One Aspect of "Nutrition" Most People are Missing

Author

Hal Cranmer
February 11, 2026

I’m not here to argue which diet is best. The diet that works for you is the best.

Regardless of which diet you prefer, there is something that many people miss. Especially if you are trying to help others improve their health. Maybe you’re a caregiver. Or a parent. You want the best for someone in your care.

Yet you’re not feeding this one thing to that person.

You won’t necessarily find this one thing in a cookbook. Or a book on nutrition. It’s pretty rare to see health influencers talk about it on social media.

I found it originally in Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Talk about a book that has stood the test of time. If you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend you do. If you have read it, go back to it from time to time.

I’ll let Mr. Carnegie explain his ‘nutrition advice’:

“I once succumbed to the fad of fasting and went for six days and nights without eating. It wasn’t difficult. I was less hungry at the end of the sixth day than I was at the end of the second. Yet I know, and you know, people who would think they had committed a crime if they let their families or employees go for six days without food; but they will let them go for six days, and six weeks, and sometimes sixty years without giving them the hearty appreciation that they crave almost as much as they crave food.”

The diet piece people are missing is not food.

It’s the feeling of being appreciated.

So often when caring for someone we fall in the trap of criticizing them. We become frustrated with parents who have trouble dressing themselves. Kids too.

We want the best for our loved ones. Regularly though we have a weird way of showing it. Criticism can really bite. It can make some people very unmotivated.

Even if they do have dementia.

Yet when those same loved ones do something good, it is easy to gloss over it and move on to the next task.

That’s because most of the time we are thinking about ourselves. When someone around us does something that makes our life a little more difficult, we lash out with criticism. Yet when they do good, we don’t notice because it doesn’t affect our own day directly.

Dale Carnegie said there is only one way to consistently get someone to do something. You make them WANT to do it.

What do people want? Professor John Dewey, an American philosopher said that the deepest urge in human nature is “the desire to be important”. In other words, the desire to be appreciated.

Carnegie distinguishes between flattery and sincere appreciation. Flattery is very superficial. It doesn’t take much thought. You’re just trying to kiss someone’s hind quarters. Nobody likes that.

Sincere appreciation is taking the time to study someone else. Find their good points. Then explain to them how much you like what they do. In other words, you show them that they are important to you.

Taking the time to show someone how much you appreciate them will provide as many or more health benefits than the greatest superfood imaginable. And appreciation is one diet aspect where you don’t have to worry about the quantity consumed.