Some of my 5 principles of quality nutrition won't be surprise, while others might run counter to what you've been led to believe. Many years of being taught the food pyramid or the "Eatwell Plate" might mean that you find some of this uncomfortable.
However, most people haven't and don't do well by following the same mainstream advice as they always have. I've developed my ideas over years of careful thought and experimentation. My observations of what happens to animals in nature have taught me that humans almost certainly haven't got it right over the past 50 or 60 years.
This is especially so when you observe the long term results of calorie restricted diets - an estimated 98% of people gain the weight back according to one study. Even if the number isn't that absolute, my observations are that the majority of us fail at dieting!
The abundance of obesity and related conditions is reaching epidemic proportions, with estimates running to as high as 75-85% of people in the developed world having the beginnings of metabolic disease.
Continuing the same approach is akin to insanity. So, with that in mind, consider these principles carefully.
The Five Principles
1. Eat real food.
Nothing made in a shiny factory out of ingredients that either look nothing like the original or have names you can't read belongs in your body.
2. There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.
No matter how loudly some proponents shout, your body is more than capable of synthesising the small amount of carbohydrate you need through a process called gluconeogenesis.
That's if you get zero carbohydrate, which I'm not advocating at all. If you eat non-starchy vegetables, for example, you'll quickly rack up a reasonable amount of carbohydrate in your diet.
3. Protein is vital for a wide variety of bodily processes.
It's not possible for your body to make over half of the amino acids you need. This means that you need to eat them in your diet. The most bio-available form of these amino acids is animal protein.
What's more, food from animals contains these in ratios similar to what our bodies contain, making them an ideal way to get these vital nutrients.
4. Eat for nutrients, not calories.
Eating a diet that contains a wide variety of different foods, especially animal-derived foods, will ensure that you get all the nutrients you need for optimum function.
Most people, especially when they focus on weighing food and counting calories, are only interested in the macro-nutrients. If that were all that mattered, junk food would be fine, but we know the effects of long-term junk food consumption are far from positive.
5. Fat is not evil.
To hear some people speak, you'd think that fat, and especially saturated fat, was the worst thing you could eat. Adverts showing fat clogging drains were all the rage when I was a kid & those images still crop up in my brain today.
Yet fat is a vital nutrient which is part of many body structures. In fact, it's a major constituent of every cell membrane in your body - all 37.2 trillion of them! Fat is also a major part of hormone production, the structure and function of your brain... and the list goes on.
As I wrote above, some of the advice in the five principles of quality nutrition runs directly contrary to everything we've been taught. I'm not suggesting that you eat lard or tallow with a spoon, just that you feed your body what it needs to thrive.