic nutrition. This ancient philosophy perceives the human body as divided into three basic doshasor elements, kapha, pitta and vata. Vata stands for dry, cold and light qualities, pita for fire and water elements having sharp and oily qualities and kapha for heavy cold and damp qualities. According to this kind of nutritional counseling, every nutrition should consist of six tastes, being balanced optimally. These tastes are, salty, bitter, sweet, sour, pungent and astringent. Imbalance in each of the three basic elements can lead to different health problems and, through consuming food which mends these problems and re-establishes the balance, one can restore his/her health.
Next is clinical nutrition which stands for taking supplements in order to make up for the nutritional deficiencies in your body. Naturopathy teaches us that food affects our physical and mental well-being having an impact on our personality too. Also, clinical nutrition encompasses allergy testing where people can find out if a certain type of food triggers allergic reactions, causing them health problems.
Chinese and Western Nutrition
Chinese medicine is based on the concept of yin and yang, balancing between hot and cold. Thus, oriental and macrobiotic nutrition believe that health depends on a healthy diet as well as a healthy environment and personality of an individual, making physical exercise and a healthy lifestyle equally important as a proper nutrition.
Finally, western nutrition focuses on the energy and nutrients we get from specific types of food and advises people to stay away from processed, refined or preserved food sources.
Your thoughts on this
Loading...