THE FOOD TO DIET HEIRARCHY
Updated: Aug 12
It still amazes me that, after around 50 years of online fitness education, many people are still under the impression that a single food of any kind will influence their results. You'll hear these common notions and bio-hacks like "Superfoods" that somehow cure cancer or melt fat off of your body, alleviate your mental health, and so much more I won't bother to name. I had one of my dear friends rant about this concept the other day. This isn't to say that collectively food selection doesn't matter. Individuals' choices eventually influence and compose people's food groups and diets, which of course do definitely matter. It's just trying to get people to frame nutrition correctly and adopt a realistic mindset.
As testament to this idea, Dr. Alan Aragon provided a study years ago that I can't quite track down, and I apologize, but it showed that junk food or impure food selection didn't affect health markers, contrary to popular belief. Now if people want to take and exaggerate this claim to suit their purist mentality, so be it. If you ate 987 Doritos in a matter of days, I'm sure something would be altered in the interim, but most of these rationalized and unfair examples are not real and just fuel for ego. I mean, didn't Usain Bolt eat McDonald's regularly, and he's still the fastest human on earth? And what about several-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler and his In-N-Out binges? I could keep going, but the fact of the matter is everyone has a cheat meal or refeed, some more than others, and it doesn't seem to matter much at all compared to what overall calories dictate. This is especially true if you are active or training, so can we please give this one a rest already? Time to move forward.
Macronutrients (i.e. food groups) are needed to satisfy several functions in the human body and keep you healthy and performing at a high level. Macro-Synergy, as I referred to in my fat loss book, is really is where it's at, because food working together amplifies the effects of each other and is much more powerful than by themselves. It's like a brick on a house foundation. One can't do anything, but when you start stacking them up over time, they create something marvelous to provide for the people living inside.
The Updated Food Guide Pyramid
The diagram above is very solid in a general sense and delivers for everyone. Moreover, people often forget that we all possess innate bio-feedback loops in the body. In other words, we have constant radars (aka hormones) that monitor our food intake to ensure we are getting enough of what we need. Examples include Neuropeptide Y, CCK, PPY, Leptin, Ghrelin, etc. Click here to learn more. The pyramid really should be a "general" rulebook and points to a fundamental problem of confusion and left up for interpretation that exists in our training culture since it uses the word guideline, which of course people won't take that seriously.
Every human being walking the face of the earth needs the food groups listed above in proper quantities (ie. macronutrient ratio's). The more you remove any of them, the more they will come back to haunt you later on (i.e. Minnesota Starvation Study). This is why the National Weight Loss Registry and research have shown that "Flexible dieting" reigns supreme. And yes, this most certainly includes eating sufficient carbohydrates. I've seen it too many times over the years with gymgoers, trainers, etc. They will hop on the bandwagon and follow the herd only to spew out disdain and disapproval later on because it didn't deliver the way it was advertised for them or their disgruntled client. And isn't insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting some magically different result?
What about all of these Diets?
I've simply lost count at this point, and the layers of diet confusion are, I'm sure, overwhelming for everyone at this point; But the one element of a majority of these diets that is beyond predictable with no end in sight is that almost all of them are low carb in nature. Original Paleo, South Beach, Atkins, Keto, The Zone, Carnivore, Escatarian, and whatever else I'm missing all emphasize predominant protein and fat intakes, but neglect so much science with the omission of carbohydrates or very low intakes. Vegan diets do a great job of including carbohydrates, but miss out in other areas, unfortunately. Please see below.
Here are some links to articles I wrote on Carbohydrates in the past, an endorsement I received on the book from an unbiased industry legend, and a link to my newest book.
These articles will serve as a great free primer and free look into my carb book. I'm also in the process of creating an educational course for Carbohydrates as well, so stay tuned. I really do hope this short piece shines some light on what really matters in both general and sports nutrition. Food selection and diets are still arguably the most perplexing topic in fitness, and they simply never had to be.
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