Diet and Nutrition

Diets are mostly fads, mostly promoted by authors who want to make money. I can’t think of a single diet book in the bookstore that is based on any real evidence. Eat Right for Your Blood Type, the China Study, and all other diet books are based on bad study design, wishful thinking, good storytelling, and talk-show marketing.

For decades, I thought nutrition research was nonsense. However, we’ve learned much more about insulin sensitivity and its importance. After reading the book Why We get Sick, I’ve changed my mind on nutrition. I’ve also stopped being vegan and now eat yoghurt. I think Peter Attia and many others still aren’t paying enough attention to insulin resistance.

Your degree of insulin resistance determines what you should and should not eat. If you’re A1c is 5, you can eat ice cream, and if your A1c is 6, you should eat zero carbs and sugar. If you are insulin sensitive, you should be trying to stay insulin sensitive. That means reducing your glycemic load. There are videos on that here on this site. Here are some general guidelines …

General guidelines

If your goal is weight training or sport fitness, realize that many people use many different diets to get the same results.

Transfats are bad. These are the “margarine” products of 30 years ago. They have mostly been eliminated.

If you are insulin resistant, you should avoid carbs. The more insulin resistant you are, the fewer carbs you should eat. If you are diabetic, you should probably have zero carbs.

Sugar is generally bad. Not that you can’t manage it in your calorie budget, but it contributes to inflammation.

Processed foods are probably bad. The Standard American Diet promotes obesity and heart disease. As Dr Benjamin Bikman says, anything with a bar-code on it is probably a processed food, and it probably has starches, sugars, fats, and other ingredients you don’t want.

No fructose. Stay away from anything with fructose except fresh fruit. White sugar is half fructose. Think of fructose as dynamite and minimize it.

Don’t drink your calories. This means alcohol, sugary drinks, soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit juice, etc.

Reduce your glycemic load. Whole grains are better than processed. A baked potato is better than french fries. Grape Nuts are better than corn flakes. Processed and snack foods don’t help anyone. Learn how to reduce your glycemic load and work your A1c number down to 5 or less.

Get enough protein. This is hard. Pay attention. Vegans and vegetarians especially, but all of us probably need more protein than we’re getting. You need more protein as you age. You should aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. You may not get that much, but you should always be trying. Over 70 and serious bodybuilders need even more.

Seed oils come in three categories:

Good, consume all you want: avocado, olive, flax seed, coconut

Medium, avoid in products but okay for home cooking: canola, palm

Bad, avoid: corn, sunflower, safflower, and soy oil

Organic foods do not extend life and provide no health benefits. They may or may not be better for the environment.

Vegans and vegetarians are fine. I’ve been vegan 45 years. Older vegans need more protein and need to figure out how to get it, which is a challenge. Do they need to take B12? I think it makes sense just as insurance, but all animals make their own B12 in their mouths, so it isn’t critical. I think if you don’t use mouthwash, it’s probably okay not to take B12, but it’s cheap and delicious, so why not just take it?

Different diets work for different people. Vegan, paleo, raw, keto — all these diets can be healthy. Keep in mind the Masai people are very strong, and they mostly consume cow’s milk mixed with cow’s blood.

Keto diets are not for everyone. If you’re interested in Keto, here are some resources.

Dietary cholesterol is nothing. Unless you happen to be a cholesterol hyper-absorber, you can eat as much as you want. Eggs are no big deal.

Maybe the pendulum is swinging back toward saturated fats are not so good for your heart. Guidelines are leaning toward 20 percent or fewer from meat. Leaner meat is probably better. But that could change again.

Seed oils probably aren’t as bad as everyone says, but if you’re going to fry food, make sure to keep the temperature under 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Seed oils are not essential, you don’t need them. Use them sparingly. Most of them get in through packaged foods, so limit packaged foods and you’re probably fine.

Omega-3 oils are good. You can test omega-3 in your blood. If you’re deficient, make sure to take a supplement. If you’re not deficient, it’s good to get them from real food in your diet.

Carbohydrates and fats are less important. If you’re getting enough protein, it’s hard to overdo carbs or fats. It doesn’t much matter which you get more of. People who are more athletic and do more exercise can certainly get away with more carbs. People who are less active probably should balance carbs and fats roughly the same, but it depends on insulin resistance as much as activity.

Fiber is good but not essential. People who have a lot of weight to lose should probably be on a ketogenic diet. People who are not insulin resistant probably benefit from getting natural fiber in their diet.

Fasting or intermittent fasting is not a good idea if you are trying to build muscle. It extends life in mice, but humans are not mice. You don’t want to be too thin. Any time you lose weight, you’re losing a combination of muscle and fat.

Alcohol is bad. From a longevity point of view, the optimal amount of alcohol is zero. It contributes to inflammation, which makes everything worse. Pick your battles. A glass of wine a week is probably not a problem unless you’re already diabetic. If you have a drink a week or more, ask yourself whether you can get by without it and just have a drink on special occasions.

Build a diet you can stick with. Most diets work inside of 3 months, and almost all diets fail inside of 18 months. If it’s impossible to keep up, it won’t succeed.

Keeping the weight off is harder than losing it. If you lose 30 pounds or more in under a year, your body wants the weight back. You have to stay even more strict with your diet and exercise more to keep the weight off.

Almost no one keeps weight off without exercise. Study after study shows that people who exercise a lot — more than 2 hours a day — have a better chance to keep weight off in the years after losing weight. Virtually no one does it without a lot of exercise.

Find what works for you. There are no absolutes and no universal standards. What works for your Facebook friends may not work for you. Experiment and see what works best.

Don’t be full. Don’t take the last bites that would extend your stomach and give you that “I ate too much” feeling. Stop short. Don’t let it happen more than once a year. If there’s still food on your plate, ask for a bag and take it home. Save it for later. Don’t give yourself permission to overeat.