Ask Coach Ken: Nutrition key to leading healthy lifestyle

Editor's note: The Coach Ken column is a series of fitness tips and race experiences to motivate and educate airmen to become more physically fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Capt. Ken Corigliano is a triathlete with the Air Force team and a nationally-certified coach. This story is the second part of Corigliano's previous article "Coach Ken: all about nutrition."

Now that you understand basic guidelines on how to choose healthy food for your body and what food does to you, let's talk about identifying the misconceptions.

Understand that most food guidance you receive is from organizations that want you to buy things from them or the information is so incredibly inaccurate that it's potentially dangerous.

Every day you make decisions about your health. You can choose to become stronger and more vibrant because of your lifestyle choices, or choose to save money and go with low-nutrition foods that contribute little to your body.

Matt Fitzgerald, widely held as a top authority on nutrition said, "Do what you have to do so that 'money is no object' when it comes to food buying."

Here are three general rules:

• Rule #1: Not all carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the same.

Let's think about fuels for a moment. If you put diesel in a rocket engine, it may propel itself, but it simply won't live up to the design. Your body is like a rocket engine. It takes an extremely complicated system to make it work.

When you ingest food, the pieces are broken down into smaller components. Very little of what we take in is pure nutrient.

Just like water, most people can taste a huge difference between water taste and purity; the same is true for food. That taste difference is a very small fraction of the differences between nutrients and their sources. When you eat protein, your body completely rips it apart into its amino acids, then rips those apart and builds it back again to be used to for cellular reconstruction.3

You don't eat protein to gain muscle mass; it does not work that way. When protein is ripped apart, it releases energy similar to fission in a nuclear reactor, and your body uses that energy to fuel itself. Then the acids are stripped and used to reconstruct your tissues in addition to vitamins and minerals. When you eat carbohydrates, your body — depending on the type — can almost instantly use that as energy.

Carbohydrates fuel nearly all of your body's processes and their quality determines your body's metabolism. Junky carbohydrates mess up your metabolism, while high quality carbohydrates actually improve your body's performances because there's less junk attached to them.

• Rule #2: Choose a variety of sources for your foods.

You have a myriad amount of enzymes that break down certain nutrients. Eating high quality foods, such as large coldwater fish, is both nutritious and highly beneficial for your body.

• Rule #3 Eat in moderation.

You need energy. Stick to the percentages from last week's guidelines. There are healthy alternatives to your impulses. I routinely buy yogurt ice cream sticks that have no lactose, are quite nutritious and satisfy my need for junk food.

Remember that eating preferences are simply that, preferences based on habit. To break a habit you must replace it with a desired habit. It takes mental effort, but your family, friends, body and life are worth the effort.