Many people on YouTube and GirlsAskGuys and probably others suggest that you should do this and that to live a "healthy" life, equating "healthy" with "good looks" and "lots of energy". Don't eat carbs. Do eat carbs. Don't eat fat. Do eat fat. Eat a lot of protein from animals. Eat a lot of plant-based protein, and your body will sort everything out. Never drink soda pop. Tofu is bad for you. Tofu is good for you. Eat a lot of fruits in the morning. Eat a savory meal in the morning. The list goes on and on and on. As you can see here, most people really don't know about the complex facets of human nutrition and thus are just laying down nutritional dogma posed as fact. Reality is COMPLEX. There are things in the real world that seem to contradict each other, so people need to carefully analyze why two or more statements are valid at the same time. In this myTake, I will explain the little things that people often forget when offering pop nutritional advice online.
1. Equating A Specific Diet To A Specific Physique
Very often, people would equate a specific diet to a specific physique, because it's the physique that people want for themselves. The problem is, many diets just call for crazy things with a tiny grain of truth and a whole lot of misrepresentation of the truth. Another problem is, the attitude that these people share neglects the diversity of human bodies. If a woman is born with a big frame, then she may wonder why she doesn't get to be as petite and thin as the women she sees, as if the petite and thin woman is the ideal appearance. Some people naturally have angular faces, others rounder faces. Instead of relying so much on looks or obtaining a certain physique, people should genuinely look for a well-rounded, balanced, multi-generational diet. I include the term, "multi-generational", because too many people focus on the self. I believe that society as a whole would fare much better if the individuals focus on each other and future generations. They should ask themselves, "Is this the kind of diet that I would pass on to my children? Is this reliable long-term? Or is it just for my own vanity to have that perfect body?"
2. Completely Ignoring The Cost And Accessibility
One big thing that I've noticed in many of these pop nutritional advices is that they almost never discuss the cost and accessibility of the products. Some people don't care about the economics. They just assume that the product exists everywhere, anywhere, anytime, at the same price, for everybody. No, that's not how the real world works.
Instead of listening to these advices online, I believe that everybody should just walk in a grocery store and buy produce (fresh, frozen, dried) and whatever cheap animal product that they can find or whatever's on sale at the moment. There should always be SOMETHING on sale in the produce section. Also, fatty meats aren't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, one pound of fatty meat can be used in very small quantities to make the meat rations last longer or to be used as cooking oil. As for grains, it may be cost-effective to eat rice instead of bread, because rice can be purchased by a big bag which can last for months in the pantry, but bread is bought in a loaf and can only last in the pantry for a few days or in the refrigerator for about a week.
If people restrict their budget to $50-100 a week for a family of four and only buy grains, fruits, vegetables, animal products, and seasonings, then regulating portion size should be easy, because the amount of food on the plate reflects how much food they can afford. However, such a plan depends on how the person is immune to advertisements and misleading health claims. Educated consumers may be immune to the cheap ads and misleading health claims and thus go straight after the healthy fruits and vegetables and whole animal products and whole grains. But poorly educated consumers may be susceptible to the advertisements and buy junk food that is disguised as "healthy food". In addition, highly impulsive buyers may spend more at check-out than their less impulsive counterparts.
3. Glorifying The One True Way
Often, the people who promote a special diet glorify that the special diet works, and that people who fail on the diet are weak-willed. That is just victim blaming. Rawfoodists do this all the time. In the "Raw Til 4" program, people have to eat a big breakfast and a big lunch of mostly fruits and sugar. Unless you are a smoothie lover and have a blender, you are probably not going to eat 20 apples for breakfast and lunch, because that would be too costly, and your stomach has a finite capacity to store food, and you will feel full before you even finish 20 apples. Then, in the evening, people can start cooking to balance out the meal, but the entire diet must be devoid of animal products. Some people advocate 100% plant-based diet, equating "plant-based" to "pure veganism", even though nutritional supplements are required but not openly discussed. Other people advocate low-carb, high-protein, high-fat diet with an emphasis on animal-based protein; the problem for such a diet is not sustainable for humanity as a whole, because many big animals have to be raised to feed the humans, and in order to do that, humans need to raise even more plants just to feed the livestock animals. Therefore, a more environmentally sound approach for food security is to derive animal-based proteins from bugs (arthropods, mollusks, and worms), not birds, swine, cattle or fish; and these bugs may take up 15% of the overall diet that is rich in vegetables (mainly plants, algae, and fungi).
4. Not Discussing The Logistics
The most things to consider in any given diet are your own personal stomach capacity and your wallet. Somehow, you have to plan how to allocate your money to the food budget, how to buy specific foods and find them in the grocery stores at reasonable prices without overspending at an overpriced store, how to find a cheaper and better alternative, how to store the foods in the refrigerator and pantry, how to eat the foods in a certain order so that longer-lasting foods get eaten last, how to fill up your stomach capacity without feeling bloated, how to meet your nutritional needs, and how to satisfy your taste preferences. There are a ton of things to consider for any kind of diet. For this reason, you should eat whatever you want. To make sure that you are receiving adequate nutrition, you may input your food intake in the USDA's ChooseMyPlate and see whether or not you are eating within the recommended guidelines. According to the ChooseMyPlate's SuperTracker, it is possible to treat beans as vegetables or proteins. Recording things down does take some time, so be sure to give yourself one hour every day to check out your daily nutrition and look for foods to balance out your diet.
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