How Nutritionally Aware Are You?

With the monumental amount if disinformation constantly bombarding the average person, we are, in the main, ill equipped to sort the wheat from the chaff when making health related decisions. This scale is not an attempt to invalidate anyone, just an effort to help each of us accurately pinpoint where we really are so we can move forward. After all, the first step in getting from where you are to where you want to go is to know where you are.

Nutritional Awareness Scale

Reflecting on the thousands of people I have spoken to on the subject of health and nutrition and looking to raise their awareness of the steps that can be easily undertaken to improve their health I have come up with this Nutritional Awareness Scale.

Nutritional Master

The nutrition guru knows exactly what good or bad effect on the body is generated by foods, herbs, spices, vitamins and minerals taken either singly or in combination. They know what deficiencies, excesses and toxicities will produce what negative effect on the mind and body and what will alleviate, diminish, reduce or eradicate any dietary or toxicity caused condition.

PURPOSE - To maintain or restore optimal health using nutrition.

Knowledge Seeker

The Knowledge Seeker has a well above average knowledge of dietary principles and practices and continues to learn, eats a wide variety of healthy foods based on a broad knowledge of nutrient content and health benefits.

PURPOSE - To attain and maintain optimal health for age by continually increasing nutritional understanding and eating a wide range of foods and supplements that deliver optimal nutrition to the body.

Passive Applier

The Passive Applier does not actively seek nutritional data, nor do they ignore data that does not comply with a narrow set of rules. They receive nuggets of nutritional wisdom and apply some of it as taste, circumstances or budget permit.

PURPOSE – To do better.

Simple Solver

The Simple Solver has made a decision that it’s all too hard, it’s too complex and they just need a simple solution. They applies a one rule principle or a very limited number of rules to solve their dietary choices. They have a limited understanding of dietary principles and consciously choose foods to eat or not eat on the basis of one or more simple rules. They will often reject very healthy foods because they “break” one of their rules. These rules can be based on true or false datums. Many of these “one rule” diets are fads.

PURPOSE - To eat only or mostly those foods that satisfy their rule(s).

Pain Avoider

Pain - Problem Solver - Limits foods eaten in order to handle an allergy or intolerance or to reduce weight. Preoccupied with solving their immediate problem so little to no thought given to nutrient content of food chosen or future health ramifications of food choices.

PURPOSE - To minimise the pain from a health problem by restricting type or quantity of one or more foods.

Taste Bud Prisoner

The vast majority of us are ruled to at least to some degree by the taste buds but the taste bud victim has little to no knowledge of dietary principles, eats whatever and whenever is to their taste to satisfy physical and emotional hunger and with no thought to short or long term health benefits and risks. In short they are a slave to the whims of their taste buds.

PURPOSE - To satisfy hunger and feel good by eating food that tastes good.