Sunday Sessions #3
Food Quality & Reviewing Jordan Peterson
What we are currently thinking..
If you’ve seen the Beyond Nutrition Pyramid, you would’ve noticed sitting at the base is a concept of Food Quality.
For most people, eating is the single biggest thing they do everyday and what we eat often has a psychological impact (conscious or unconscious) that can have a cascading effect on our behaviours throughout the day (e.g. if you eat healthy, you are more likely to exercise).
Contrary to most nutrition advice designed to polarise the industry, eating healthy and watching one’s quality of food is not complicated. You know that you should consume less processed food (on average) and eat more fruits/vegetables (we’ll focus on produce here as protein is another Fundamental in our pyramid).
It’s not the knowledge that’s letting us down. It’s our ability to make that choice, more often than not.
What we are currently listening to
An intertwining of psychology and physiology makes this a must listen. An introduction to Peter's new book Outlive (currently on Hayley’s reading list), Jordan and Peter dive into the various concepts relating to longevity and the major health concerns of our time.
Exercise quickly becomes the major focal point where Peter discusses why exercise is the best intervention one can engage in when looking to improve their long-term health. To highlight this, for sedentary individuals, just going from zero to three hours per week of exercise reduced all-cause mortality at any point in time by 50%. More than any other known intervention (including drugs/medicine).
What type of exercise? The highest correlation to one's length of life is cardiovascular fitness followed by strength and muscle mass. How do we build cardiovascular fitness? Peter suggests 90mins of ‘Zone 2’ cardio training per week. Zone 2 being categorised by exercise at an intensity where you can still maintain a conversation but not without puffing or being able to talk unbroken. These sessions probably need to be at least 30mins in duration with durations less than this unlikely to produce a physiological benefit.
However, what needs to be understood is that starting, regardless of where you are on the spectrum, is the most fundamental part. Because once you’ve started it’s a lot easier to gain momentum. Going from 10mins to 15mins is a lot easier than going from 0mins to 15mins. Or, maybe more common for everyone reading, going from 2 days per week to 3 days per week is going to be easier than going from 0 days per week to 3 days per week.
Jordan sums this up at the end by saying “your life is made up of the very small number of things that you repeat everyday”. Health and longevity isn’t an 8-week challenge. Finding something that you enjoy and can continue is what generates long term change.