1097: Which Diet is Best for You?

Can humans survive eating just meat? Yes. Is it ideal? I 100% say no. I don't think the carnivore diet is a great diet for people.

As far as health is concerned, there's no compelling evidence to show that eating a vegan diet is healthier than eating a healthy omnivore diet. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary. A healthy omnivore diet is going to give you more of the essential nutrients that you need.

At the end of the day, the reason why people like diets is because diets give us parameters. The more basic a diet is, or the the clear the parameters are, the more people tend to get drawn to it.

If there's one piece of advice that I could give someone... just avoid heavily processed foods because they make you want to eat more

Meat, if you had to pick one food, is the most nutrient-dense food you could eat

Meat is extremely nutrient-dense. If you only ever ate meat, would you ever have any nutrient deficiencies? Maybe, but it's actually less likely than if you went pure vegan.

In modern times you can go to the grocery store and select from a wide variety of vegetables or non-animal food products... You can get fruits and vegetables from all over the world. I can combine things to make sure I get plenty of nutrients... But in nature, veganism probably wouldn't exist for very long. You probably wouldn't survive. You'd probably die from a nutrient deficiency.

It's easy for me to stay lean when I'm eating keto. It's hard to bulk and very hard to gain muscle and strength.... but it's easy to stay lean.

I could tell you this much: there probably was no ancient human civilization that was vegan. There probably was no hunter-gatherers that were entirely vegan.

You can get away with A LOT if you're not eating too much

If you eat a paleo diet, you're going to eat relatively healthy. I would consider it a pretty healthy diet, generally speaking.

If I want to build muscle, it's easier when I have some complex carbohydrates and starches in my diet. It's just harder to do without those foods.

The ketogenic diet has some neuroprotective qualities. The way that the the brain operates in a low-carbohydrate and high-fat environment, it tends to burn energy a little cleaner and easier. So if you have someone with dementia or Alzheimer's disease, studies show that a ketogenic diet tends to improve their outcome and reduce symptoms.

Even a lean athlete will have at least 20,000-30,000 calories worth of stored fat that they can use for energy... If you're going on a long hike or a long-distance run, it may be beneficial to be in ketosis so you don't have to re-feed your body constantly.

Processed foods are engineered to be hyper-palatable. They make you eat more.

It makes you a social pariah. It really does... If you're going out with your friends and you're eating keto, you are very limited as to what you can and cannot eat.

Historically speaking, we don't know of any civilization that lived entirely on meat

One of the big reasons the ketogenic diet blew up is because it lowers your appetite