I tried out many different diets. Here I share what I have learned.

In the last few years, I tried out literally any type of diet under the sun. I want to share with you some things I learned along the way.

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 that in my opinion, you can´t go wrong with and that works well for anyone.

Many of the points I am going to make are contentious and you might not agree with all of them. While most of the following points are underpinned by many scientific studies, when it comes to nutrition science, there is a lot of disagreement and conflicting “evidence”. Therefore, you can certainly cherry-pick within the scientific literature and “disprove” almost any point I or anyone else makes. Hence, I want to make it clear that the points outlined below represent my opinion, which I have formed through a combination of reasoning from first-principles, interpretation and integration of the available evidence, and my personal experience.

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). Your staples should be veggies, meats, fish, eggs, nuts, some fruits, good fats (butter, olive oil, dark chocolate, etc.). Titrate the number of carbs to your activity levels and insulin sensitivity.
• 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. (For scientific explanation -and to all other points above and below- see the article I wrote which I linked at the bottom of this post)
• Very low carb? 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 (sex hormones, thyroid, adrenals, IGF-1).
• 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.
• Test out whether dairy is for you or not. For many people, dairy is inflammatory, causes gut issues, bloating, lethargy and for some reason negatively affects the lipid profile. 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 and increase Omega-3 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. Instead, make sure you get at least 2g of DHA and EPA. It is the building block for anti-inflammatory eicosanoids, acts on PPARs (transcription factors for metabolism), and is important for neuronal signaling.
• What about fiber? You need both soluble and insoluble fiber. In my opinion and experience, around 10g of psyllium husk and 5g of inulin/acacia fiber is all you need.
• 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.

Again, I am saying, that having a diet following these points works well for most people, but that does not mean that this is the “only” diet that works!!!

I am open to any criticism, feedback, different opinions. Humanity is all about collective learning :)

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