What's the Perfect Human Diet?

We're constantly bombarded with adds and articles and news reports that scientists have found the perfect human diet... and every one of them is reporting something totally different. They can't all be right?

Media Influence:

We scour the adds or articles or news reports to see if we can figure out which one is right. Or maybe it's another one. But which one? How do we choose? Which commentator do we like better? Which one sounds more truthful?

The truth is, none of them are right. Every single one of them has some agenda to push. Whether it's as a paid actor, or a product they're selling, or an educational background that they need to justify devoting their life to.

Overloading on Evidence:

We live in a culture that glorifies the "experts," and "evidence" and "science." Up until recently, we'd hear about the occasional thing backed by science, or evidence or some expert. It was a single thing we heard. We could be forgiven for not realizing there was some agenda connected to what we were hearing. Unless we made it a mission to dig and really find out, it was difficult to know there was some kind of problem or falsehood in what we heard.

The recent months have made it quite clear to many that there are experts for everything. We're inundated with massive contradictory "evidence" and "science." They can't all be right.

In the case of the human diet, what it's really showing is that we really need to take a big step back from what we think we know about how and what we eat. Is there something we think is healthy that some "expert" told us originally? That's true for virtually everything we think we know about the human diet.

Personal Experience:

The only things we really know for sure are things that we've tried ourselves, and that we didn't try only because some authority figure told us about. An example is those of us who have been very, very sick, and have ran out of expert advice, and are left to fend for ourselves. We found some things that worked, and some things that failed, for us.

The whole low carb, paleo, keto and carnivore diets have emerged due to a lot of people being abandoned by the main stream medical system, the diet industry and commercial food manufacturers.

At the core of many of these eating trends is the removal of certain foods, or certain type of foods. Removal of processed and junk food forms the cornerstone of many of these trends. People have found when they remove the junk and processed food they actually feel better. But when we look to many of the experts, this is a total contradiction.

Contradictions and Confusion:

Take for example the diet industry, which is pretty entrenched in their belief that we just need to cut calories and exercise more. If you've ever failed at one of these kinds of diets, you'll KNOW that belief isn't always true.

The experts who created the food pyramid or the more recent MyPlate eating guidelines will be having a fit at these low carb trends. If you've ever tried to stick to this eating plan and have still struggled with losing weight or feeling better, you'll KNOW there's something wrong with the guidelines.

The experts who dole out the "healthy" eating seals of approval to various junk food manufacturers simply refuse to admit that the foods they give the green light to are in any way bad for people. So many people figure that if some "authority" gave that seal that it must be ok, that some "expert" must know and there must be some legitimate evidence to back it up. Anyone who tried to use these kinds of products to get healthy or lose weight KNOWS that these products won't achieve that.

Core Influencers:

The reality is, all of these noted experts have an agenda, or a long held dogmatic belief that's tainted what they're doing. Much of the agenda and dogma has been built up over many decades, and come from diverse original sources we'd never think of.

Money is an obvious one, such as the money made by junk and processed food manufacturers.

Power is another one, that's a bit less obvious. One example can be seen when researching the full history of people like Ancel Keys. He was an originator or the theory that cholesterol caused heart disease. More recently he's been exposed as an arrogant and powerful person in his day, and his theories really weren't as solid as we were led to believe. But his power and influence colored eating habits for 50 years.

Religion is another agenda that's the original root of some of our modern food practices. It has come out recently that the Seventh-day Adventist Church was involved in the promotion of a bland diet including a lot of grain products. John Harvey Kellogg, of the infamous Kellogg's brand, was a member of the church and his involvement inspired him to start his cereal company. The church is also the sole owner of Sanitarium, a very influential plant based food manufacturer in Australia. An important note is that the nutrition beliefs of the church began before there was any reliable scientific evidence that a plant based, grain based diet was either good or bad. They inspired, promoted and funded research, that could be said to have been done to justify their beliefs, rather than from any desire to get to the truth.

These kinds of influences go back so far it's hard to really pinpoint where ideas came from. The further back they go, the more "expert" opinions have been put into place, for a much longer period of time, to put a sciency spin on otherwise unscientific ideas. Unraveling this becomes a daunting task.

Solutions That Work:

The reality is, it's actually just easier to try and step away from all the experts, and all the advice, and simply try things for yourself. Listening to regular people, who have tried things, can also be useful.

It takes some practice to recognize if what you try is working, but with practice you'll get better at it.

Removing some of the junk is actually a great place to start. It's not mandatory that you switch your diet overnight. Try some things that are an improvement, based on your current knowledge, and see how you feel. Then try another, gain a bit more info, and adjust again.

It's also very useful to not be emotionally attached to these ideas. When we aren't emotionally attached, it's much easier to discard an idea if we discover it's wrong or only partially right. Learn, try, learn more, adjust, repeat.

Building YOUR Perfect Diet:

We started talking about if there is a perfect human diet, and found that there isn't.

In reality, the perfect diet for YOU is something you create for yourself. You can make it super healthy in a variety of different ways. Or maybe the perfect diet for you isn't healthy at all, but you LIKE it. You get to choose.

The perfect diet for you is one you can live with, one that you enjoy, and one that you're willing to live with the consequences of. And you can change your mind any day.

You can go in any direction you want, it's 100% up to you.

What do you CHOOSE today?

Check out our RECIPES and you're bound to find something you'll love!