What does eating healthy mean?

Tons of information available online, equally as many tons of contradictions, one expert claims one thing, the other claims the opposite, a friend lost weight by going on [insert the name of a popular diet here] and swears that it is “the secret” to losing weight. The obvious question here is: Who should I trust?

The answer? Science, plain and simple. The answer may be short and simple, but understanding science most certainly isn’t and it might be even more difficult to discern between horseshit and the real deal.

The first issue is that today everybody is a scientist online and everybody can claim to be an expert. It often happens that these “experts” convince people by simply writing “studies have shown” or “Doctor whatever said this and that” without ever providing a reference, without ever leaving a way to check for credibility of those claims or people who stand behind them. Some studies are intentionally manipulated to present false information and the best example of that is the food industry bribing scientist to publish studies on dietary fat being unhealthy and that sugar has no ill-effects on our bodies.

The second issue and probably much bigger issue is that people conflate the findings of a single study with scientific consensus. Pause reading this text and head over to Google to type in “is milk good for you” or “is [anything] good for you” and just check how many conflicting statements will pop up. Usually these statements are born out of the fact that people want to look for information that already confirms what they believe (confirmation bias). They take the results of this single study as their confirmation and run with it, despite the fact that the case may be that 99% of scientific literature suggests that the opposite is the case. In short, looking for the net perspective of the scientific literature is the right way to approach research, i.e. what most studies say not what a small number of studies says.

In order to avoid the complex and complicated pathways of the scientific process, let us stay on track and look at what the literature actually says about healthy eating. After having destroyed my brain in contemplation I figured out that the best way to present this is through imagery thus simplifying the whole explanation and that is how the beautiful pyramid was born. Healthy nutrition depends on the lower parts of the pyramid the most and as you climb up the factors are less and less relevant. A piece of friendly advice here: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE obsess over the trivial, almost immaterial parts of the pyramid if you do not have the foundation fully taken care of.

Now then, part one of the pyramid – energy balance which can be thought of as the relationship between calorie intake and calorie expenditure. Why is this the most important factor? Excellent question, because the energy balance is primarily determined through nutrition which means that you can get to a healthy weight through nutrition and a healthy weight is by far the best predictor of overall health. It is not the only contributing factor to health, but no average it has the greatest impact. Fortunately for all of us, healthy weight is not a specific number, rather it is a nice, wide range. For example, a person with the height of 170 cm can be healthy anywhere between 50 kg and 84 kg depending on a multitude of factors such as gender, muscle mass, degree of physical activity and many other factors. Whenever scientific literature gives recommendations, it is given as an average which means that there are people who can be outside of this range at either end, but the vast majority of people will find themselves within the boundaries of the prescribed range.

The second part of the pyramid revolves around food choices which you can look at the sources of calories from the paragraph above. The literature suggests that there are several food groups that are better than others in terms of health, but that does not mean that we should only eat those foods and exclude everything else. The healthier calorie sources are the following: vegetables (who would have thought), fruit (who would have thought), whole grain cereal, lean proteins and healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, nuts, fish etc. The general recommendation is that you should base between 70% and 80% of your food intake on these foods and then have the remainder come from everything else (yes, this means that pancakes and pizza can be a part of a healthy diet, but you can’t have them all day every day).

The next part is extremely popular in the field of fitness and bodybuilding, we’re talking about the so-called “macros”. The people in this field often attach huge importance (often with good reason) to macronutrients. However, for the majority of the population, it is simply enough to hit your minimum requirement which is 30% of calories in total, 10% per macronutrient. In simpler terms, 10% of your total calorie intake should come from protein, 10% should come from carbohydrates and 10% from fats. The remaining 70% you can split based on your preferences, needs and desires. Next time someone tells you that carbs are bad, just point to the fact that vegans get 80% of their daily intake from carbs and they are often some of the healthiest people in the world. If someone tells you that eating too much protein is unhealthy just point to the fitness industry where people consume obscene amounts of protein, yet they are also some of the healthiest and best looking people on the planet. Even with fats, diets like keto and LCHF are gaining in popularity and many people (and studies) have shown that you can be as healthy as ever even when you primary source of energy is fat.

The penultimate part of the pyramid is all about meal frequency. Human studies show that you can be healthy on alternative day fasting (eating every other day) just like you can be healthy on 8 meals a day. What’s more, not only is not the only healthy option to eat many times a day, eating a smaller number of larger meals has some unique advantages to eating many smaller meals a day. Logically, it also has some drawbacks but so does eating every 3 hours. This means that you should opt for the meal frequency that best suits your schedule, your lifestyle, your preferences and your conditions and goals. To hammer the point home, I really want you to remember the following sentence: EXCESS CALORIES MAKE YOU FAT, FOOD AFTER 5, 6, 7 OR 8 P.M. DOES NOT. If you remember anything from this segment on meal frequency, please let this myth die because there is literally zero evidence that suggests weight and fat gain after a certain time of the day. Our bodies do not recognize time of day, they recognize energy intake.  

My advice to you is that you should not be too concerned about things in the last category. Just for the sake of mentioning some items that you can find in this category: Supplements (an industry filled with false promises and exclusively profit-driven marketing), cooking techniques for preservation of nutrient quality, frozen versus fresh vegetables and so on. My advice is to stay away from this category if you haven’t fixed the previous 4.

Here is a 6-point summary of the text:

1. Get yourself to a healthy weight through a calorie deficit
2. 70%-80% of your food intake should be based on the healthy sources
3. Hit your minimum intake of each nutrient of 10% protein, 10% carbs, 10% fats and tailor the rest based on your situation
4. Eat the number of meals you feel the best with and eat them whenever you want. Do not let the lie of gaining weight past a certain time of day prevent you from enjoying a regular dinner
5. Try to avoid and resist the influence of marketing from the supplement industry
6. Fix the big things first and only then concern yourself with minor details