Among the endless litany of advice regarding a healthy lifestyle, there are two things that constantly recur. You need to eat a balanced diet, and you need to exercise regularly. Only do one, and you’re limiting the progress you can make. Luckily, the two of them can feed into each other, with what you eat affecting how you exercise and vice versa.
Exercise may be a way of improving the physical condition of the body, but you do need a certain amount of strength and energy just to get started. That’s where food comes in. It’s the source of most of the nutrients that we need not just to survive but thrive.
We eat protein for strength and to help build and repair muscles. That means consuming meat, fish, or dairy; if you’re a vegan, you can eat tofu, nuts and legumes. Choose organic wherever possible. Then there are carbohydrates, often in the form of foods made with flour, like bread and pasta. Flour can be organic, too, as can rice.
The research into the overall health benefits of organic foods may still be relatively new, but it’s promising. From cutting back on the pesticides we put in our body to trying to preserve as many nutrients in the food as possible, there are lots of claims about what organic can do. And don’t forget how good it is for the environment. It’s a chance to make your lifestyle part of the world’s larger quest for sustainability.
Organic vegetables are grown in healthier soil, with less chemical interference than the products from larger industrial farms. Organic meat comes from animals that are able to live and express natural behaviors before they are killed. They’re also not regularly dosed with antibiotics as standard, something that can lead to dangerous antibiotic resistance in humans.
Sometimes an intense exercise regimen can actually mean eating more to ensure you have enough fuel to get through the routine, and all that hard work does actually result in stronger muscles. If you go organic, that might help encourage you to feel like you’re working not just for your own improvement, but for other people, animals and the world as a whole.
So, the next time you’re planning a diet that will complement your exercise, consider whether organic food should play a role.
