Ted McGill, co-founder of BIOV8
Gone are the days of calorie counting and taking a multivitamin tablet. Preventative wellness has evolved significantly in the past 10 years. Health is also not a ‘one size fits all’ approach and should be backed by the scientific research of human optimisation. Every person is unique and health needs to take on a tailored approach.
Lifestyle disease is a common result of our modern way of living but its effects are not always easy to overcome. “With nutrition being the foundation of preventative health, our health and wellness needs to take a holistic approach, from the inside out”, says BIOV8 co-founder Ted McGill.
Why health and wellness isn’t one size fits all
Our body’s ability to constantly sense, adapt, and correct changes in pH, temperature, energy status and toxin exposure, which are essential for our overall health, is all due to cell signalling.
The reason why health and wellness isn’t one size fits all, is because our health and performance is completely dependent upon how efficiently our cells, organs and tissue communicate with each other and these efficiencies can differ from one person to the next.
Along with genetics, certain lifestyle factors can negatively affect proper cell signaling. These include an unhealthy diet, a lack of exercise, environmental factors, exposure to toxins, stress and the normal aging process. Also, everything from what you are eating, to the soil your fruits and vegetables were grown in, the light you’re exposed to, levels of pollution you’re exposed to and the amount of sleep you have – or don’t have, can change health and wellness outcomes from one person to the next.
Nutrition and education and also why we shouldn’t demonise food
As soon as someone says “you can’t have that” – we want it, it’s human nature. It’s like a button that has a ‘Do Not Press’ sign on it – we want to press it! It plays on our mind – why can’t we press it?
The same theory applies with food, we generate feelings of deprivation which leads to wanting and craving something more and this can lead to binge eating. Binging is not good for us as it often sends us into an emotional cycle of guilt, stress, weight gain and feeling like crap. This can also lead to comfort and emotional eating – it’s a vicious cycle.
The key to not demonising food is everything in moderation. We know you’ve heard that many many times before, but it’s true! There needs to be balance and achieving your health and fitness goals shouldn’t include cutting something that you enjoy completely from your diet.
A lot of people say that they don’t have the willpower to stop and that’s why they cut something enjoyable out of their diet. That they can’t just stop at three or four Cheezels for example, once they open that box, that’s it the whole box is gone. Willpower is like a muscle, the more we work it and the more we flex it the stronger it becomes. For those struggling, start slow and take one snack or one meal at a time. If you break, don’t quit, get back up and try again tomorrow. Everyday is a new opportunity to make your willpower stronger.
The science behind human optimisation
Human optimisation is fundamentally built on the scientific findings of Dr David Sinclair, an Australian geneticist at Harvard Medical School and expert at the forefront of this movement, Sinclair believes that medicine should view aging not as a natural consequence of growing old, but as a condition in and of itself. Sinclair is convinced that ageing should be considered a standalone, treatable disease.
As our cells age, they become larger and less capable of reproduction, undergoing changes that eventually result in the loss of cellular identity. Our cellular repair process is complex, requiring efficient cell signalling and cellular metabolism. Cellular metabolism is regulated by peptides, hormones, enzymes, and their various transport systems. When we essentially look through the lens at a cellular level, we can understand the motivations of our cells and uncover an alternative roadmap to how they are programmed.
Human optimisation, also referred to as biohacking, sees the body as a system and improves the whole system for optimal wellness. ”The main thing that separates a biohacker from the rest of the self-improvement world is a systems-thinking approach to our own biology,” says Bulletproof founder Dave Asprey. Optimal performance can only be achieved if the body is optimised.
Human optimisation also includes enhanced optimum health in areas such as cardiovascular function, wound healing acceleration, and hormone function. When it comes to biohacking to improve our healthspan, nutrition and peptides play an increasingly important role in this space.
Innovative designed nutrition
What is innovative designed nutrition? Innovative designed nutrition takes into account a person’s individual nutrition and training goals, as well as an ongoing approach to preventative health. The root causes for many ‘lifestyle diseases’ such as Type 2 diabetes, chronic inflammation and obesity are diet related. Science backed, innovative designed nutrition, like ready-made fresh meals from Thrive, can help people get fit faster, boost energy, improve gut health, improve cognitive function, reduce inflammation, improve exercise recovery, burn fat and lose weight.
Our health and wellbeing all comes back to what we eat but that doesn’t mean we have to compromise on taste and quality and give up our favourite food completely.
