What Is Bioindividuality & How Does it Impact Your Health?
Despite all the seemingly helpful article titles and advice, “The best way to lose weight,” or“The 5 superfoods you should be eating,” etc. (you probably know the type!), there’s really no one-size-fits-all approach to wellness.
Optimum nutrition, fitness & lifestyle needs can vary widely from person to person.
Two common examples of this are food and sleep:
One person’s food may be another’s poison. For example, pasture-raised eggs are a superfood to many—but an allergen to others. And for another person, their body’s naturally occurring estrogen might be contributing to adult acne, so eggs would not the best choice for them either, though it’s not an official allergy.
We also have differing sleep needs: while one person may feel perfectly well rested on 6 hours of sleep, another may need 9 hours to feel the same.
With so many nuances to our health needs, it’s important to understand which wellness advice is applicable in a “good for everyone” kind of way, and which is more specific to each individual.
What is bioindividuality?
Bioindividuality is the concept that an individual’s nutrition, physical activity and general health needs vary based on many factors, including things like their genetics, lifestyle, and even where in the world they live.
Understanding bioindividuality & how it affects your health
It’s true, we’re all snowflakes!
But really, each of us has a unique combination of genetics, lifestyle and environment that constitutes our bioindividuality, and governs the specific foods and wellness practices we personally need to stay healthy and happy.
Living a healthy lifestyle involves understanding your own bioindividuality and how it impacts your healthy living choices.
Here are the key factors that contribute to bioindividuality:
Genetics
Our ancestry and ancestral food history influences our health needs and outcomes. Simply put, populations in different parts of the world evolved to eat different things—which makes sense, as we had access to different types of foods in different geographic regions.
For example, people of northern European heritage (whose ancestors raised milk-producing domesticated animals for millennia) have typically maintained the enzyme to digest lactose in adulthood, whereas most other populations lose this enzyme after about age five, resulting in lactose intolerance. So, while dairy products can be healthy for some people, they can be not-so-great (and cause a lot of digestive discomfort!) for others.
Age
Our physical and mental well-being needs (nutrition, physical activity, sleep, etc.) vary significantly across our lifetime. Your health needs at age two were quite different from your needs at age 14, which are likely different from your needs now.
Understanding that age plays a role in what’s best for your health can help to make adjustments over the course of your lifetime.
Sex
Innate biological differences between males and females influence our health needs as well. One example is greater iron needs in menstruating females. Many women’s multi-vitamins take this into account and provide the necessary iron supplementation that an adult female would need. However, the same amount of iron would be unnecessary (and even unhealthy) for a male.
Location
Our health and wellness needs are also affected by where we live. For example, people living at higher latitudes tend to need more nutritional supplementation of vitamin D, since it’s not as easily obtained from sunlight year-round as it is closer to the equator.
Lifestyle
Situational context certainly influences our overall health needs too. For example, a professional athlete has quite different caloric and nutrient needs than a sedentary office worker—promoting the same diet for each would result in one being grossly over- or underfed. So, it’s always important to take into consideration how we’re living in understanding what’s best for us nutrition or wellness-wise.
Life experience
Our bodies are impacted by our life experiences in many ways. For example, people who had multiple rounds of antibiotics as children have different gut flora and digestion than those who grew up in the same area, and ate the same diet, but did not take antibiotics. Each of these people could then have notably different reactions to the same immune trigger—whether being exposed to the common cold, or experiencing a particularly stressful period of time.
Health conditions
A person’s existing health conditions play a huge role in overall health needs (of course!). For example, our general probiotic and prebiotic recommendations need to be adjusted for people with FODMAPS intolerance or irritable bowel syndrome because their bodies have a harder time digesting the fiber in prebiotic foods.
Health coaching for the bioindividual
Integrative nutrition health coaching, which we practice, is centered around the concept of bioindividuality—that there is no “right” or “best” nutritional or wellness plan that applies to everyone.
As bio-unique individuals, our nutrition, fitness & lifestyle plans must be personalized to suit our particular needs.
While there are some general starting points that apply to most people (for example, the tips we promote here via our wellness blog), the practice of health coaching is built around helping individuals develop personalized wellness plans that meet specific nutrition and lifestyle needs—in other words, helping you discover the nutrition, fitness and lifestyle that works best for you.
Not someone else, not your health coach, not a celebrity or your best friend or your neighbor—but the health and wellness tips that work best for you. 😊
Four Wellness Tip
Take your bioindividuality into account when applying health advice or wellness tips to your own healthy lifestyle.
