Does a varied diet help you stay healthy and improve sports performance?

Author: Mikhail Ziborov - author of the site makefitness.pro.
2024-10-26

Diverse nutrition is a rather vague concept. It doesn't even appear in Wikipedia. There is simply the concept of nutrition. But we roughly understand what it means. Eating diversely means consuming various products over a certain cycle (day, week, month). This is what distinguishes it from monotonous eating, where we eat almost the same thing every day.

But does diverse nutrition provide you with all the necessary macro- and micronutrients? Primarily, I will highlight the problems that can occur with diverse nutrition.

In our Telegram channel, there is a wealth of information on nutrition (and more): who needs to eat what and when, and when they should avoid certain foods. For example, we compared what’s better – sweets or baked goods, since in both cases they consist of the same carbohydrates.

You Don’t Know How Much You Get from Diverse Nutrition

Many trainers, dietitians, Instagram bloggers, lifestyle coaches, etc., claim that to be healthy, you need to eat a variety of foods. But what does "variety" mean? Well, I eat vegetables, fruits, greens, legumes, and meat products. Essentially, I eat everything that's needed. But I also train.

Remember, training (physical activity) consumes a substantial amount of the body's resources. You can find free professional training programs on our website MakeFitness.Pro.

Given that my body expends a lot of resources, will I be able to replenish them all (or even more, since muscle needs to grow) by eating a diverse diet? In reality, no. Because I may eat a wide range of products, but they could all be lacking in certain nutrients, like magnesium. I eat various foods, yet still miss out on enough magnesium. Is this possible? Yes.

Of course, it's possible to calculate how many nutrients you're getting from what you eat: how much mineral substances, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates (macronutrients), fiber, and vitamins. But let’s be honest: most people are too lazy to count calories (which is why many struggle to lose weight for a long time), and they certainly won’t count every vitamin, every mineral, and macronutrient, as that is much harder than counting calories. By a wide margin.

In fact, diverse nutrition may not provide you with the necessary volume of nutrients.

This is precisely why vitamin-mineral complexes and other supplements exist. For example, Omega-3. That is, you take a supplement, follow a course, and replenish the deficiencies in your body.

Information specifically for those who fear vitamin or mineral overdoses: have you often encountered people who suffered from an excess of certain micronutrients? Most of us eat a diverse diet: few survive all day on just dumplings. Yet, for some reason, when tested in a lab, everyone tends to show deficiencies in certain vitamins. This is why it’s so important not only to eat a variety of foods but also to include various supplements in your diet. Otherwise, you just won’t be able to meet all your needs.

Diverse Nutrition Cannot Fulfill All the Body's Needs During Training

If most people already understand the importance of protein (that it’s crucial and needs to be consumed in large quantities for mass gain, and even more so for weight loss), not everything is clear when it comes to the other nutrients.

The need for protein is felt intuitively: everyone talks about it, and you understand it yourself. But how many know that muscle tissue growth is a process that depends not only on protein but also on zinc, for example, or B vitamins? And can you be sure that a diverse diet provides not only “the entire periodic table” necessary for humans but also sufficient quantities of each element from that “table”?

Even if you receive the complete list of vitamins and minerals due to your diverse diet, how can you be sure that you are getting enough of them?

For example, there are plant and animal proteins. And plant protein falls short of animal protein due to a deficiency in the volume of necessary amino acids: all the amino acids are present in plant protein, but some are so low that it is insufficient for muscle growth. This is why animal-derived proteins are preferred.

You Might Only Think You Have a Diverse Diet

Let’s say you eat a variety of dishes over a week: each day something different that you didn’t eat the previous days. But the week ends, and the cycle repeats. It could turn out that over this cycle, you haven't consumed enough fats (which, by the way, are necessary for the production of hormones, like sex hormones). Or you may experience a shortage of a complete set of certain minerals and vitamins.

In general, you might only think that you have a diverse diet. However, the breadth of your food list may be quite narrow to provide the body with all the necessary nutrients.

At the beginning of this discussion, I mentioned that the concept of diverse nutrition does not exist (not even in Wikipedia). But there is the concept of healthy (balanced) nutrition. Check it out for yourself.

That’s why we offer our meal plan, in which we have already accurately calculated what products and how much is needed to meet the basic needs of a training person. There you will also find photos of people who have already achieved results on this diet.