I tried out every diet under the sun. Paleo is best. Here I share what I learned.
There are many diets out there. Nutrition is like religion, people protect their diet with their lives. Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet you can´t go wrong with.
Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet almost everyone does well on (that does NOT mean people don´t do well on other diets as well). This is the diet we evolved with over the last couple hundred thousand years or so.
A few points about a diet literally everyone does well on:
- Your main energy source should be good fats. The rest should come from good fats (almost everyone does well on MUFA; SFAs are ok).
- You need to deserve your carbs. The more insulin sensitive (i.e. lean and active) you are, the more carbs you can tolerate. Keeping carbs between 100–200g carbs works well for most people. The leaner and more active, the more carbs you tolerate and even need.
- Avoid high-glycemic loads. Our ancestors never had the fast-spiking carbs we have now. Intense spikes in insulin are bad. (Whole books can be written -and in fact, are written — about the science).
- Cycling into ketosis occasionally keeps you metabolically flexible. Metabolic flexibility is incredibly important. Just as our ancestors likely were, throwing in the occasional fast (cycling in and out of ketosis) keeps your cells great at oxidizing fats while remaining good at burning glucose.
- Very low crab? A diet very low in carbohydrates is great for becoming metabolically healthy (e.g. fatty liver, insulin resistance, adiposity), but if you are already lean and active, going too low in carbs for too long periods of time can screw with hormonal health.
- Do not only look at macros and micros. Calories are just as important. Perhaps THE most important factor when it comes to diet is simply the number of calories you eat. We are heterotrophic creatures. Energy intake is one of the most important things animals do. For adequate health and function (esp. hormonal health), sufficient caloric intake is required.
- Protein intake. Around 1.5g protein/kg body weight.
- Eat meats. We evolved as meat-eaters. Meats are highly nutritious and contain many nutrients (e.g. minerals, carnitine, carnosine, creatine, choline, CoQ10, etc.). Too bad, meat is bad for the environment.
- Stay away from dairy. Most people think bad reactions to dairy are due to the lactose content. In many cases however, it is not the lactose, but the whey and esp. casein protein fraction of the milk. Both whey and casein evolved to have some hormonal activity. Both are quite bad for metabolic health. Besides, many people´s immune system reacts against certain forms of a1-casein.
- Sugar/fructose in high quantities is bad. Not only does it elevate intrahepatic lipogenesis (fatty liver), but it also raises uric acid, which has a host of adverse effects itself. What is more, sweetness hooks you and you become addicted to it.
- Avoid excessive Omega-6 intake. Stay away from most vegetable oils (esp. soy, corn, sunflower). Not only are they precursors to pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, but they also screw with the different PPARs.
- From a health perspective, not much variety is needed. If vitamins and micronutrient intakes are adequate, we can eat the same foods and meals over and over again (and every other mammal out there animal does this). Do you think our primate ancestors had varied buffets available 24/7, 365 days per year? Hell no, they ate the exact same stuff over and over again. In fact, people in blue zones, in general, eat the same 20 or so ingredients for their whole lives.
Don´t miss the forest for the trees. Following these few points gives you 80% of the benefit for 20% effort. Overfocusing on tiny details is pointless.
I am a med student becoming a functional medicine doctor in a year. I tried out every diet under the sun and found paleo to be best and healthiest (not just based on personal experience).
I wrote a short guide about a diet that literally everyone does well on.
Enjoy.
https://thingsvarious.medium.com/a-diet-that-works-for-everyone-8affde01d66c
I am open for any criticism, feedback, different opinions. Humanity is all about collective learning :)
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