A one-dimensional approach to “mass-market nutrition” comes nowhere near the actual needs that different people require.

The historic paradigm looks at the diets of isolated indigenous cultures, each of which had a very specialized diet based on their geography and available foods, lifestyle and activity level, genetic makeup and heredity, and nutritional needs. With traditional paradigms, there is very little chronic disease. Men and women ate the wholesome foods of their area-whether meat and fat in the Arctic, bread and cheese in the Alps, or berries, insects, and meat in Australia. From Africa to the Amazon to the Andes, people ate what was in their region-an array of foods far different from that on other continents. And yet, they all stayed relatively healthy until they were exposed to the standard, modern Western diet.

Today, with the ability to visit all of these remote places in the same week, or even to eat foods from these places in the same week, what do we do? Not only that, but in America, the world’s melting pot, many of us have a combination of genetics from numerous nationalities, many of whom had dispersed before settling in America. It’s much harder now to know what we are acclimated to eat-and what our bodies will function best on.

While there are foods that are more healthful than others, it is believed that some foods have a positive effect on one person but have a negative effect on another person depending upon their metabolic needs. (Metabolism is the chemical reaction that transforms fuel into energy within the body’s cells, for the maintenance of life.) Nutritional science has long sought to find the “perfect diet,” and has never found it, because what works for one person may not work as well or in the same way for the next person. Some doctors believe that we are all as unique internally as we are externally-and if this is true, there will never be a one-size-fits-all solution. We will need to pay closer attention to the effects that various foods have on our bodies.

Next time we’ll look at the ways to assess your specific metabolism and construct a beneficial diet.

What do you think about the differences between a specialized diet and our mass-market nutrition? I’d love to dialogue with you below!

(Renee DeGroot is a native Montanan whose book Health for Godly Generations explores the many ways to build and improve a healthy lifestyle. You can visit her website Health for Godly Generations for more information.)