The Three Primary Characteristics of The One-Size-Fits-All Mindset

For now, let's simply acknowledge the existence and practice of one-size-fits-all, especially in relation to nutrition and health (in general). There are three primary characteristics of the one-size-fits-all mentality, which further complicate this erroneous philosophy.

The Way of the Piecemealer— A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
The first practice within the scope of one-size-fits-all nutrition is known as piecemealing or the piecemeal approach to nutrition and health. This is the practice whereby one chooses (supposedly) to complete their nutrition and health program in unconnected bits and pieces. "I'll have that vitamin C . . . I hear that's good . . . perhaps a green drink, and maybe some whitefish today" is what a piecemealer may think. Piecemealing is the art of picking and choosing nutritional components on the basis of guesswork related to what an individual superficially "thinks" they need. Today it's betacarotene, tomorrow it's the grapefruit diet.

This "art" of self-prescription is a manifestation of one-size-fits-all with no scientific foundation, strategy, or philosophy that can impart a meaningful validity. In other words, it is simply a practice of haphazard, non-analytical experimentation without any connection to the reality of what one's actual nutritional needs are, in part or in their entirety. I've seen piecemealers pick various foods and supplements like vitamin E, selenium, broccoli, or tofu without any rhyme or reason other than the following rationale: "the topsoil lacks selenium," "vitamin E is an antioxidant," "broccoli is considered a cancer preventative," and "tofu is better for you than red meat." These piecemeal bits of information are tidbits picked up from various generic sources (friends, media, etc.), but they really have no direct connection to the specific needs of any particular individual.

It should be obvious that the "art" of piecemealing is totally inadequate when it comes to precisely accounting for the 76-plus minerals, 17 vitamins, 5 macronutrients, 40 amino acids, 43 essential fatty acids, and the thousands of vitamin-like substances and phytonutrients your particular body needs in varying degrees for optimum health and well-being.

Few people (in modern society) are able to even come close to choosing the entire optimum eating regimen their bodies need in actuality without a profound nutritional background combined properly with rigorous lab-mediated metabolic testing; there are also 400 measurable toxins to consider as well.

Maybe that's why the HANES (Health And Nutrition Examination Survey) I and II government-sponsored studies found that, of the people tested, over 81% demonstrated profound deficiencies in nutrients—this statistic included supplement takers and people on special diets. independent lab studies show upwards of 94% of those tested with deficiencies and overloads present. You cannot simply guess your way to a non-deficiency/overload, non-toxic metabolic status—excess nutrients can be as bad for you as deficiencies and can also act as toxins "to boot".