Oh no. I have been asked for dietary advice.
I am not qualified. I’ve never taken a nutrition course, I have no degree in the field, you should not take nutrition advice from me. That’s the simple answer.
On the other hand, I’m aware of the problem: there are unholy swarms of people and ‘influencers’ who have less knowledge of basic biology than I do who are flooding the zone with all kinds of cockamamie ideas based primarily on ideology. Sometimes the people who pretend to have the most knowledge about the human body give the very worst advice, so how do you figure out what is good advice? I mean, you’ve got total wackaloons who have driven themselves into induced comas and neurotic breakdowns telling you to eat nothing but beef; you’ve got other nerds insisting that everyone must avoid meat, eggs, and gluten (which is necessary for some people); and then you’ve got breatharians and other insane people who believe in living on diet Coke and Big Macs.
On the third hand, human beings have survived for hundreds of thousands of years without TikTok, eating what was available and tasted good, and cultivating wonderful cuisines without relying on bizarre notions of what some wild-eyed skinny fanatic said. That’s the thing about nutrition: traditions are good guides because they’re the product of people who survived their diet. OK, French sauces and hakarl might be extreme and bad for you in the long run, but human experimentation also gave us curries and bread. We haven’t died of anything like that unless consumed in excess.
My general guide to eating is simple: moderation in everything. Avoid heavily processed foods. Try a variety of things, a ‘balanced’ diet. Beans, rice, and potatoes can be the solid foundation for your diet, and have the additional virtue in these tight economic times of being cheap. Build on them with spices — I feel like one of the cardinal sins of the American diet is the spice deficiency. Spices make mundane, boring, but reliable staples interesting and allow you to get flavor without feeling like you have to indulge in buying exotic, expensive, heavily processed foods.
Add stuff you can find in season. I like to add a piece of fish to a meal for a bit of richness…or use an egg, or some broccoli, or a side of peas. Avoid uniformity.
Learn how to make a paella, or a curry, or a stew. Just the process of assembling all the elements of these kinds of foods guarantees that you’ll get a dietary variety, and it will taste good. I trust tradition far more than I do the latest influencer fad. Your best bet is to ignore people like me and just spend more time in the produce section of your grocery store, gathering up tomatoes and turnips and cabbage and mushrooms and carrots and peppers and onions and cauliflower and green beans and garlic, and then figure out how to cook them and make a delicious meal. Pick up a variety of fruits for dessert.
It takes a bit more effort than picking up a box of premade something-or-other, but it would be better for you.
Local store has a ” half price basket” with veggies that need to be used soon. Shopping there earlier today, lunch was mixed veggies. Have to find a use for a soft banana and a lime later today.
Okay, I already wasn’t even thinking of doing so but now I definitley won’t.
Fruit flies and an occasional mealworm treat.
Although I do suspect that a diet of mealworms & diptera species is.. better than some possible diets that are out there.
By which I mean ..waaaa-aay out there but also too fucking common and too often promoted by people with even less expertise and a far greater defcit of modesty and knowledge of their lack of knowledge.
Also I might need to diet but I sure as fuck don’t want to.
I’d like to work to expand my diet a bit. My palette has been drawn to the batter fried side since I was a kid (autism contributed with sensory issues about taste and texture), so I’m looking to ease into healthier fare with baby steps. For one thing I’ve been experimenting with making my own air fryer french fries to cut down the fatty oil and experiment with seasoning.
I’m an insulin dependant diabetic with hyperkalaemia. and I haven’t eaten a banana in decades. But on repeated nagging from well-meaning sources I kept pushing up my vegetable and fruit consumption, reducing meat and increasing fish… and sent my blood Potassium far too high.
You made me want your recipes.
Heart attack at 68 yo, also 30 lbs overweight. Six months researching nutrition and diet, and deciding on revised diet. Note: I love bread, love to make it, smell it, eat it.
Revision: dump most of the carbs, carbs of all sorts. That quarter of the plate traditionally filled with white stuff: potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, etc. – gone. Over the next year the 30 lbs disappeared, and everything got better. Have always liked fruits and vegetables and protein, so when the carb overload was removed, my remaining diet was good. Then add in regular exercise, and ten years later I am healthier than I’ve been in several decades. The path forward isn’t complicated.
I’ve been watching my share of influencers. Nutrition Made Simple by Dr Gil Carvalho seems one of the more authoritative as he actually dives into the science. Dr Layne Norton also does some science diving but I take him with a grain of salt.
Lately I’ve obsessed over glycemic index. Baked potatoes are pretty bad in that regard. Brown rice maybe not so bad.
Also raising my cortisol levels worrying about what might spike my cortisol levels, like maybe pre-breakfast coffee. Cortisol may add to your gut as visceral fat?
Trying to eat protein and veggies first then carbs to modulate glucose spikes. I’m not anti-carb but trying to not overdo them. Some days I focus on a more carnivore approach. And use sleep as a morning pre-fast and eat later in the morning after a long walk.
My focus is higher protein and fiber and moderate carbs and healthier fats. No added sugars. Ever!
Also have gone 6 weeks without beer. Alcohol kills your liver’s fat burning mode as it works to detoxify your alcohol intake. Good enough reason to not drink IMO. Plus saves money.
Did start creatine several weeks ago. Might have an alleged cognitive benefit.
My staples are egg whites, avocados, oatmeal with soy milk/blueberries, salmon packets, chicken packets, legumes, kefir, kimchi, and my vice is ham steak and potato.
Trying to cut my gut. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
PZ, thank you. Even though you deny formal dietary training, you have provided a lot of good info and, as I hoped my comment would, it has encouraged a ‘healthy’ discussion.
Thoughtful people engaging in positive, informed, educating (not indoctrinating nor propagandizing) discussion as a community that cares about its members is what we desire in all our work. And it is so much better than having to doom-scroll through all the reporting of the destructive, murderous, ignorant, knuckle dragging, mouth breathing magat crap!
By the way, we are having an apple, yogurt and homemade biscuits for breakfast.
Also, at my age, I often enjoy ‘oafmeal’. One ingredient: oats, good fiber and no preservatives.
I’ll add to my answer from that thread, in which experts throw their hands up at defining ‘good’ diets; deficiencies are better understood.
https://news.unl.edu/article/nebraska-study-finds-billions-of-nanoplastics-released-when-microwavingTransfer food out of plastic packaging/storage containers before microwaving (heat accelerates plastic shedding). Whole Foods sells plastic-free “compostable cling wrap” (composting takes a few months), which I imagine is less bad inside humans. Meijer sells “compostable sandwich bags”, which are of less nutritional urgency but good to know of.
Dara O’Briain (Comedian): “If anyone describes themselves to you as a nutritionist, just be slightly wary. What they’re saying may be perfectly true, but nutritionist isn’t a protected term. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. Dietitian is the legally protected term. Dietitian is like dentist. And nutritionist is like toothyologist.”
* Dietitian is the standard spelling professionals use, despite the word having an irregular ending. Non-professionals have spelled it dietician often enough for the variant to appear in dictionaries.
NPR – Dark chocolate might have health perks, but should you worry about lead in your bar?
Lead in cinnamon: Where do things stand, 1 year after a scary recall? (2024)
* Consumer Reports’ “read more” link at its article included all brand results. The article itself named the least bad brands.
@ ^ shermanj : What no oafs in your oaf meal?
How disappointing. More Soylent Blue than Soylent Green that.
More short pork than long.. ;-)
Er, pig not porok tho’kinda same..
shermanj @11: Oatmeal bubbling over was what finally taught me to appreciate adjustable power levels on the microwave.
Not just ideology but also delusions and desire for money.
I’ve seen people die from quack medicine before, and up close at that.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a common occurrence and the numbers dead that way were estimated to be around 400,000, mostly antivaxxers.
There was one well known “influencer” (meaning some guy babbling on YouTube or Telegram) who said everyone should take Ivermectin, the latest imaginary wonder drug, every day.
He died from chronic Ivermectin toxicity.
mordred @1 I’d break the banana into chunks and freeze, then whizz straight from frozen to make a nice dessert. You can add some dairy like yoghurt/cream etc if you want but it’s not necessary.
Rebecca Watson has just uploaded a video about the quack science involved in the Keto diet.
Great minds thinking alike?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9aY-f63JnQ&pp=ygUOcmViZWNjYSB3YXRzb27SBwkJIwsBhyohjO8%3D&ra=m
StevoR, heh. I know it was a typo, but… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVht7NkpMz0
(Chicken Soup with Herbs (POROK JHAAL) )
—
Re food, I eat home-cooked food at least 85% of the time.
It’s better than what I can buy, unless I go to a pricey restaurant, too.
I know exactly what is in my food, and I only get stuff I actually like!
FWIW, roughly [carbs:protein:fat :: 60:25:15] for me.
I weigh 64Kg at 177cm and am healthy enough. Especially for my age.
Mind you, no health issues that complicate diet, no allergies to anything, so it’s easy for me.
I also take a multivitamin/mineral pill once every couple of months, just in case.
We are omnivores. And our guts need bulk and fibre.
My vegetarian curry actually does have a good reputation among my acquaintances, and so does my vegetarian ragù alla Bolognese, as well as my vegetarian γύρος.
One diet which I think is somewhat sensible but too restrictive and based on ridiculous premises is the paleo diet. It doesn’t strike me as stupid like keto or carnivore, but why not eat legumes for instance? Or yogurt? Or popcorn!!!
Just started mixing blueberries and banana slices into a slab of Greek yogurt. If you’re idea of yogurt is sugary “fruit” on the bottom, that is quite the shock to your taste buds!
I’ve been experimenting with eating dinner early in the evening and then not eating again until around 10-11 am (on days off work) and that’s after a walk earlier. The hunger is palpable. I can’t even envision doing a real fast. That’s as close as I come.
I have messed with some of the high protein snacks. Quest bars are high protein and fiber, but use erythritol as a sugar alcohol which has been associated with stroke. Other similar bars (eg- Ghost) use different sugar alcohols. Quest chips aren’t too bad and lack erythritol. Pretty much junk food that adds protein to your diet.
One thing I’ve tried before is an egg white / oatmeal mix. Really heavy matrix that’s super filling. Fibermaxxing and proteinmaxxing at the same time!
I’ve been mixing a chicken packet into my egg whites lately with sliced olives and jalapenos. Pretty tasty with avocado toast on the side. Discovered Ezekiel bread. The bomb. Gotta keep it frozen. Not the go to a bakery for my bread type.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @12
I eat 100% chocolate squares in the morning after eggs and avocado and before my kefir and creatine which are before oatmeal/blueberries. I have been concerned about the lead and cadmium in chocolate! Yipes.
Here’s the Nutrition Made Simple guy:
https://www.youtube.com/@nutritionmadesimple
Carvalho seems pretty solid imo. He has an association with Damasio though who was in the Epstein files in a science related way. Carvalho made a video about that awkwardness.
Here’s that Layne Norton guy:
https://www.youtube.com/@biolayne1
He’s got serious arms so he must know what he’s talking about (sarcasm). He sells supplements, but is up front about it from what I’ve seen. I kinda like his approach to topics and snarky ways.
Carvalho on being in the Epstein files:
My dietary advice (I’m a doctor) is to follow dietary advice from credible experts. Sadly, “credible” now excludes anything that comes from the current US government. The Cleveland Clinic has a nice page on the MIND diet (search for “Cleveland Clinic How to Follow the Mind Diet”). The Mayo Clinic is a good source for healthy diet advice. The American Heart Association has guidelines (search for “AHA Dietary guidance to improve cardiovascular health”).Avoid fads, and avoid people who tell you they have one weird trick that can work miracles. If you have a chronic metabolic illness (diabetes, kidney or liver disease, others…) then speak to your doctor and get specialized advice from a registered nutritionist.
General Knowledge:
Nutritionist – NO
Registered Dietician – YES
Probiotics – Yogurt, Kifer, Kimchee, Kombucha all good but will lack effectiveness unless you consume enough fiber to feed the little buggers. Probiotics should be taken cautiously after dental surgery or while taken antibiotics, check with your medical prescriber.
Variety, moderation, avoid processed foods, and maintain adequate hydrated.
Had to take nutrition as a requirement in college, very boring class, no way to jazz it up, but I found the information fascinating and so important.
Hemidactylus @21:
Maintenance Phase podcast – Pete Evans Part 1: The Paleo Way (52:34)
stuffin @25:
Ooh, microbiomes.
University of Chicago – In mice, diet works better than fecal transplants to repair gut microbiome (2025)
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @26
Thanks. Part of that transcript where scavenging is invoked reminds me of a retort I’d like to try on a Paleo zealot, which amounts to “Go eat roadkill!”.
And then there are people’s pets.
Oh, boy! Do I see some rotund pets. :(
(That informs me regarding their people, and not in a good way)
Soup from a stone…
Something I miss from childhood were these community pot luck dinners.
The adults found entertainment in our hunger.
I eat a crap ton of fiber, or at least try to every day. And…well…I crap a ton. No idea what my microbiome is like. Ok I hope.
I do recall several years ago ramping up my fiber intake in an abrupt and stupid way and that was not comfortable. It can be overdone, like mixing pea soup with brown rice and turnip greens. Not only do you go a lot, you get green highlights.
I did see a Youtube video about the actual horrors of overdoing psyllium husk. Not going down that traffic jammed road.
I mean Metamucil could be a way to augment fiber intake if done carefully, but don’t make roughage into a rough ouch!
Hemidactylus, Chubbyemu did one on protein bars, too.
Dude died due to clagged innards.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDYvukPE73o)
John Morales @32
Thanks. I guess my occasional protein bar is far short of the threshold. “JZ” actually survived his protein bar bezoar (???) due to medical intervention.
I had read something about popcorn material buildup becoming a bezoar so the term stuck, much like the buildup itself.
Something like:
https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/journals/case-reviews/issues/v2n6/stehr-popcorn/
Also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytobezoar
Well, PZ wrote “My general guide to eating is simple: moderation in everything.”
Reflexive, of course; the odd binge is moderation of moderation, and thus keeps the spirit of it.
[oh, right. yes, I misremembered and didn’t verify — I erred. :)]
I’ve always found the high protein intake puzzling unless one is a professional body builder.* Humans can only digest so much protein in a single day. Too much will just clog up your digestive tract and make you stink.
They eat in a manner that is not sustainable to achieve a very low body fat before competitions. Very low fat, low carb, high protein. Ketosis isn’t the basis of a healthy diet or lifestyle.
Isn’t that kind of the naturalistic fallacy?
A lot of people were traditionally malnourished. Food grown locally here won’t contain enough iodine and we’re pretty far from the sea. Not to mention that a lot of “traditional” food isn’t actually that traditional, but a small part of traditional food, made palatable for modern tastes. A modern paella (still delicious and probably pretty healthy) isn’t the leftover meal it used to be.
Kimchi. Every lunch starts on a bed of kimchi and all is well.
People in blue zones eat a lot of seasonal, local veggies and they know how to make them taste good. [This is fine. I like veggies if they aren’t boiled to death.] They go for rather small portion sizes [Deep, deep sigh. I never met a calorie I didn’t like.]
Diabetes runs in my family, so I mostly eat as though I already have it. That way I can eat a bit of chocolate and pig out occasionally. So far, it’s working.
@ 19 Morales
Dude, these are obviously meant to be percentages, but what is the unit? Grams? Calories? It makes a massive difference. (Either way your claims are hilarious.)
On diet there’s concern about consumption of lead, cadmium, arsenic etc. and the safety threshold.
There’s also concern about things like glyphosate. I’m unsure how concerned I should be. How much is in commercial breads or oatmeals for instance? But maybe such concern is overblown?
Larry Moran chimed in:
https://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2026/02/glyphosate-roundup-is-safe.html
Yeah, several years ago I did a simple experiment to see the effects of glyphosate on embryonic development (it was an experiment with very narrow scope so could not disprove the idea that it was harmful or harmless. I had zebrafish embryos swimming in various concentrations of glyphosate, some so thick the petri dish reeked of the stuff. It did nothing. Nothing at all. And keep in mind I was intentionally trying to generate teratological abnormalities.
@31 Hemidactylus – Thanks loved the video. Moderation is a big factor in diet. The government only gives guidelines on what is the best balance of cards, fats, proteins, fiber and fluids.
Any dietary extreme can do harm instead of good. The high protein diet is a great example. Besides what Tethys mentions at 36, the larger protein molecules put extra stress on the kidneys. One indication of too much protein can turn up as foamy urine.
Chana Aloo is my go-to.
Checks off all the boxes.
@43. stuffin : “All things in moderation including moderation.”
– Socrates apparently. If memory serves.
I agree with the advice given in the MIND diet post. I’m following, to a large extent, a Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) diet which is similar to the MIND diet and also recommended by Cleveland Clinic as well as by Harvard Health and others, and does seem to be science based. My LDL is low enough now that my doctor no longer recommends statins.
If you try this be sure to make the changes slowly, over weeks, to give your microbiome time to adjust to the fiber in the whole grains. Also, be sure to get some B-12. This is low salt too, so you might need to add a little (like a 1/4 teaspoon) for days when all your food is self-prepared WFPB (near 0 salt). I like to cook with an Instant Pot and add various herbs and spices.
A problem in recommending just eating all in moderation is that everyone thinks their diet is moderate and a typical American diet is clearly quite unhealthy. This is because the food industry is selling us food we find most appealing. For our ancestors, eating lots of meat when available was effective as the main concern was not starving to death.
StevoR in the second post says something like
Which is more or less what I was thinking. But thanks for the heads up on that, PZ.