Beware whose advice you take
Q My GP says that the diet I got from an online coach I found on Instagram is too focused on meat and I need to eat carbohydrates, too. My body and health appear in good shape, so I am confused. Where should you get your information?
A The Water Cooler dispenses water, not dietary advice. During lower levels — or the infrequent absence — of load-shedding, the water is cooled beautifully, but during times when the ANC has gifted us with romantic dinners, the water is disappointingly lukewarm. It’s not the end of the world.
Dietitians and nutritionists advise people how to eat, while many qualified trainers, be they biokineticists or sports scientists, also know which type of eating is best for exercising folk. What the Water Cooler can, and does, do is tell you exactly what we think. Unfiltered, of course, because those water filters are just silly gimmicks.
Recently, I found myself talking to a middle-aged GP. I realised that this doctor may have the power of the script, but does not possess the power of exercising common sense. Now, every doctor reading this is going to froth into a state of defence against yet another counterculture conspiracy theorist seeking to undo the good of medicine and replace it with pseudoscientific nonsense.
To address those concerns, allow me to spill my personal beans, as one needs to these days where any opinion will pigeonhole you into either this or the enemy camp. I advocate for vaccines. I never take alternative medicine. I pressure family and friends to trust science over what Karen says. Put a homeopath or a GP in front of me, and I’ll take antibiotics, every time.
It’s just that this GP asked me a loaded question.
“What exercise do you do?” I explained that I have a fully equipped gym with free weights and that I am loving my training regimen, which is usually five, sometimes six, times a week. “I do my best to train across all energy systems, and strength underpins my programming.”
I conceded that my shoulder mobility needs some work because I’ve been lazy.
“Yes, but what exercise do you do?” I paused, not knowing what he meant.
“Do you run or cycle?” And then the penny dropped. This GP has no appreciation for the importance of incorporating resistance training. His exercise paradigm is purely aerobic. And that’s OK because he’s not an exercise specialist.
I wondered whether he dispensed exercise advice from behind his crouched-forward posture. I didn’t ask. Only once he learnt that I enjoy running, did the conversation move on to load-shedding.
The Water Cooler advocates getting advice from specialists in each field. If you want to know what’s moving the markets, read Business Day. If you’re in the mood for some breaking news, visit News24. If you want to know what celebrities or the EFF are up to, pop into TimesLIVE. If you’re sick, visit your GP. Know where to get your information.
See a sports nutrition specialist if you want to eat in a way that supports an active lifestyle.
Social media is tricky. No fitfluencer suggesting you can eat as much pizza as you like will also say that to do so you need to be overflowing with performance-enhancing drugs or literally do nothing else but run.
Of course, there are many credible personalities on these platforms, but you’ll only understand which are credible once you’ve worked with specialists in their fields and witnessed the results, both externally in how you look and internally in how you feel and what your health markers say.
As for protein versus carbohydrates ... it’s like Apple versus Android. There’ll never be agreement about how much of which to consume. The two extremes of the dietary continuum are buried so deeply in their own paradigms and dogma that any debate just becomes an insult contest.
Perhaps you are eating too much meat, and if you are it could become dangerous. Get expert dietary advice. If you don’t like carbs, then eat fewer. My diet consists almost entirely of different types of white and red meat, salad and vegetables, with a scattering of unprocessed carbohydrates a few times a week. This works for me; not everyone. It also means I enjoy a cheesy pizza treat a lot more than I used to.
THE WATER COOLER ADVOCATES GETTING ADVICE FROM SPECIALISTS IN EACH FIELD