What diet do I choose?
Lots of people want to change their eating, to lose weight or for health reasons. However, there are so many diets out there, which one should you choose?
To best answer that question, we have to get clear on the meaning of the word "diet". Most people these days consider a diet to be a temporary alteration to their eating habits, to achieve a certain goal. But this is not what the word used to mean.
If you talk about any other species on the planet, they all have a diet. But when considering for example the diet of the elephant, you are not talking about something the elephant is doing to lose weight. For all other species, diet means "a particular way of eating that makes it possible for that animal to function at its absolute best".
If you start to think about humans in this way again, the whole picture of what to eat starts to change. The focus shifts away from short term, away from questions like "what helps me lose weight". Instead, it leads to the better question: What is humans' particular way of eating that helps them function best? Or even shorter: What is the human diet?
To figure that out, we have to look at the history of humans as a species. How have we evolved to eat? For most of our history, we have eaten real, lightly processed foods. Depending on the seasons, we ate a lot of vegetables, some meat, and some fruit, and these are the foods we evolved to be able to break down and utilize for the nutrients our body needs
A lot of the things we eat today, have only existed for a fraction of our existence. So does this mean that everything processed, everything new, is bad? Not necessarily, but it should at least be critically looked at before consuming.
Once you know what the human diet actually consists of, you can approach food in a whole different way. Instead of temporarily following the rules, it allows you much more freedom. Maybe you want to eat something that is not necessarily part of the diet. That can be ok, as long as you make sure you get enough of the right stuff in. The one thing that you have to remember is: The closer you adhere to the human diet, the healthier you will be.
