There is no perfection in health. There is just a whole lot of exploration and experimentation.
If there is anything we’ve learned from the 48-year experiment of the US Dietary Guidelines (first one under George McGovern committee in 1977) that one size fits all diet fits no one. It has been a colossal failure. Check out any public place or worse go to a hospital (look at the staff too) or assisted living home and you can see the sad health state of our nation.
That said, I think we could use a bit of nuance in how we help individuals get on a better path. There is no doubt that our excessive carbohydrate and sugar consumption needs to de dialed in (check out Dr. Robert Cywes the ‘carb addiction doc’). And as the MAHA movement has pointed out consuming large amounts of fake like food loaded with chemicals is not helping our chronic disease problem. Personally, I would love to see a big push to get people focused on whole foods and cooking again.
Control your food = Control your health.
However, in various nutrition camps be it the Carnivore, Ketogenic, Paleo, Low-Carbohydrate, Low-Fat, Vegetarian and Vegan communities there is often a militant stance imposed onto folks making them feel that they “are not doing it right.”
Question is, what is right? Right is ultimately what works for you. Allows you to be in the driver seat of your health. Supports overall good metabolic health. Encourages energy, boosts mood and gives you the performance capacity you desire within your body’s needs and demands. This really highlights a personal position of mine about sustainability (see post here) which in a nutshell can only be determined by you.
This is where the medical community has it all wrong. They will often say about the ketogenic or low-carbohydrate lifestyle “it’s not sustainable” meanwhile it might be super easy for many individuals. Let them try it, let them work with a coach and then decide. Plus, demand of your medical provider, is this working for you? Show me your results and or results of your patients.
OK, back to the perfection piece. Be it chasing a number on a scale, a certain level of ketones, tracking endlessly your calories and macros, equating number of minutes of exercise to how much you can eat, on and on. I did a piece several years ago called Track Mania, just on that subject. Chasing perfection might actually be harming your efforts.
Yes, of course, you can divide all the various nutritional paths into defined categories. For example, a ketogenic diet in general would have more or less protein at 20-25% of calories, carbohydrates at 5 to 10% of calories and the rest from fat. But even within those broad categories there is plenty of room for nuance. And will always be dependent on your needs. Moreover, as you travel over the years and months things might change. You might become more carnivore, or you might go back to just low carb, give yourself the grace to travel amongst the variations always with an eye on performance. Food is not for punishment or reward but for giving you maximum performance in life.
Huge caveat is someone undergoing a cancer treatment, dealing with an auto-immune disease, working to improve a mental issue and or dealing with epilepsy (how the ketogenic diet started) needs to be stricter because they are basically “in treatment” to heal their body and have specific needs.
I see the danger in this ‘perfection stroll’ is no 2 people are ever going to have the same results, the same tempo of change, the same successes and or the same challenges. When you think your journey should be exactly like the person on Instagram, Twitter/X or TikTok you set yourself up for disappointment.
So many factors alter the health journey, age, gender, medications, chronic disease burden, level of insulin resistance and length of time you’ve been metabolically unwell, level of exercise, stress management, sleep hygiene, history of yo-yo dieting, history of everything and maybe some genetic piece. This list is endless and not meant to create fear but just a reality check that your journey will be unique.
Find the right mix of health professionals (these might not be in the medical system) to help you build your own plan. It is doable, it is actionable, however it will not be perfect.
“The Body Never Lies.”
Martha Graham, dancer/choreographer
