The Myth of the Perfect Diet

Long time no write!

I recently became a nutrition coach for a local health club (in addition to my position with the school district on a major physical activity grant), which has me burning the candle on both ends. But I’m really excited to be working with the good folks at Adventure 212 Fitness again and the more frequent interaction with a wide variety of clients is giving me plenty of insight into an array of eating topics, like the quest for The Perfect Diet.

Unfortunately, eating food has become complicated. Long gone are the days when you ate what you grew or raised on your farm. You didn’t have to wonder if your food was good for you or not because you didn’t have much of a choice. More importantly, it kept you from starving so you could live another day of your probably incredibly difficult and short life.

Now we are bombarded with detailed chemical information about food. Nutrition research has been great in many ways. It has helped us understand how food affects diseases like spina bifida, allergies, celiac disease, heart disease, diabetes, and many others. On the other hand, this information is not always used responsibly. Supplement makers use it to sell pills, food companies use it for profits, and doctors sensationalize it to sell books and get famous. The result is that people begin to get confused by conflicting information while believing that there is a ‘right’ way to eat that will make them skinny and happy and free of disease.

The truth is, there is no ‘perfect diet’ that applies to everyone. The ‘perfect diet’ is unique to you and must be discovered and allowed to evolve as you evolve. I’ve found that the answer to many of the nutrition questions I am asked depends on individual context or it’s irrelevant. Many are searching for the one answer, that one set of rules that will provide them with the perfect diet and it simply doesn’t exist.

I hope the following suggestions are helpful to you if you have been looking for the ‘perfect diet.’ My definition of the perfect diet is one in which I’m getting the right amount of the nutrients I need, limiting the foods that contribute to disease and poor health while eating the kinds of foods I like.

Ditch the Good Food-Bad Food Mindset
I have been asked “Is (enter food name here) bad for you?” so many times in the last 3 months that I’ve lost count. There is room for all foods in a healthy diet. One of the unhealthiest foods is soda, but if soda makes you happy and you suffer no direct harm from drinking it, have soda. Am I saying have multiple sodas every day? No. But if your overall diet is full of a variety of healthful, whole foods, one soda a day is not going to make your diet ‘unhealthy.’ In fact, for the soda-lover, it will make a diet perfect, right?

Focus on the More Important Things
I’ve found that while people are having anxiety over whether cereal, pasta, and GMO soy are ‘bad’ for them, they are restricting their eating to the point of starvation, eating fried foods too often, or engaging in some other clearly unhealthy eating habit. Cereal, pasta, and GMO soy are not necessarily ‘bad’, but chronic restrictive eating and a daily large fries is. Remember the general dietary recommendations: balance your calories, eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, reduce solid fats and added sugars, and choose lean meats and whole grains. Making dietary changes to move towards those recommendations will result in a better overall diet. Then we can talk about GMO soy. (Incidentally, in short, 1) there is not a lot of good research on the effects of GMO foods on humans, 2) most GMO soy is not used for human consumption, and 3) if it is, it’s usually so processed that it’s unlikely to pose any risk, if there was evidence that there is any, which is unclear.)

A Healthy Diet Means Variety
Also along the lines of the good food-bad food mindset is the idea that, out there somewhere, is a miracle food, recipe, or pill that will make you healthy. Yes, apples are a healthy food, but limiting your fruit choice to only apples (or cherries, blueberries, goji berries, or whatever the latest ‘best’ fruit is), would eliminate a vast array of micronutrients that science might not have even discovered yet! Yes, some foods are more nutritious than others and it is a good idea to eat those foods, but not to exclusivity. Track your food for a week to get an idea of your overall diet pattern and then you can make changes if necessary.

Stay Away From Extremes

NEVER eat bananas? Really?

A couple years ago, a woman asked me about coconut oil. She had a friend that started cooking exclusively with coconut oil because she heard that it was ‘good for you.’ Although research is beginning to show that coconut oil may not be as detrimental to cholesterol levels as saturated fats from animals, it is very high in saturated fat, the kind that can raise bad cholesterol levels. It is well proven that diets with monounsaturated oils (like olive and canola) help lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. Completely eliminating these oils from the diet because you hear that something else is ‘good’ for you is an extreme move. Use your intuition and common sense before making drastic diet changes. In general, be very cautious about information or diets that focus on a single food or nutrient or suggests avoiding certain foods or food groups entirely.

Michael Pollan’s Rules
I have mentioned this before on this blog, but they are worth repeating here. If you still want hard and fast rules to follow, these would be good ones:
1. Eat food. (Real food, that is. Not very processed.)
2. Not too much.
3. Mostly plants.

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