Nutrition Principles For Improved Metabolic Heath

by Adam Brown  BScPT, MClScPT
updated Sept 16, 2024

It is intuitive that nutrition plays an important role in our health. There can also be a lot of confusion around what diet is “best”. The reality is that there is no single diet that will be optimal for everyone.  The best nutrition plan should be personalized and take into consideration holistic factors including goals, culture, food availability, preferences, and health conditions. There are, however, core principles to nutrition that should be followed to improve or maintain metabolic health.

Calories

Being overnourished has a strong relationship with poor metabolic health. Our bodies have an amazing ability to store food energy, but when we run out of “safe” storage this can be stored as fat in harmful areas such as our organs (visceral fat). This risk is amplified when one is undermuscled. Whether we are overnourished or undernourished will determine how many calories (energy from food) we require. With 63% of Canadians being overweight or obese, a large proportion will benefit from strategies geared towards weight loss. For this to be effective it is important to find a strategy that creates a sustainable caloric deficit over an extended period of time, but does not compromise getting adequate essential nutrients.

Nearly all strategies will rely on at least one of the following to achieve this, but ultimately rely on achieving a caloric deficit. They each have their pros and cons.

1. Caloric Restriction: eating less, but without high attention to what is being eaten. Generally requires tracking food intake strictly
2. Dietary Restriction: eating less of some particular element of a diet (ex. Sugar, fat, meat)
3. Time Restriction: restricting eating to certain times (ex. Intermittent fasting)

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are our primary energy source, and through digestion most are broken down into glucose. Glucose can be used as energy by our cells, and excess stored as either glycogen or fat which is dictated by a hormone called insulin. Chronically elevated insulin levels can cause metabolic disease. We should aim to minimize blood glucose spikes and the corresponding insulin response.  General principles include minimizing refined carbohydrates, eating more whole foods and less ultra-processed foods. A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) can be a useful tool in identifying this, and establishing behaviors that help.

Fibre

Fibre is a non-digestible carbohydrate. While it does not provide us with energy it plays an important role in our health. Soluble fibre can help with controlling cholesterol by binding to cholesterol particles, blood sugar control by slowing absorption, and preventing constipation. Insoluble fibre can also help with digestion by adding bulk to our stool, and increasing fullness which can prevent overeating. Fibre also supports a healthy gut microbiome which aids in maintaining good metabolic health and fights insulin resistance. Canada Health guidelines recommend 25 grams for women or 38 grams per day for men.

Protein

Protein and its components (amino acids) are the building blocks of our bodies. They are key components of our muscles, enzymes, and hormones. Having adequate protein intake is critical for increasing or maintaining our lean muscle mass. Those with greater lean muscle mass will see benefits both in their metabolism through blood glucose regulation, and function in regards to things such as strength.

How much protein we need will vary. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 0.8 g/kg body weight per day is the minimum required for basic bodily function, but generally a higher protein intake than this is required for optimal health and performance. The actual amount will vary from person to person and throughout our lives. We require more protein as we age as it is harder for our bodies to build and retain muscle. For reference a popular author Dr. Peter Attia recommends 2.2g/kg/day or 0.8-1.0 g/lb bodyweight/day.

Ultra-processed foods

Minimizing the consumption of ultra-processed foods and focusing on whole, minimally processed foods can lead to better health outcomes. Ultra Processed foods tend to be low in essential nutrients, non-satiating, hyper-palliative (extremely tasty) and easy to overconsume. This means that to identify ultra-processed foods there are systems available such as NOVA-Classification  that can help to navigate which foods to consider whole, minimally processed and ultra-processed.

About the author

Daniel MacKinnon

Physiotherapist Learn More about Daniel MacKinnon