Food Simplified

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
—Hippocrates of Kos

One day, blueberries are good for you. The next day, they’re bad for you.

One physician is absolutely certain eggs are the most nutritious food on Earth. Another physician is absolutely certain eggs are deadly.

One day, avocados are bad for you. The next day, they’re good for you.

One physician tells you that you have to eliminate all animal food. Another physician tells you that you have to eliminate all carbohydrate.

If this is a bit confusing to you, you’re not alone.

A 10,000-Foot View

When you take a 10,000-foot view, things become clearer. This is what you see from there:

Just eat real food and really enjoy it.

Anyone who claims there’s one way to eat for every person on Earth, beyond the idea of steering away from processed, anti-natural, junk food and steering toward whole, natural, real food simply isn’t paying attention to all of the available scientific evidence.

For those people, food, nutrition, and their diet have become dogmatic rather than logical or scientific pursuits. They refuse to see outside of their dogma, they’re incapable of admitting they’re wrong, and they often have something to sell: the books, nutrition supplements, and other products that go with their diet.

If you were to look at all of the available scientific evidence, as I have and continue to do, you’d see:

1. Ways of eating high in carbohydrate and low in fat can be beneficial.
2. Ways of eating high in fat and low in carbohydrate can be beneficial.
3. Ways of eating that include more plant food and less animal food can be beneficial.
4. Ways of eating that include more animal food and less plant food can be beneficial.

What happens when a low-fat diet and a low-carbohydrate diet are compared head-to-head in a scientific study?

Here’s how the researchers summarized their findings:

“In this 12-month weight loss diet study, there was no significant difference in weight change between a healthy low-fat diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate diet, and neither genotype pattern nor baseline insulin secretion was associated with the dietary effects on weight loss. In the context of these 2 common weight loss diet approaches, neither of the 2 hypothesized predisposing factors was helpful in identifying which diet was better for whom.” (1)

What happens when a very popular low-fat diet (the Ornish Diet) and a very popular low-carbohydrate diet (the Atkins Diet) are compared head-to-head in a scientific study?

Here’s how the researchers summarized their findings:

“In our randomized trial, we found that a variety of popular diets can reduce weight and several cardiac risk factors under realistic clinical conditions, but only for the minority of individuals who can sustain a high dietary adherence level. Despite a substantial percentage of participants who could sustain meaningful adherence levels, no single diet produced satisfactory adherence rates and the progressively decreasing mean adherence scores were practically identical among the 4 diets. The higher discontinuation rates for the Atkins and Ornish diet groups suggest many individuals found these diets to be too extreme. To optimally manage a national epidemic of excess body weight and associated cardiac risk factors, practical techniques to increase dietary adherence rates are urgently needed.” (2)

Advocates for these diets are absolutely convinced their diet will take you straight to heaven and other diets will take you straight to hell. But when you compare them in scientific studies, it’s hard to find any difference between them.

Now let’s look at plant food in a scientific study in which level of processing was controlled for. Here’s how the researchers summarized their findings:

“In three ongoing prospective cohort studies, higher adherence to an overall plant-based diet index (PDI) was modestly associated with lower CHD incidence. This inverse association was considerably stronger for adherence to a healthier version (hPDI), but positive for adherence to a less healthy version (uPDI) of a plant-based diet index. These associations remained robust to adjustment for multiple confounders and were consistently observed in various subgroups.” (3)

Plant food that was processed, anti-natural junk food was detrimental. Plant food that was whole, natural, real food was beneficial.

Now let’s look at animal food in a scientific study in which level of processing was controlled for. Here’s how the researchers summarized their findings:

“Whereas meat consumption is commonly considered a risk factor for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, our findings indicate that the effects and magnitudes may vary depending on both the type of meat consumed and the outcome considered. This first systematic review and meta-analysis of these relationships, including 1,218,380 individuals from 10 countries on 4 continents with 23,889 cases of CHD, 2,280 cases of stroke, and 10,797 cases of diabetes, provides the most robust and reliable evidence to-date of how unprocessed red and processed meat consumption may influence risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Consumption of processed meats was associated with significantly higher incidence of both CHD and diabetes, with 42% and 19% higher risk, respectively, per 50 g serving/day. In contrast, consumption of unprocessed red meats was not associated with CHD and was associated with a nonsigificant trend toward higher risk of diabetes. Associations were intermediate for total meat intake.” (4)

Animal food that was processed, anti-natural, junk food was detrimental. Animal food that was whole, natural, real food was beneficial.

Both plant and animal food that’s processed into junk food have deleterious effects. Both plant and animal food that’s unadulterated and remains real food have salutary effects. It’s not about plant and animal food. It’s about degree of processing. If I were to say it to a six-year-old, I’d say processing both adds bad stuff to and removes good stuff from food.

Up here from our 10,000-foot view, we can see past the food fights and diet wars, and we can see how simple food really is:

Just eat real food and really enjoy it.

Let’s Get Real

Whole, natural, real food is unprocessed. It’s simply food that exists on Earth that hasn’t been messed with. For starters, think vegetables, meat (all kinds), eggs, fruit, nuts, and seeds.

Junk food is food people from a few generations ago wouldn’t even recognize.

If you can find it in the wild or on a farm, it’s probably real food. If it was made in a factory, it’s probably junk food.

If it’s very perishable, it’s probably real food. If it can sit on a shelf for a long period of time, it’s probably junk food.

When most people think about junk food, what comes to mind are the harmful substances in it. It’s equally important to think about the beneficial substances that aren’t in junk food. Junk food has been stripped of its life-sustaining nutrients. On the other hand, real food doesn’t contain any harmful substances and is chock full of life-sustaining nutrients.

An Evolutionary Perspective

We humans have roamed Earth for about 2.5 million years.

Two important inflection points have greatly impacted what foods have been available to us:

1. Our ancestors only began farming about 10,000 years ago.
2. Our ancestors only began operating factories about 260 years ago.

What does this have to do with food?

With the advent of agriculture, known as the Agricultural Revolution, came agricultural food: legumes, legume products, grains, grain products, milk, and milk products.

With the advent of industry, known as the Industrial Revolution, came industrial food: packaged cakes, chips, cookies, crackers, et cetera.

Agricultural food has only been available for about 0.004 percent of our time as humans.

Industrial food has only been available for about 0.0001 percent of our time as humans.

We’re most adapted to eating vegetables, meat (all kinds), eggs, fruit, nuts, and seeds. These are the primary foods that were available before the advent of industry and agriculture.

These are the foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors almost exclusively ate for the 2.49 million years of our 2.5 million years of existence. The entirety of our existence except the most recent time.

As such, these are the foods we’re most adapted to survive and thrive on. As such, a simple set of guidelines is:

1. Eat mostly hunter-gatherer food.
2. Have some agricultural food if you enjoy it and digest it well.
3. Minimize or avoid consumption of industrial food.

Vegetables, meat (all kinds), eggs, fruit, nuts, and seeds have the most to offer: no harmful substances and high levels of a wide array of nutrients.

Legumes, legume products, grains, grain products, milk, and milk products are helpful for many people. They contain relatively high levels of nutrients. That said, they also contain substances that impair digestion for many people. This is why many people have allergies or intolerances to these foods.

Packaged cakes, chips, cookies, crackers, et cetera don’t have much to offer at all.

As such, I encourage you to focus on mostly eating the hunter-gatherer foods you enjoy and leave you feeling your best and sometimes eating the agricultural foods you enjoy and leave you feeling your best. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to the specifics. Based on many factors ranging from your ancestry to the demands of your current life, you have unique needs. The good news is your body will always tell you what you need.

Food with Life in It

Whole, natural, real food gets you the highest return on your investment.

Two people can both invest $1,000 a month in mutual funds. One person’s portfolio might yield a four-percent return. The other person’s portfolio might yield a 12-percent return.

Two people can both have a 200-kilocalorie snack. One person’s snack portfolio might be high in junk food and low in real food. It would provide them with a very low amount of fiber and a very low amount of minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients. Another person’s snack portfolio might be high in real food and low in junk food. It would provide them with a very high amount of fiber and a very high amount of minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients.

Nutrients run every process in your body. Having a lot of them on hand is one key to your well-being. As such, focusing on real food is focusing on high-return food. It’s eating food with life in it.

Enjoyment

Unfortunately, many people have been conditioned to think:

“If it tastes good, it’s bad for you; if it tastes bad, it’s good for you.”

If you think this is true, you’ve never had my guacamole.

Even if you hate guacamole, I can easily debunk this myth for you. I’m confident there are several nutritious foods you absolutely love. Maybe asparagus in the spring or a handful of cashews when you’re hungry or salmon the way your friend makes it or blueberries you picked yourself or seasoned pumpkin seeds in the fall. Everyone loves at least some nutritious foods, and everyone can learn to love many nutritious foods.

I encourage you to start thinking this way:

“It tastes good and it’s good for you; it’s good for you and it tastes good.”

That is, focus on whole, natural, real foods you enjoy and prepare them in ways that make them even more enjoyable.

Turn up the nutritiousness, and turn up the enjoyment. Eat food that’s both nutritious and delicious. Eat food that’s nutrilicious.

How Much Should I Eat?

You don’t need to be told how much to eat.

When you focus on real food, you naturally get full. With chips, crackers, and the like, you can eat the whole bag and still not feel full. Try eating a pound of Brussels sprouts. Try eating five apples. The fiber, unadulterated fat and protein, and minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients in real food are satiating. The lack of these nutrients in junk makes it unsatiating.

Simply practice eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full. Keep a scale from zero to 10 in your mind. Zero represents “starving” and 10 represents “stuffed”. Practice eating when you’re about a three and practice stopping when you’re about a seven. That is, eat when you’re hungry not “starving”, and eat until you’re full not “stuffed”.

Wellness is holistic, so do your best to meet most of your needs most of the time. A lot of overeating is driven by boredom, loneliness, stress, and fatigue. The more fulfilling your life is, the less that’ll be a factor.

Water

Don’t forget to drink water. In many ways, water is the foundation of optimal nutrition.

A good guideline is:

Drink about half of your body weight (in pounds) of water (in ounces) a day. For example, a person who weighs about 140 pounds should drink about 70 ounces of water a day.

When you’re well-hydrated, everything in your body works better. Being well-hydrated helps to prevent overeating too because it’s easy to confuse being dehydrated for being hungry. Finally, in the process of forming positive habits, learning to drink more water is often a great place to start because it’s generally very doable.

Big Supp

A word of caution: Nutrition supplements aren’t the same thing as food.

This doesn’t mean nutrition supplements don’t have their place. They certainly do.

But nutrients are most usable by your body when they come along with the other nutrients they naturally coexist with in food.

Nutrition supplements come with big promises, and big supp markets as aggressively as big pharma. All despite the fact that there isn’t much scientific evidence that demonstrates the efficacy of nutrition supplements.

Consider the Iowa Women’s Health Study which followed over 38,000 subjects for 18 years. Here’s how the researchers summarized their findings:

“In agreement with our hypothesis, most of the supplements studied were not associated with a reduced total mortality rate in older women. In contrast, we found that several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements, including multivitamins, vitamins B6, and folic acid, as well as minerals iron, magnesium, zinc, and copper, were associated with a higher risk of total mortality. Of particular concern, supplemental iron was strongly and dose dependently associated with increased total mortality risk. Also, the association was consistent across shorter intervals, strengthened with multiple use reports and with increasing age at reported use. Supplemental calcium was consistently inversely related to total mortality rate; however, no clear dose-response relationship was observed.” (5)

Nature is wicked smart, and people who try to outsmart never succeed.

The Power of Simplicity

What if food could be both good for you and enjoyable, fun, and pleasurable?

What if food could be simple?

It can be. It is for me, and it is for many of my clients. It can be for you too.

Author’s note: Hunter-gatherers are not only our ancestors. Some people live as hunter-gatherers today.

(1) Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association with Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion: The DIETFITS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2018, 10.1001/jama.2018.0245.
(2) Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction: A Randomized Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005, 10.1001/jama.293.1.43.
(3) Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in U.S. Adults. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2017, 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.05.047.
(4) Red and Processed Meat Consumption and Risk of Incident Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Circulation, 2010, 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.924977.
(5) Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women: The Iowa Women’s Health Study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011, 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.445.

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.