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June 2, 2023
In this edition of Health With Balance, I’m going to give you a framework for nutrition that will help you make informed decisions about the combination of foods that works best for your body.
Understanding this framework will allow you to break free of the tribalism that characterizes so much of the health and wellness world. It will liberate you from those fruitless Google searches like “Which diet is best? Is [x food] good or bad? Should I eat almonds or peanuts? Is keto better than IIFYM?”
Like Peter Attia points out in his new book, Outlive:
"…the fundamental assumption underlying the diet wars, and most nutrition research - that there is one perfect diet that works best for every single person - is absolutely incorrect." (p. 293).
It’s taken me about 6 years of learning and experimenting, but I’ve narrowed down 5 principles that encapsulate what a certain way of eating needs to provide in order to be truly "healthy."
Within these parameters, there is an almost infinite number of ways you could eat that would be healthy for you. This is great news because if a particular way of eating stops working for you, these principles give you a framework to understand where you might need to make changes, without having to resort to the dogma that permeates so much of the diet world.
Today’s newsletter is going to be a big-picture overview of these 5 principles. Future editions will dive deeper into each individual principle.
So what are the 5 principles for a healthy diet? Let's break it down.
#1: Get an optimal amount of high-quality protein.
The very first thing you need to get right with your diet is your protein intake.
Specifically, you need enough protein from your diet to optimize muscle health. It just so happens that getting ample protein is also essential to satiety, which is crucial for being able to adhere to a diet long-term.
Rule of thumb:
Eat about .8-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every day.
#2: Target micronutrients.
Once you have protein in place, start thinking about the nutrient density of your diet. Where are you getting your vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids? And before you say, “From my multivitamin,” let me tell you that getting these things from food should be your priority.
Rule of thumb:
Make whole, unprocessed foods (meat, fish, eggs, plants, high-quality fats) the centerpiece of your diet.
#3: Tailor overall calories to suit your goal.
Calories do matter, whether your goal is to lose, gain, or maintain your weight. So once you have your daily protein target established, and you’re meeting your nutritional needs with a base of whole foods, you need to think about your goal.
Rule of thumb:
To lose weight, overall calories need to be lower.
To gain weight, overall calories need to be higher.
To maintain weight, keep calories the same.
#4: Avoid inflammatory foods.
Some foods induce an immunogenic response when eaten, creating chronic inflammation. This is highly individualized - what triggers chronic inflammation, and how that chronic inflammation manifests itself, will be different from one person to the next.
Rule of thumb:
If you have signs of chronic inflammation, do a short-term elimination diet periodically to pinpoint which foods might be exacerbating that.
#5: Lock in your ideal glycemic load.
The final step in constructing your optimal diet is to understand how your body responds to high-glycemic foods - especially carbohydrates. Again, this varies widely from individual to individual - just see this study if you need some examples.
Rule of thumb:
Start noticing which types of foods cause blood sugar dysregulation, or periodically use a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) for more objective data.
These 5 principles will give you the framework you need to start experimenting and slowly construct a diet that is healthy for you.
And if you already have a way of eating that you prefer, use these 5 principles as an audit. Ask yourself the following questions:
Am I getting enough protein?
Am I making whole, minimally processed foods the foundation of my diet?
Am I at a healthy weight and body composition?
Is the way I'm eating causing undue inflammation?
Do I consistently have healthy blood sugar responses to my meals?
This isn't a recipe for a 30-day challenge; it's a framework to run your own lifelong N=1 experiment. Recognize that your diet will never be perfect, that the perfect diet doesn't even exist, and that what works for you might not be the same thing that works for someone else.
Let's start normalizing diet principles instead of diet dogma.
Helpful resources:
Article: HWB #001: Principles Over Dogma
Book: Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf
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