Best Diet for Peak Health

How to Figure Which Diet Is Best ForYou

Ms. Q. T. from Wyoming writes: Which is best: The Paleo Diet or the Mediterranean Diet? I have tried both. I couldn’t see much difference.

You are really asking several questions at once.

First of all, there is no ‘best’ diet. Everyone is too different for that to ever be the case. Some people are fine with starch, others get sick and put on weight. The only way to determine a person’s ideal diet is to measure their various health Mikenumbers (glucose, insulin, cholesterol, etc.), and make dietary alterations based on that. Then measure again, and perhaps adjust again. I, for instance, can’t drink alcohol, but my wife’s metabolism, very different than mine, is fine with it.

The only way to determine a person’s ideal diet is to measure their various health numbers (glucose, insulin, cholesterol, etc.), and make dietary alterations based on that.

Second, it must be born in mind that the Paleo diet was (literally) a moving target. Hunter-gatherers ate what they could find or catch in their nearby woods. This could vary from starchy roots to bugs to rabbits to fish to woolly mammoths to wild fruit. Sometimes they didn’t eat at all and sometime there was abundance. Often the food would have parasites and other problems. What would be more accurate would be to describe the Paleo diet by what the Hunter-Gatherers did not eat. 80% of what you will see in the average shopping cart was never in the Hunter-Gatherer’s diet and is thus very far from a true “Paleo” diet. Grubs anyone?

Each meal should have one portion of protein and two vegetables. The portion size for the main meals would be an amount more or less the size of your palm.

Finally, Many, perhaps most, people diet to lose weight. However, the diet that we would recommend using Quantitative Medicine techniques is aimed at health, not weight loss. Sometimes these are the same, but sometimes they are not. (That said, most people do lose fat weight with the tailored diet.)

We cannot really recommend a specific diet without knowledge of the individual. Here is a very safe strategy: Eat six meals a day, the three normal ones and three snacks, two between the main meals and one at bedtime. Each meal should have one portion of protein and two vegetables. The portion size for the main meals would be an amount more or less the size of your palm. Vary your meats: animal, fowl, fish, dairy, eggs, etc. Vary the vegetables too. Good snacks would be nuts, cheese, carrots, etc. Try to avoid starches and sugars. They may not be a problem for you (find out by measuring). In any case, no one needs starch and sugar. You will get all you need form vegetables. Don’t worry about fat. Fat is never (and has never been) a dietary problem.

Finally don’t under eat. We are highly evolved to conserve energy in times of food shortage. As soon as your body detects a food shortage, it will cut your energy level drastically. You will lose weight for a while but it is from loss of brain volume, muscle mass and other useful things you may want later, but you will feel like a zombie in the meantime. A real lose/lose proposition.

  2 comments for “Best Diet for Peak Health

  1. Debra
    February 2, 2016 at 9:04 am

    Hello Dr. Nichols! I’m a 62 yr. old woman who had a heart attack at age 58 and was recently diagnosed with type2 diabetes.I found your website by accident while researching saturated fats. I’m on a quest to help myself since my doctors don’t seem interested in anything more than medication. I’m so glad to see a doctor who is interested in attacking peoples health problems and not just prescribing a drug to cover it up. I think you are wonderful and I look forward to learning a lot from your posts. Now for a question if you can….beans….a starch to be avoided?

  2. anita
    February 29, 2016 at 3:51 am

    Iam home wife

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