Eat fit: Keep

Performance nutritionist Louise Sutton looks at practical ways in which you can help your clients make wise and healthy eating choices a way of life.

By Louise Sutton, Nutritionist

Good nutrition sounds simple in theory, but is often difficult to achieve in practice. Nutritional topics now feature regularly in our newspapers and magazines, on TV and in advertising. The advent of the Internet has provided yet another avenue to promote the latest nutritional products and celebrity diet fads. This increasing awareness of the role of nutrition in relation to health and fitness emphasises the importance of accurate information being available to those who seek it. Often misinterpretation or misleading representation of scientific studies confuses rather than enlightens us in our understanding of current nutritional principles and practice.

Nutrition affects our general health status as well as our physical performance. Healthy eating and good nutritional practices, along with fitness, rose to prominence in the 1980s yet the prevalence of overweight and obesity has never been higher. The links between diet and exercise cannot be denied. Experts are agreed that exercise has a major role to play in disease prevention, and the contribution that diet can have to health and the prevention of disease is equally well recognised; and in that regard there should be no conflict between eating for health and eating for exercise.

A sound knowledge of nutritional principles and their relationship to exercise performance has great value to the fitness professional in providing appropriate advice to their clients; but also in maintaining their own nutritional fitness to teach.

Fitness professionals are in a unique position, having the opportunity to influence the dietary habits of their clients alongside promoting increased physical activity and exercise participation.

As a fitness professional there are many potential benefits and dangers of providing dietary advice to your clients; this should always be undertaken in the context of safe professional practice. You should be clear about the limitations of your role and be aware when it is necessary to refer your clients on to their General Practitioner, Practice Nurse or a Registered Dietitian.

18

Healthy eating and regular exercise are inseparable in terms of total fitness. As fitness professionals you aim to provide safe, effective and enjoyable classes and training programmes. In doing so you may be approached by your clients to offer dietary advice. In fact most are probably motivated to exercise to manage their weight; whether to gain, lose or maintain weight. Although you are not qualified to provide detailed nutritional counselling you can give your clients general information on healthy eating and advise them to seek referral to a Registered Dietitian for a more detailed dietary assessment when required, such as in the case of queries over food intolerances and allergies.

Clients will typically classify foods as good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, with many viewing healthy eating as somewhat of a hardship or chore. It is important to promote the message that there are no good or bad foods only good and bad uses of food, and it is better to look at the overall balance of food choices in the diet as either healthy or unhealthy.

The Eatwell Plate is the model that has been adopted as the UK’s National Food Guide. It was devised as a simplistic way of helping people to understand and enjoy healthy eating. It attempts to make healthy eating easier to implement by identifying the types and proportions of food groups required to achieve a healthy, balanced and varied diet. Whilst not applying to young children, this model applies to most people, including those engaging in regular physical activity programmes. Its key messages are to:

l base all meals on starchy foods, opting for those that are of a wholegrain variety where possible

l include 5+ servings of fruit and/or vegetables each day l include milk and dairy foods, 3 servings daily

l have smaller portions of meat or fish, and try alternative protein sources such as peas, beans, lentils and eggs l limit foods with a high fat or sugar content

“Healthy eating and regular

exercise are inseparable in terms of total fitness”

The REPs Journal 2009;15(Dec):18-20