Nutrition is one of those cases where perfect is the enemy of good. I mean, if you have sufficient education and enough time, go ahead, research everything, and create the perfect diet for you. But otherwise, your only choices are: using a few heuristics, or giving up. (Note that “I will research this topic later, and meanwhile I will continue eating junk food” is also a form of giving up. The “later” usually never happens.)
In the past, when I asked people what is “healthy nutrition”, there were two kinds of unhelpful advice:
a) an incredibly complicated theory, that would require me to spend a few weeks or months studying, and afterwards measuring and analyzing everything I eat and calculating how many calories and vitamins it had;
b) a list of “forbidden foods” which contained pretty much everything I could think of, except for fruits and vegetables (actually, if I remember correctly, even bananas were bad somehow; also potatoes).
It also doesn’t help that different people have contradictory theories, e.g. meat, eggs, and diary are either very important to eat, or very important to avoid. More precisely, the best form of meat is fish. Except you shouldn’t eat fish, because they are full of deadly mercury. Also, you should eat less to avoid obesity, but you need to eat enough to have enough nutrients. (It is even easier to lose weight if you exercise a lot; but if you exercise seriously, it is even more important to eat enough nutrients.) As a feedback, you should measure your BMI; except that BMI is completely misleading, because it doesn’t distinguish between fat (bad) and muscles (good).
(And if you happen to be a woman, it is even more socially important to lose weight, but at the same time getting rid of too much fat will damage your metabolism, because some female hormones need certain amounts of fat to function properly. Also, you probably don’t want to get rid of your boobs, which are mostly fat.)
Well… thanks for the helpful advice, I guess. /s
Eat plenty of vegetables.
Notice that this is one of the few things the contradictory nutrition theories all happen to agree about. Vegetables are important in both paleo and vegan diets.
I would also recommend fruit. Unlike vegetables, fruit is usually not a part of a meal… so the simple solution is to eat it between large meals.
Both low-carb and keto are improved by eating lots of leafy green vegetables, I think. The main question is something like “are you getting more sugar or fiber out of this?”. Plant-free diets, of course, recommend against eating vegetables.
Nutrition is one of those cases where perfect is the enemy of good. I mean, if you have sufficient education and enough time, go ahead, research everything, and create the perfect diet for you. But otherwise, your only choices are: using a few heuristics, or giving up. (Note that “I will research this topic later, and meanwhile I will continue eating junk food” is also a form of giving up. The “later” usually never happens.)
In the past, when I asked people what is “healthy nutrition”, there were two kinds of unhelpful advice:
a) an incredibly complicated theory, that would require me to spend a few weeks or months studying, and afterwards measuring and analyzing everything I eat and calculating how many calories and vitamins it had;
b) a list of “forbidden foods” which contained pretty much everything I could think of, except for fruits and vegetables (actually, if I remember correctly, even bananas were bad somehow; also potatoes).
It also doesn’t help that different people have contradictory theories, e.g. meat, eggs, and diary are either very important to eat, or very important to avoid. More precisely, the best form of meat is fish. Except you shouldn’t eat fish, because they are full of deadly mercury. Also, you should eat less to avoid obesity, but you need to eat enough to have enough nutrients. (It is even easier to lose weight if you exercise a lot; but if you exercise seriously, it is even more important to eat enough nutrients.) As a feedback, you should measure your BMI; except that BMI is completely misleading, because it doesn’t distinguish between fat (bad) and muscles (good).
(And if you happen to be a woman, it is even more socially important to lose weight, but at the same time getting rid of too much fat will damage your metabolism, because some female hormones need certain amounts of fat to function properly. Also, you probably don’t want to get rid of your boobs, which are mostly fat.)
Well… thanks for the helpful advice, I guess. /s
Notice that this is one of the few things the contradictory nutrition theories all happen to agree about. Vegetables are important in both paleo and vegan diets.
I would also recommend fruit. Unlike vegetables, fruit is usually not a part of a meal… so the simple solution is to eat it between large meals.
My favorite heuristic is Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen (available also as Android app).
…Except all the low-carb, keto, and straight up carnivore diets that are getting increasingly popular :)
Both low-carb and keto are improved by eating lots of leafy green vegetables, I think. The main question is something like “are you getting more sugar or fiber out of this?”. Plant-free diets, of course, recommend against eating vegetables.
With plant-free diets, where does one get their vitamin C? Lots of raw meat? Supplements?