Nutrition and Diet

Various aspects of nutrition and diet are taken into account by so many different health-care professionals that it is difficult to categorize. Many within the field do not consider it part of complementary medicine since nurses and dieticians who work in hospitals and other institutions have been applying a form of basic nutrition therapy for decades as part of mainstream medicine. The differences between mainstream nutrition/diet therapy and the complementary approach are many. Most different is the philosophy of mainstream medicine that associates nutrition with particular deficiency states (i.e., vitamin C prevents scurvy), and that of complementary medicine, which considers the natural foods and nutrients that may improve overall body function, hence endurance. (In doing so, this approach also prevents deficiency.)

Another clear division in the field of diet and nutrition is the recommendation to consume processed foods with fortified synthetic vitamins and other nutrients, versus unprocessed natural foods containing thousands of naturally occurring nutrients.

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The same division applies in the arena of dietary supplements. Many sports practitioners recommend high-dose synthetic vitamins much the same way they recommend prescription drugs. Some of these “sports performance” products use synthetic hormones, which can not only reduce the production of your body’s own hormones but in some cases are banned in endurance sports. Other products come with the potential of significant health risks. Instead, many other sports practitioners recommend natural products while emphasizing an optimal diet to provide most nutrients.