7 Ideas to End Dietary Confusion

Once you start to take a serious interest in diet and nutrition, things can quickly seem to get very complex.

Now I’m the type of person who loves a puzzle but I know a lot of people just give up. It’s difficult to separate fact from fiction and in the field of nutrition, there are as many ‘best’ diets as there are experts…

The Hot Issues

So, what are the hotly debated, confusing issues?

• Animal foods — Are humans adapted to animal foods?
• Protein — How much protein do we need and what are the best sources?
• Comparative anatomy — Are we omnivores or frugivores?
• Modern farming — What are the implications? Is organic worth it? What are the solutions?
• Raw vs cooked foods — The use of fire is likely to be around 350,000 years old. Is this enough time to adapt to cooked foods and does it matter?
• Cooked meats — Often linked to high rates of disease esp. cancer. How do we square this with evolutionary theory?
• Veganism — There is no natural model for veganism — either in the diets of primates, tribal peoples or evolutionary theory. So how can vegans justify their position? Why are vegans so thin? Is a vegan diet, especially a raw vegan diet sustainable in the long term — over generations?
• Macronutrient ratios — Often hotly disputed and debated.
• Grains and dairy products — Have only been introduced into the human diet in the last 10,000 years, less in some areas. What do we do with this information? How can we square this with the current healthy diet pyramids and many spiritual diets — yoga, essene, mazdaznan and so-on — who tend to utilize theses group heavily as a replacement for meats?
• Separation from a natural environment — Causes problems such as B12 availability, gut flora issues and vitamin D issues (sunlight). What can be done?
• The plodding scientific method — And the fact that health professionals will always protect themselves by hiding behind science. How many times do we hear “There is no evidence to support…”. Well, at one time there was no evidence to support the ‘theory’ that the world wasn’t flat either.
• Government — Government health bodies have a lot more to consider than your individual health — economics and politics for starters. So how do you make sense of government recommendations? And why does government advice keep changing?
• Food combining — Are mixed meals better than eating one thing at a time?
• Social — How can I fit my desired dietary choices into the wider context of my life?
• Metabolic types — Fact or fiction?

And this is just a partial list! :-)

You can see why there’s a lot of confusion but I’m not intending to answer all these questions right now. I just want to give you the following 7 ways of stopping yourself going crazy, when deciding what your diet should look like…

The 7 Ideas

1. Seek ye first the kingdom of the long-lived. :-) It follows that the lifestyle that creates longevity will also create the best health. Then seek ye on from there.
2. Always remember the first rule of good nutrition — Eat whole foods.
3. The human body is amazingly adaptable. Tribal peoples all over the world have radically different diets. All based on natural foods. All healthy with an absence of Western diseases. All proven to work over generations. We have to eat something. Make your best estimate as to what is best for you now.
4. It’s what you do that matters. It’s said “An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory”. Focus on making small sustainable changes rather than focus on discovering the ‘ideal’.
5. Put nutrition in its place in a wider framework of a healthy lifestyle.
6. Experiment. But be sure that your intended diet is sustainable in the long term.
7. Focus on the BIG stuff. Remember the law of diminishing returns. So for example, concentrate on increasing your fruit and veg intake. Get more sleep. Drink more water. Cut down on stimulants. Get 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week. Concentrate on the BIG stuff first, then the little stuff if you need to.

Still Confused?

Don’t worry, just go with the Habit Guide Diet — Just Tell Me What to Eat!

The Habit Guide Diet takes all of the above into account and more. It draws on countless sources of information and over 20 years nutritional research and experience.

But most importantly, it has the power to transform your energy, vitality and happiness… It’s leaps and bounds ahead of what most folks are doing and also takes the reality of life into account (eg. not enough time in the morning).

Mike Kinnaird
Author of Habit Guide: How to be Happy & Healthy

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