Eating Well is a Hierarchy of Needs

In the world of modern wellness, we are drowning in the minutiae, these minor details that start to take over every health and food decision that we make. We argue over seed oils, debate the timing of our morning shots of apple cider vinegar, and stress over whether our kale was massaged in a BPA-free bowl. We’re missing the plot. We focus on the pinnacle of the pyramid while the foundation is crumbling. Groceries become unattainable because of their cost, air and water quality suffer, health insurance access is smaller and smaller and there are less and less family doctors or public health services.

The way we nourish ourselves has to look at the big picture, a hierarchy if you will. 

Now there’s a well-known psychologist out there who uses the concept of a hierarchy in meeting needs, but we’re not getting into that mostly because there’s some big flaws in the theory. But we’re taking a similar concept and applying it to nutrition, where this type of framework actually makes a lot of sense!

The widest and most critical part of the nutritional hierarchy is energy availability - does the body have enough energy to carry out all of its intended functions. While it’s sometimes reduced down to the old theory of “calories in, calories out”, energy availability is more broadly encompassing than this. If you are a high-performing athlete, or you’re lactating, or are dealing with multiple health conditions, and you are consistently under-eating for your basic and these additional needs, no amount of organic blueberries will save your metabolism.

When the foundation is missing, the body enters a state of "metabolic adaptation." It begins to downregulate non-essential processes—reproduction, hair growth, and deep sleep—to keep the lights on. You end up constipated, exhausted, sore, and it’s not because you’re eating seed oils. It’s because your body has decided this basic need isn’t being met and it desperately is trying to protect you. Before you worry about what you are eating, you must ensure you are eating enough!

Once your body is successfully getting enough energy to meet all of its needs, the next level is the balance of macronutrients which are carbohydrates, proteins and fats. We can get all of our energy needs from one of these groups, but it is ideal for our bodies to get a combination of all three.

Carbohydrates offer “high-octane fuel”, the primary source of fuel for the brain and the most rapidly digested with a huge energy payoff. Proteins and fats are slower to digest with different jobs, protein for structural integrity including muscle repair and enzyme production, and fats for vitamin absorption, hormonal messaging and satiety. If our meals are successfully meeting our energy needs but don’t have a great balance of all three components, energy levels will be unstable and our tissues will have a hard time recovering and functioning. Do some meals and snacks have some imbalances every so often? Sure, and this isn’t the end of the world if it happens. Do we want that imbalance to remain long-term? Nope!

This is where we start to shift gears and move from "quantity" to "quality." Micronutrients - vitamins and minerals - are the spark plugs of the human engine. They don't provide energy themselves, but they are required to unlock the energy from your macros. Think of them like support staff, helping the processes to continue even if they aren’t directly involved in them. We’re looking for variety and additions - are you getting enough iron to carry oxygen? Enough magnesium to relax your nervous system? Enough folate to support cellular repair? We’re eating enough so we’re building the structures, adding macronutrient balance to provide the wiring and pies, and then we’re hooking up water and electricity to the structure with our vitamins and minerals!

Now we reach the upper tiers. Timing matters, but only if the bottom three layers are solid. This doesn’t mean that there are specific times in which eating must occur, but that some scenarios where timing can be a factor for success. This includes post-workout eating with carbohydrates and proteins to stop muscle breakdown and facilitate recovery, breakfast within a reasonable waking time to set the tone for the day, and addressing increased energy and fluid needs during certain points of high intensity training and the menstrual cycle.

This level is where people mistakenly try to start, and I mean, with the way that social media talks about food and eating practices it’s no wonder we think that just changing our eating time will “fix” whatever nutrition issues we have or have been told we have. They fast for 16 hours or obsess over "anabolic windows" while failing to eat enough total protein during the day. In the hierarchy, timing is a multiplier, not a foundation.

The very tip of the pyramid, the most specialized and the smallest, is reserved for supplements. These are the things that we add as extras when the absolute basics are covered and there is room or opportunity to include them. This includes everything from creatine to prenatal vitamins, or the treatment of deficiencies! Supplements are not meant to take up a large portion of our daily intake, nor should we have mountains of supplements that we’re taking. They have a place and a purpose, and it’s not to replace the needs we have for energy and nutrients.

In the nutrition world, we feel burnout because we’re trying to build from the top down instead of the bottom up. We’re taking the laundry list of influencer supplements, cutting out food groups, restricting our eating timing and then we’re blaming ourselves when none of it feels better. The stress we feel in the body and the mind heals when we’re addressing our true needs. And we can lean into the optimism of finding new ways to add more nutrition (like microgreens on sandwiches or frozen veggie mixes to stir fry) without feeling guilt or shame or losing out on the basics.

Eating well isn't about perfection; it’s about the priorities. By ensuring energy availability and macronutrient balance, then creating regular intake of the micronutrients, you create a resilient body that is in a better place to explore the highlights like timing and supplements. Build your foundation first. The rest will follow!