Nutrition Contradiction

It's everywhere.  I can't read two sources without reading two different conclusions.  No wonder people are so confused about what to eat and when.  Heck, I'm confused and I try to keep up on the "latest and greatest" in nutrition developments!

Here is a quick example regarding "pre-workout" nutrition:

Source 1

For high-intensity shorter training and racing, it is beneficial to fuel up on simple carbohydrate.

Source 2

Eat a Zone-favorable snack thirty minutes before exercising.
(my note: 7 gr protein, 9 gr carbohydrate, 1.5 gr fat)

Source 3

A solid meal consisting of protein and carbohydrate
set at (0.25g/lb) target bodyweight for each of the
two macronutrients, ingested 60-120 minutes pre-
exercise.

So who's right?  Maybe all of them for different reasons and in different situations?  These three examples come from experts (who shall remain anonymous, although the second one is pretty obvious).  All three of them have my respect.  But who do you listen to?  What advice do you follow?  There are yet others, who I greatly admire, who advocate that there is no need for ANY kind of pre or post-workout nutrition.

In my own nutrition, what I am finding more and more is that there are two important factors to be observed in the process.  The first is to record meticulously what you eat for certain periods of time and measure meticulously the types of results you get.  That is the only way you can find out what YOUR body reacts well to.  There are tons of resources to guide you in this and make sense of what you are seeing.  At the end of this post I'll list a few of my highlights, none of which provided "the answer" that I was looking for, but all of which provided some extra clues and understanding.

My second conclusion regarding nutrition is that it can't be too complicated in the long run. Once you are done with the meticulous record keeping portion of a nutritional plan, it has to be easy.  It is not feasible to think of weighing portions, counting grams and calculating blocks for the rest of my life.  Maybe others can do it, but I can't.  What I find I need are simple rules.  What am I allowed to eat, approximately how much, and when.  If I'm allowed a fist sized portion of whole wheat pasta once a week, well that is what I'm allowed and it is easy to figure out!  If I'm allowed one of block of cheddar to last me two weeks, that too is easy to figure out.  These kinds of things rotate for me, to keep things interesting, but the point I wanted to make is that I try to stick to simple and practical rules nowadays.  I've tried all the counting and weighing, and it just gets too taxing in the long run.

So anyway, here are some of those key resources I mentioned that I am glad to have in my library:

How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy, Paul Chek
The Rosedale Diet, Dr Rosedale
Potatoes Not Prozak, Kathleen DesMaisons
Natrural Hormonal Enhancement, Rob Faigin
Enter The Zone, Dr Barry Sears
Precision Nutrition, Dr John Berardi

I'm starting to think nobody knows precisely what we should be eating and when, but there are lots of very smart people that converge on a few simple rules.

• Eat veggies at every meal.
• Drink enough pure water.
• Get enough protein for your size and activity level.
• Take fish oil (not unanimous but widespread - and convincing enough evidence for me)
• Avoid bad fats - Eat good fats.
• Avoid processed sugars and carbohydrates like the plague.

There are other rules that I like, but that start to stray too far into the polemic zones of the nutrition world...  So I'll leave it at that for now.

Cheers,
Adam