Overthinking Nutrition
Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic
This topic was sparked in part by my recent post on grocery stores, but also by discussions I find myself in, sometimes related to my day job. I hear frequently from people that our food supply is poisoning us because of some GMO in crops, or because of livestock exposure to hormones, or because of XYZ chemical, or because of seed oils, etc. I also hear that poor people have to eat fast food and don't have access to healthy food.
But the truth is that you can be perfectly healthy eating cheap meat and vegetables from Wal-Mart. Bananas are typically around seventy-nine cents a pound. You can spend ten dollars in the produce section and buy enough onions to feed a family for a week. You don't need to eat expensive, organic, grass-fed anything. All things being equal, higher quality meats and fish and vegetables will be better than lower quality ones, but if you can't afford to buy eleven-dollar-a-pound beef, you can meet all your protein and B-vitamin needs on five-dollar-a-pound beef.1
For many people, obsessing over GMOs in crops and insisting that the produce in the produce section is subpar is an excuse to eat processed junk. The truth is, it isn't the pest-resistant potatoes in the bin at Kroger that are causing the obesity epidemic. It's candy and soda and Pop Tarts. If someone is trying to lose weight, arguing over whether canned peas are an acceptable alternative to fresh peas is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic (especially if someone isn't eating any peas and is drinking 120g of sugar every day in the form of energy drinks). Canned peas are inferior to fresh peas.2 But they're better than chips, pretzels, orange juice, macaroni and cheese, mayonnaise, muffins, donut holes, Froot Loops, etc.
Physical Activity:
I believe Peter Attia once said that if someone isn't exercising at all, arguing about nutrition is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Most people know that when it comes to weight loss, nutrition is more important than exercise. But when it comes to every other metric of health, including all-cause mortality, exercise is more important. Healthy food can keep you trim, but it will not keep you fit if you don't move.
All human beings benefit from a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training, each of which confers a benefit you can’t obtain from the other (i.e., running won’t make your legs stronger, and lifting won’t strengthen your lungs and heart).
If you are exercising, it will be easier to lose weight and keep it off. Most people who gain back the weight they lose aren’t exercising. Anyone who isn’t exercising will lose both fat and lean tissue (including muscle mass) when they diet.
If the Furnace is Hot Enough:
One (of many) famous quotation from the book Once A Runner is, "If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn, even a Big Mac." The protagonist, Quenton Cassidy, is running one-hundred-and-twenty to one-hundred-and-seventy miles a week (at a pace faster than most recreational runners can run for one mile) and he can drink all the beer and eat all the hamburgers he wants and still lose weight.3
This is true. If you are exercising enough, you can eat whatever you want. However, it is still possible to overeat. Some runners gain weight on hundred-mile weeks, typically by eating quantities of high-calorie food that most people would find disgusting (ex. a large Domino's pizza, a pound of pasta, and a 20oz Sprite for one meal).
Even many people who like to eat typically don't find five thousand calories a day palatable, which is why anything will burn if the furnace is hot enough. Athletes who avoid high-calorie beverages, make sure to hit their protein targets every day, pay attention to their overall caloric intake, eat plenty of vegetables, and don't eat junk food every day can afford to eat ice cream and drink beer more than people who are not spending three hours a day exercising.
One reason we typically advise folks trying to lose weight that they can't outrun their mouth is that many people have outsized ideas of how many calories they burn during exercise. The (very rough) average estimate for calories burned by the typical human running a mile is one hundred. Which means if you run a 5k and eat one donut at the end, you've probably eaten about as many calories as you burned (or more). Most Americans do not exercise enough to eat whatever they want, and so if they want to watch their weight they will need to limit their caloric intake.
80% of the Way in 20% of the Time:
When I (briefly) worked in software, my colleagues used to talk about “80% solutions in 20% of the time,” a popular slogan in rapid prototyping. In certain applications, it’s more important to have a product with a few bugs in a short time than it is to have a product without any bugs but which takes five times as long.4
A similar principle applies here. You could spend hours each week prepping and cooking and shopping and calculating. In which case, you’ll probably be overwhelmed and you’ll find it harder to stay on track if you slip up one week. Or you could spend less than a quarter of that time and still improve your diet dramatically. In which case, you will have a lower barrier to entry, and you can start tomorrow, instead of spending the next month planning.
What does the 80% in 20% of the time solution look like?
- Don’t eat too much
- Choose minimally processed foods over highly-processed foods
- Limit added sugar, trans fats, and corn syrup (a.k.a. added sugar)
- Eat more protein
- Aim for nutrient-dense foods (ex. broccoli, beef, chicken, fish, spinach, eggs, peas, carrots, kale, milk, some yogurt, nuts, onions, etc.)
- Most of the time, don’t drink calories (if at all possible)
- Fill up on very-low-calorie foods (celery, lettuce, spinach, watermelon) instead of on fries and chips
These are principles most people already understand. They are also relatively easy to apply. Most people make mistakes early on, but the more you pay attention to what you eat, the more you will find it easier to eat healthier while also feeling satisfied (i.e., not feeling hungry all the time) and enjoying your food. The last one in the list is underrated, but a key component of success for many people.
Some people will find they still don’t meet their weight-loss goals. They may need to be more proactive, especially about the first item in the list. Rather than eyeballing portion sizes, they will probably need to measure everything they eat and drink (ideally with a scale). They will need to track their calories.
Other people will find they aren’t meeting their muscle-gain goals. They will need to