The Nutrients Your Body Needs
Can We Regain Our Health?
I’m an optimist. The way I see it, the earlier you start, the better off you are. You
need a balanced diet to get all the nutrients your body requires. A Ferrari needs
premium fuel, not regular fuel. The same goes for your body. It needs organic
real food, not fake fatfree food, so don’t even try giving me a pathetic excuse
like, “But if I eat fat, Doctor, I’ll gain weight.” That’s so 1980s. You want to
have a perfect 10 body, don’t you? Eating natural fats will get you a perfect 10
physique and fantastic health. That’s right, the kinds of fats present in omelets,
avocados, olives, and even butter and cheese.
I realize that when I tell you to follow a highfat/lowcarb diet and go against
the conventional wisdom, it will create controversy. But I won’t be swayed from
my goal to help you achieve perfect 10 health.
Let’s look at a different scenario. When you follow a balanced diet with fewer
carbs—especially refined carbs—you’re less likely to get heart disease or age
prematurely. If sugar levels in your bloodstream remain low, insulin levels are
also stabilized. In turn, glucagon, leptin, cortisol, and sex hormones follow.
Wow! That simultaneously improves your health and speeds up fat loss. It gets
even better—disease is less likely to develop when your insulin level is near
rock bottom. Amazing, isn’t it?
While no one can tell you exactly the amount of fat you should eat, I can tell
you this: it definitely shouldn’t be low in fat. The road to health is a balanced diet
in all the macronutrients. A healthy approach is neither a low-fat nor a lowcarb
diet; instead, it’s about balance.
In this chapter, I will introduce to you the nutrients your body needs to
function properly. Your body requires 6 essential nutrient classes for growth,
maintenance, and repair of its tissues. These classes are carbohydrates, protein,
fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. Carbohydrates, protein, and fat are the
macronutrients. Vitamins, minerals, and water are the micronutrients.
The Formula for a Healthy Diet Is Balance
A healthy diet balances all the macronutrients in a very specific way, and this