HEALTH Exercise or nutrition?

Exercise or nutrition?


Personal trainer
Paul O'Brien

I am often asked about which aspect is more important in achieving optimal health and fitness – exercise or nutrition. Depending on who you ask, you will get very different answers. So where do I stand on this? Well I could give the stock answer – they both work hand in hand in helping you achieve your health and lifestyle goals and are equally important. However, although this is true to a certain extent, I feel it may also be a little misleading.
To begin, it should be said that exercise and nutrition are only two of the components of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Others, like emotional, mental and spiritual well-being will not be covered in this article. Still, it’s important to acknowledge them. Also, making an effort to eat a healthy, optimal diet and exercise more will have an effect on the other aspects of your overall well-being.
So, back to the initial question. In my opinion, healthy nutritional habits form the foundation for a balanced and optimal lifestyle. This is so for a number of reasons.
Firstly, eating is vital to our survival. A human being can survive for perhaps three days without water and only a few weeks without food. Death is inevitable in the absence of food. Though a lack of exercise will most definitely lead to health problems down the road, it’s not an immediate threat to our survival. The point being, food is a higher priority for humans, so therefore a more intrinsic part of our makeup.
Secondly, exercise is not possible without the food to fuel it. Our bodies need energy to move and this energy is provided through stored deposits of the food we consume. Our main fuel source comes from carbohydrates, available in our diet from grains, vegetables, sugars and starches. Protein and fat are additional fuel sources used by the body for everyday function as well as for exercise.
Thirdly, the kind of food we consume will determine our ability to perform exercise and the types of exercise we can perform. For example, a marathon runner who eats little to no carbohydrate and feeds his body with protein will simply not have the adequate fuel stores to take him through repeated training and racing. Yes, he may run a marathon, slowly, but the cumulative effect of a lack of the correct fuel will eventually cause his body to break down.
The results we get from exercise will also be mitigated by our diet. For example, if you exercise to lose weight by running for 30-minutes every day, but then gorge on chocolate bars in the evenings, the most you can expect from those 30 minutes of daily exercise is to slow down the rate of weight gain.
Finally, I refer to the old adage, ‘You are what you eat’. Science is continually proving this to be true. What we consume has many consequences for our bodies and our minds. It would seem that an unhealthy diet not only contributes to serious medical conditions, such as diabetes and cancers, but also affects our emotional health, sleep patterns, sex life, self-esteem and much more. Plenty of reason to stew before you chew!

Paul O’Brien is a personal trainer and life coach based in Westport.