If you look online, when you talk about diets, it's absolute chaos, right? The question: what's the best diet for X is answered a million different ways by a thousand different influencers, right? If you're on social media, you see someone talking about how Carnivore healed everything for them, and then The next video is how a raw vegan diet saves someone from heart disease or something like that. And so it's really confusing. There's so much conflicting information. And so This video is specifically answering the question: What is the best diet for me? That's what it is. We're gonna walk through how we can determine that. So, this won't be a lengthy one, it's not overly complicated. But we're going to get going into it here. So, first, I do want to validate the frustration that right now, essentially with social media, we have paralysis by analysis, right? It leads to people trying this diet and then trying that, and then just giving up and going back to what we eat because our food environment. By default, it is set up for you to eat just ultra-processed garbage. That's like our default food environment here in the United States or the Western world. And that's what's going to happen, unless you are intentional about the diet you eat or the dietary pattern you eat. You will just end up eating the standard American diet, which is SAD. It's sad and it's bad. Um, but that is the default pattern, so we have to break out of that. That's that's the biggest problem, really, is that it's easy, right? That's just the thing that we do, and we go from there. And in reality, I see it all the time in patients, right? We see patients who are exhausted, right? So they read, you should do this, you shouldn't do that. I've literally sat down with patients and they were telling me, well, like, I need to get checked for oxalates because people online are talking about that. And then they talk about seed oils and they talk about eating carbs, but then they talk about I shouldn't be eating red meat, or it's literally like you could pick a food, like a single food, and someone somewhere online says you probably shouldn't eat it. Like, that's what's so confusing, right? That's the worst thing. I get it. If I wasn't a doctor and if it wasn't something that I looked into a lot, I'd be confused too. Like, quite honestly, doctors don't get a lot of nutrition training. That's not something we get a lot. So, all everything I've learned has been self-taught. And I look into this all the time as a hobby. That's what I do. It's why I make these podcasts. And even for me, sometimes it can be just overwhelming. Like, oh my gosh. So, if you don't have formal training in this, it can be very, very overwhelming. The reality is, though, that social media and the diet industry thrive on making people feel wrong, right? Complexity sells, simplicity doesn't. That's the big thing, right? If you are a guru, you can create a problem to then solve for someone, right? So you make things complicated, you make things scary. Then, hey, by the way, Here's my solution. It's an easy sell. That's how it works. And so people want you to feel confused, and they are the answer, right? The only single answer. And in reality, it's a lot more boring than that. So In my personal opinion, there's no absolutely best universal diet for every single person. I know that might be controversial, right? Some people will say that, oh no, this is like, there's literally like websites other people talk about the perfect human diet. And, like, this is perfect for everyone. And it's literally insane to me because that is physically impossible. And so, why, though, if we step back, right? So, you look on the internet and you see people who eat in a ton of different dietary patterns, right? Whether that's Mediterranean. Paleo, plant-based, like you name it, lots of people are having things says, like, how is that possible? Right. So, if you were to listen to people on the internet, you'd say, well, this way is the only way to eat. This is the only way to be healthy. And then you see another group doing, Vastly different things, and they're also getting success, but saying this is the way. So, like, what is the common denominator? I'm gonna kind of break that down. So, all these big diets tend to eliminate alter-processed foods. That's a big thing, right? So, we're not buying Prepackaged things, they are not processed or minimally processed. They also focus on whole single food ingredients or single ingredient foods, I should say. So, meaning like, hey, This is a vegetable, that's the ingredient. Or, hey, this is lean meat, this is the ingredient. So, single ingredient foods. On top of that, by eating non-processed and single-ingredi foods, you are inherently managing caloric intake. And we know that calorie intake is crucial for overall body composition and weight loss, which leads to lots of things. And on top of that, they also prioritize protein and fiber generally. Obviously, there's lots of Variations to all these things. But those are the general rules. Minimally unprocessed, focusing on single ingredient foods. Managing caloric intake and prioritizing protein and fiber. Those are generally like for most health promoting diets, what we're looking for there. And the reason I say this is because There is no perfect human diet because it has to come down to so many things, right? So, this is great. Hey, I check off my protein, I check off my fibrin, I check off this, this, that. But, like, if you hate that diet. It's not going to work. Like you are not going to stick on it long term, and you are going to go back to whatever your default pattern is. And so that's why it really bothers me when people say. This is the perfect diet. Cause, like, what if that person can't stick to it? Like, yeah, maybe this would be better for them. It might be better for them from a health outcome perspective. That's right. But realistically, if they can't Continue with it, they can't adhere to it, they can't afford it, something like that, then it's so wrong to say, hey, this is the perfect diet for you when it just can't work. So, for me, the perfect diet isn't just about health, like optimal health. Yeah, we all want that, right? But that might not be actually applicable or practical what someone can physically do. So, like, if you are saying, hey, this is what you have to do, but they literally can't do that, whether that's means or education or whatnot. There's this huge gap, and you're pretty much just saying, hey, well, you should feel bad because you're not doing it right. And I see it all the time. I see it all the time on diet commentaries. People say, Hey, I followed this dietary pattern and this bad thing happened. And then people from the community will attack them, pretty much like, oh, you didn't do it right. You were eating too many carbs, or you weren't eating enough carbs, or you weren't eating this or that. And it's literally like, It can never be like this wasn't the right thing for them. It was like you did it wrong. And I see that all the time. Like, I literally was looking at a post the other day, someone said, Oh, I was on this diet and I ended up having a stroke. And like, you. It was crazy the amount of comments people came in and said, like, oh, you must have done this wrong. You made this wrong. Instead of saying, man, you're a human being and you had a stroke, and that's terrible. And I'm so sorry you had that outcome. And I hope you find something that works for you long term. It was like, no, no, no, like you had to be wrong, which was weird. So. A mathematically perfect diet is 100% useless if you hate your life and quit it after X. So, consistency is always going to be intensity. That's like the big thing. And so, overall, I'm just hoping this little quick podcast here just tells you to let you know: stop overcomplicating it, right? You don't have to do anything crazy. If you want to, that's great. You want to track your macros, you want to do fasting. All those things can be fine, but if it makes someone miserable, then it's definitely not going to be the best diet for you. So, overall, the best diet for you is one that works and is sustainable. So, yeah, I'm not saying the best diet for me is just standard American Jordan, I like it, but no, I'm talking about. Something that works for you and is getting you closer towards your health goals. So, like, that's the big thing I have to mention as well. It's not just like, oh, I like this, I can adhere to this. No, that's not ideal. We want it to actually improve our health. But pick one you enjoy. Get enough protein to support your physical activity, hit your caloric needs by not going too much, and make sure that it fits into your life. So, food is. Culture and religion for people, and social environments, and it's not just necessarily fuel. I think we see that a lot of times that it is fuel. Like, yes, it is fuel for your body, but it's a lot more than that. And so Overall, if you're eating mostly whole foods, get your protein, move your body, you're doing better than 95% of the population and you're doing great. Can you tweak things out and become an optimizer? Yeah. For me, the minimalists. We cover those things, that's great. Optimizers, you know who you are. And if you want to go further and you want to do those things like counting macros or try certain things and really get there, that's fine. And obviously, there is a select population of people. Who says, Hey, I'd like to follow this diet, but it doesn't react well to me. I can't do that. And that's okay. I recognize that people have food sensitivities or allergies, and they Want to do something there, but they can't physically do it. And or they say, Hey, I feel better on this one, but I don't love it. It's complicated. And so, once again, I live in the gray and the nuance. That's how it works. But I just thought I'd say that. And so. This is a quick one here. I just am gearing up for some other projects here, so we'll have some longer ones in the future. But just want to get that out there because it's important. I've seen it in clinic a couple times and I just want to talk about it. But I. What do I know? I'm just one beggar to another beggar telling me where to find food. And so I just want you to be happy and healthy and have a high-quality life and be a lifelong athlete. So that's going to be for it today. If you did enjoy this, it would be in the world. So maybe you share this with a colleague. But that's going to be it. Now, get up your phone, get outside, have a rest of your day. We'll see you next time.
