The Optimal Diet
There is no optimal diet. If I ever start preaching one, I must really need the cash.
As I discussed in the Stability letter, these human bodies we’re in are excellent at getting what we need out of the foods we put into them. They make adjustments all the time based on our diets. Traditionally, humans have flourished on high-protein diets, on high-carb diets, eating meat or seafood or as vegetarians. In studies of the “Blue Zones” — regions of the world with the longest-lived and healthiest elderly populations — it’s clear that healthy diets look markedly different from each other. Some of the regions, like Ikaria in Greece, follow something close to the Mediterranean diet we’ve heard so much about, with lots of olive oil, seafood, and red wine, but others like the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica mostly eat corn, beans, white rice, and fruit. Though similarities exist between the regions, it would be misleading to draw from that diversity any sort of prescriptive diet.
But even though there’s no single right way to eat, there are a lot of wrong ways. Poor diet is a factor in most of the chronic diseases in the United States. Many of these diseases show up later in life, which is often when people begin paying more attention to what they eat. But for those of us below middle age, the choices we make can now help prevent those diseases from becoming a problem.
These are some general guidelines I follow with respect to healthy eating. There might not be any surprises here, which is hopefully how you’ll know they’re true.
Quality Ingredients
I’ve already written about food sourcing, which is the most important place to start. The better your food, and the less processing it undergoes before it gets to you, the better it is for you.
Our food is already a lot less nutritious than it used to be. Studies have shown that produce has declined in mineral and vitamin content up to 40% in the last 40 years, mostly because it’s been bred and fertilized for size rather than nutrition and because it’s picked and shipped before ripening. Choosing heirloom varieties, which have undergone less tampering, or getting produce fresh are some ways to increase the nutritional value of what you’re eating. Good fruit and vegetables tend to taste better too. A lot of their flavor comes from volatile compounds (i.e. smells) that are derived from essential nutrients. Though we’re currently not allowed to smell the produce at the farmers’ market, it’s a pretty good way of choosing food.
Balance
Balance plates in types of foods, colors, and flavors. Once you start reading up on nutrients and vitamins and trying to count how many grams you’re getting of everything, it can become a huge chore to plan a meal. So the best heuristic is to balance a plate.
You need some vegetables, something with protein, and some complex carbohydrates. Usually with some fat to carry flavor and make you feel full. That’s probably not a startling vision, I just described a bowl from Dig Inn. But it doesn’t always have to be a piece of tofu with roasted vegetables over brown rice (although that sounds pretty good to me). Some other ideas: Polenta with sautéed mushrooms and a lentil salad. Falafel with roasted fennel in a whole wheat pita. A warm stew, like an Irish Coddle, with potatoes, leeks, carrots and sausage or seitan.
Make a colorful plate. This isn’t just aesthetic — colors are associated with different phytonutrients, which are the chemical compounds plants make to protect themselves, and usually protect you as well.
And finally, use all the flavors — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. They’re all important, though Americans tend to get more than enough sugar and sodium, and not enough bitterness, which often comes along with antioxidants.
Spices & Herbs
Not only does spicing add enough flavor to dishes that it reduces the need for salt, sugar, and fat, most spices have antioxidants or other health benefits. Cumin, coriander, and fennel are frequently used in Indian cuisine as a digestive aid. Turmeric has been shown to be anti-inflammatory, to protect the liver, and to lower cholesterol. Even Sichuan pepper is good for its antibacterial effects, not just its delightful buzzing sensation.
Learning how to spice better, mostly from Indian cooking, has been one of my priorities lately. I get most of my spices from Kalustyan’s or from Dual Spices (which has locations in the East Village and Williamsburg).
No cheating
At this point, we know that low-fat imitations of foods aren’t as healthy as the 1980s wanted us to believe. The trans fats in margarine turned out to be much worse than the saturated fats in butter. Many other low-fat substitutes use corn syrup, sugar, and salt to make up for lacking fat. Now we’re beginning to find evidence of the harmful effects of artificial sweeteners. Tasting something sweet triggers physiological responses that get the body ready for digestion, but when no calories follow, we can have energy and metabolic imbalances that cause problems in regulating our body weight. Synthetic flavors also trick our bodies into thinking that we’re eating a variety of foods when in reality all we’ve been eating is variations on corn, soy, and wheat.
To be completely honest, I’ve even changed my views on my beloved MSG. While MSG hasn’t been shown to be unhealthy (the only studies that did were flawed and racist), it is an artificial source of umami. It doesn’t come with the vitamins and minerals of natural sources of umami, like mushrooms, seaweed, tomatoes, miso. It may be that when I’m craving umami, what I really need are certain amino acids. I’d also like to believe that I’m a good enough cook that I can create a deep umami taste without pouring on the white stuff. I still use MSG in my cooking sometimes, but I try to rely on it less.