Which of the following can provide valuable insights to a nutrition coach when attempting to establish motivation?

NUTRITIONAL COACHING: RESTORE NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES
One of the most important limiting factors you can address to see immediate results with clients is to help restore nutrients they might be deficient in.

Many clients think they need a complete overhaul of their nutrition, all at once, to get the results they want. They try to cut out sugar sweetened beverages and processed meats, eat more slowly and mindfully, and consume more protein, fruits and vegetables all at the same time. It's exhausting just thinking about it. We call this the Mission Impossible approach.

After coaching tens of thousands of clients in the last few years, we've come to realize that the Mission Impossible approach isn't just difficult; it's misguided, because a complete overhaul rarely addresses what's making most people feel bad in the first place.

Oftentimes, people struggle with how they look and feel because their physiology doesn't work the way it should. This can be hormonal imbalances, but it's more often dietary deficiency: not getting the right nutrients—in the right amounts—to get the best results.

Dietary deficiencies, therefore, are the first red flag that something's wrong. And they are more common than you think. (See Figure 20.1)

The research in this area is pretty telling. A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition showed that it's really hard to get all the essential vitamins and minerals from food alone.

Another study analyzed 70 athlete diets. Every single diet was deficient in at least three nutrients. Some diets were missing up to fifteen nutrients! The most common deficiencies?

Iodine
Vitamin D
Zinc
Vitamin E
Calcium
A third study, also published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, showed that people following one of four popular diet plans (including Atkins, South Beach and the DASH diet) were also very likely to be micronutrient deficient, particularly in six key micronutrients:

Vitamin B7
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Chromium
Iodine
Molybdenum
Bottom line: Dietary deficiencies are very common. Chances are your clients have at least one deficiency, no matter how good you (or they) think their diet is.

That's a problem because when we're deficient in key nutrients, our physiology doesn't work properly. And when our body doesn't work as it should, we feel rotten, perform poorly, and don't change our body composition like we want.

Energy levels, appetite, strength, endurance, and mood all rely on getting enough of these essential nutrients. When you don't get them, things break down. That's why clients can eat "clean," go Paleo, avoid meat, lower their carbs, or count calories - they can do "everything right" nutritionally - and still feel lousy. You need to identify their red flags from the very beginning and start eliminating them, one by one.

Here are the most common deficiencies we see with new clients:

Water (low-level dehydration)
Vitamins and minerals
Protein (particularly in women and in men with low appetites)
Essential fatty acids (95% of the population is deficient here)
To find out where they stand, clients could get their diet analyzed by a dietitian (this typically costs between $100 and $150). They could also record what they eat each day and enter it into an online diet calculator like the ones at Fitday or Livestrong.com.

We like to make it even easier. As soon as clients begin with us, we do a quick survey of what they're eating using a food journal. From there, over time, we help them:

Eat more of the protein-rich foods they prefer
Drink more hydrating fluids (mostly water)
Take in more essential fats (through the use of fish or algae oil)
Eat more foods rich in the vitamins and minerals they need most (namely vegetables, fruits, quality carbs, and possibly taking a multi)
Without any other advanced screening or dietary changes, our clients quickly start feeling better. They lose fat and gain lean muscle. They feel more motivated. And their workouts become easier and better. And it is a strategy we highly suggest you start to implement with your own clients.

These strategies lead to powerful results and there is published data beyond just our own experience that come to the same conclusion.

Here's just one example (of many): Research in the British Journal of Psychiatry shows that providing fish oil and a multivitamin to prison inmates reduces aggressive and violent behavior by 35% and decreases antisocial behavior by 26%.

Also, a paper published in Nutrition Reviews shows that giving children fish oil and a multivitamin improves both their behavior and intelligence scores. (Who doesn't want a smarter, better-behaved kid?)

That's the power of restoring nutrient deficiencies. When our bodies don't have the nutrients they need to do their work, we all suffer. But as soon as we get these nutrients, we thrive.

So, if so many people are deficient in key nutrients, can't we just load them up on vitamin/mineral supplements? Well, here's the thing: Some supplements hold real benefit.

For instance:

Folic acid for pregnant women
Iron for those who are anemic
B-vitamins for those dealing with alcoholism
Vitamin D for those who've undergone bariatric surgery
Vitamin C for someone with scurvy
But in a situation where it's possible to get nutrients from whole foods, choosing a supplement instead doesn't seem to promote health, and overdoing unnecessary supplements may actually cause harm. See the section on supplements in Unit 19 for more.

In the end, our approach is to look for client limiting factors.

Is it protein they are most deficient in? Then we start there. Is their protein intake adequate, but they hardly consume any produce? Then we start there. Are they consuming 4-5 sugar sweetened beverages every day? We might start there.

Where you start all depends on the needs of the client. But restoring these 4 deficiencies (protein, hydration, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals) is a great place to look into first.

Which of the following can provide valuable insight to a nutrition coach when attempting to establish motivation?

What types of goals nutrition coaches should be concerned with?

What do nutrition coaches look for?