With our ongoing metabolic crisis causing diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease and liver failure (among others) caused by our toxic food supply that’s devoid of animal fats and proteins, the healthcare system doesn’t matter. The solution is simple though: eat real food.
The food industry, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, doesn’t want you to eat healthy. They want you to eat as much as possible so they can make more profit on food and medicins.
It makes complete sense why our healthcare system is so fucked up.
Nutrition is the ROOT CAUSE of almost everything.
And doctors only take 1 or 2 classes in nutrition.
Instead they're trained to identify symptoms and write prescriptions to treat them.
It's all backwards.
— Carnivore Aurelius © (@KetoAurelius) July 19, 2019
Unfortunately, most people are ignorant about how bad their diet is in the first place and what they should actually eat in the second.
I was struggling with the latter, too. So I’m compiling a (not final) hierarchy of foods here. My main sources are fitness coach Menno Henselmans and the book Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan.
It’s actually dead simple. You should eat foods that nature intended for you to eat to be healthy and lean. Not the foods that the industry wants you to eat.
If something is refined or processed or a product has more than two or three ingredients, you shouldn’t buy it and you shouldn’t eat it. Even if it’s on the safe list or the label says it’s “healthy”, “bio”, “vegan” or “light”. Those are all marketing terms. Instead, go for real foods that don’t need a list of ingredients on their label.
In general, there are two things you should avoid at all cost:
- Vegetable oils (or seed oils). These are marketed as health foods but they’re absolutely not. Vegetable oils cause inflammation and destroy the enzymatic processes that allow your body to function normally. They’re also loaded with Omega 6 fatty acids, which disrupt the balance of Omega 3s to Omega 6s in the body. Vegetable oils become oxidized when heated and develop trans fats that destroy your arteries.
- Sugar, also known as dextrose, fructose, galactose, glucose, lactose, maltose sucrose and 59 other names. It not only rots your teeth, it also leeches nutrients from your bones and tissues, because it’s so poisonous, your body will do anything to get it out of circulation. They interfere with hormone signalling, increase insulin levels and triglyceride production in the liver and trigger fat cells to wake up and start making fat from sugar in the blood stream.
Both of them are ubiquitous, so you have to start reading labels. The hierarchy below takes this into account.
In short, eat real old-fashioned food. Eat good quality meats from the bone (not grain fed) and don’t take the fat off. Eat good fats like olive oil, eggs, butter, nuts, animal fats, palm oil and coconut oil. Eat also organ meats, bone broths, fermented and sprouted foods, lots of fresh vegetables and go easy on the fruit. Avoid at all costs sugar in all its forms as well as unnatural fats; vegetable oils.
The hierarchy
The full hierarchy of foods is based on their effects on your health and physique.
I divided it into three categories:
- Diet staples: foods you can base your diet on 🥩
- Okay stuff: foods to eat in moderation 🍌
- Harmful crap: foods you might want to avoid 🥖
I’m giving examples on each bullet point. If you want to make a suggestion, please comment on this tweet.
1. Diet Staples: foods you can base your diet on 🥩
- Unprocessed organ meats: liver, brain, heart, kidney
- Fish: salmon, tuna, oysters, sardines, mackerel, cod, herring
- Vegetables: broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, peas, artichokes, carrots, kale, asparagus, beetroot, onions, celery, pumpkins, tomatoes, garlic, green beans, eggplants, bell peppers, chicories, cauliflowers, courgettes
- Berries: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries
- Dairy: kefir, raw yogurts, quark, raw whole milk, butter, full fat cream
- Cheeses: mozzarella, blue cheese, feta, cottage, ricotta, parmesan, swiss cheese, cheddar, goat cheese
- Avocado
- Olives
- Oils: extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil, ghee, lard
- Unprocessed red meat: grass-fed beef, lamb, pork
- Fresh herbs and spices: thyme, parsley, rosemary, coriander, laurel, lavender, dill, basilicum, ginger, pepper, basil, celery,
- Drinks: drinking water, decaff coffee, decaff tea, herbal tea
- Vinegar
- Poultry: chicken, turkey, goose, duck
- Eggs
- Traditional whole grains: sourdough bread, ezekiel bread, fermented oatmeal, soaked rice
- Sprouted legumes: chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, black beans, soybeans, peanuts
- Soaked nuts: almonds, pistachios, walnuts, cashews, pecans, macadamias, brazil nuts, hazelnuts
- Soaked seeds: chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
- Potatoes
- Fermented soy products: nattō, tempeh
- Chocolate: 80+% pure chocolate
- Broth: unprocessed stock, gelatin
- Pure coconut products: coconut butter, coconut milk
2. Okay stuff: foods to eat in moderation 🍌
- Non-wheat processed whole grains: sorghum, quinoa, millet, oats, buckwheat, corn
- Whole fruits: bananas, apples, kiwifruits, pineapples, grapefruits, mangos, lemons, watermelons, oranges, grapes, guavas, papayas, cherries
- Alcohol-free wine
- Dairy: skimmed milk
- Rice: white rice, brown rice
- Non-wheat flour: almond flour, buckweat flour, sorghum flour
- Chocolate: milk chocolate, white chocolate
- Artificial sweeteners: aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, stevia
- Drinks: diet sodas, coffee, tea
3. Harmful crap: foods you might want to avoid 🥖
- Heat processed vegetable oils: canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, linseed oil, soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, grapeseed oil, margarine
- Non-sourdough wheat products: pasta, non-fermented oatmeal, non-traditional prepared bread, cereals, crackers
- Non-fermented soy products: tofu, soy milk, veggie burgers
- Processed red meats: hot dogs, hams, bacon, sausages, salami
- Fast food: hamburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, doner kebab
- Alcohol: beer, wine, liquor
- Tobacco: cigarettes, cigares
- Snacks: candy bars, pastries, potato chips, cakes, pies, ice cream, cookies
- Meal replacement products: meal shakes, protein bars, energy bars
- Drinks: soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks, smoothies
- Condiments: table sugar, salad dressings, processed sauces