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General Guidelines
General Guidelines
This is a prioritized list of the general diet principles I try to follow, ranked from most to least important. No need to follow every single one every day, but it's a good way to keep track of what's important when you need to be flexible.
Starter Pack (Highest Priority)
Get 8+ servings a day of combined fruit and vegetable intake
Significantly reduce alcohol intake
Reduce saturated fat intake, preferably replacing with unsaturated fats from nuts and seeds.
Reduce added sugars. "Natural" Sweeteners (besides Allulose) can also raise blood sugar
Fit as a Fiddle (Medium Priority)
Increase fiber intake through whole foods (not supplements)
Reduce processed food intake in general
Reduce sodium intake
Maintain a caloric deficit
Biohacker (Extra Optimization)
Replace oils (yes even olive oil) with nuts/seeds (can be crushed in form of tahini/nut butter). Evidence
Avoid added Vitamin A, E, beta-carotene, which can be toxic
Swap animal proteins for plant proteins for extra anti-aging benefits and lower inflammation
Animal products and enjoyment
Animal products and enjoyment
After eating animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, etc) my whole life and then shifting to plant based for the past month or so, I haven’t found it to be that difficult to avoid animal products in certain situations. I realized that what I was eating normally wasn’t really affecting my day to day life or enjoyment by any means. When I focus on what animal-based consumption would “move the needle” for me personally it would be the following
Travel. Being able to explore cuisines from different regions and cultures sometimes necessitates trying animal products, and I am unlikely to give this up. However, there are some cuisines like Mediterranean and Japanese that are heavily plant based by default.
Fine Dining. Elevated dining and unique taste explorations that often consist of animal products create significant memories and experiences, especially with friends.
Sushi. Very high quality fish is a very enjoyable experience for me, and is enjoyed sparingly in blue zones like Ikaria, Okinawa, and Sardinia.
Premium Steak. Speaks for itself.
These events don’t happen often (10-20% of meals annually) but total avoidance would make my plan quite unsustainable.
Where We Go Wrong - Sugar, Salt, and (Saturated) Fat
Where We Go Wrong - Sugar, Salt, and (Saturated) Fat
For most of us the "difficulty" in switching from what we are currently doing to a healthier lifestyle usually manifests itself in an unhealthy reliance or addiction to a taste of sugar, salt, or saturated fat. (If you think addiction is too strong a word here try going a week without any of those things and you will likely experience classic withdrawal symptoms). However, like any other external dopamine source, regardless of whether our body wants and craves that substance, it will not help us achieve long term health goals. Decreasing your reliance on these substances will thus decrease cravings and help you control your diet in ways you never could before. By no means is this easy - you will feel "worse" in the short term as your taste palette needs to readjust to "bland" or "worse tasting" foods, but this is only temporary; your taste buds are surprisingly adaptable to what you are eating. Also, I'm not advocating for cold turkey in the beginning, and there are several alternative replacements you can use on your journey:
Sugar. Replace with Allulose - a rare zero calorie natural sugar that has no blood glucose impact and can help reduce cravings.
Salt. Replace with Potassium Chloride - A "salty" tasting mineral that has the double benefit of reducing sodium and increasing potassium intake. A rare nutritional win-win.
Saturated Fat. Outright replacement is not doable in this case but the ratio of poly/mono unsaturated fats to saturated fats can be optimized:
Use Walnut Butter or Tahini instead of other nut butters
Use Canola Oil (relatively very low saturated fat oil) instead of other oils or butter
As you start using these replacements, you will start to get used to them and you won't feel like you are missing anything. For me, if I eat out at a restaurant, food sometimes tastes overly salted, sweet, or fatty and can be overwhelming. Because of this, I am able to exercise a much more mindful portion control because a smaller amount of food gives me the same enjoyment/dopamine rush. Lowering your tolerance means you are hacking your way to enjoyment while reaping the benefits of caloric restriction.
Decision Making Framework
Decision Making Framework
From Michael Greger - How Not To Age
From this chart, we can generate a priority framework on the most important things to include in your diet, ranked on the percent chance this item will be negative to your health (lower % = less disease risk)
Plant-based:
Fruits (2%)
Whole grains (4%)
Vegetables (6%)
Legumes (11%)
Nuts/Seeds (13%)
Animal-based:
Fish (2%) Preferably sushi grade.
Dairy (19%) Preferably low fat/lactose free
Alt: Soy/Almond products. NO OAT MILK (basically liquid sugar)
Kite Hill is a good alt brand
Poultry (20%) Preferably low sodium, cage free, organic.
Alt: Seitan products
Eggs (31%) Preferably whites.
Alt: JUST EGG
Red Meat (56%) Preferably premium, free range, grass fed, steak.
Alt: Impossible Beef
AVOID processed meats (sausage, ham, salami, bacon, jerky)
As you can see, all plant foods can be considered less risky than all animal products besides fish (why I consume a fish oil supplement).
Grocery List
Grocery List
Implementation
Implementation
Total Calories: ~1900 (10% deficit)
Total Protein: ~110g (1.4g/kg, 0.65g/lb)
Total Fiber: ~55g (Double the RDA)
65% Carbs
25% Protein
10% Fat
10 Supplements
Daily Cost: $22
Whole Foods: $18
Supplements: $4
*Costs can be significantly reduced by shopping in bulk (Costco). I can only buy what can fit in my tiny nyc fridge, so a little more pricey that way.
For Reference, Blueprint by Bryan Johnson is
33% Carbs
19% Protein (1.35g/kg, 0.6 lbs/kg)
48% Fat
40+ Supplements
Daily Cost: $56
Whole Foods: $45
Supplements: $11
I structured this plan to decrease prep time and improve flexibility by increasing the consumption of fruits and veggies through smoothies. Each smoothie and snack should only take about 5 minutes to prep The only meal that may take longer to prep and cook is Dinner, which you can customize how you like; all I ask is you include some legumes (beans, lentils, peas), whole grains (whole oatmeal, Ezekial bread/wrap, popcorn, quinoa), and some variant of nut or seed (walnuts, flax, chia, nut butter, tahini). Some awesome recipes out there that include all 3!
Smoothie A (Protein)
Snack A (Fruits and Seeds)
Smoothie B (Berries, Greens, Veggies)
Smoothie C (Protein)
Dinner (Legumes, Nuts, Grains)
Smoothie D (Berries, Greens, Veggies)
The benefit of such a plan is it also accounts for days when we need to be flexible - restricting ourselves during celebrations, occasions, holidays, travel, etc is just not sustainable. This is why I made the Dinner a relatively larger meal so you can easily swap it on those days. Even when you are away from home, you can swap Smoothies for pre-packaged protein bar or protein shake. I recommend RxBars (Mixed Berry) and SuperTeam protein bars.
Scaling up: since this plan already gives you all the nutrients you need to biohack and is pretty high volume already, you can add calories by using whole foods you enjoy (lucky you!). Some healthy calorie dense options are mangos, bananas, dates, nuts, dried fruit, soymilk, tahini, nut butter.
Scaling down: I still think a lot of these food groups are important to include daily, so if you need to scale down, just lower the intake of each of the ingredients while keeping the same general plan. Variety is still important.
Macro-Nutrient Considerations
Macro-Nutrient Considerations
Since protein should be kept relatively constant for maintaining muscle and strength, we can categorize major diets into 4 different categories:
Unhealthy low carb (higher saturated fat like in meat, dairy, butter, etc)
Healthy low carb (higher unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado, nuts, etc)
Unhealthy low fat (higher refined carbs like white rice, sugars, etc)
Healthy low fat (higher fibrous carbs like fruits, veggies, beans, whole grains)
A meta analysis has been done to specifically look at these diet type and rank them by lowest mortality (death rate)
Healthy low fat - 7% decreased mortality risk
Healthy low carb - 5% decreased mortality risk
Unhealthy low fat - 5% increased mortality risk
Unhealthy low carb - 6% increased mortality risk
If you had to pick, which would you choose? This is why I structured my protocol to include as much fibrous carbs as possible.
Supplements
Supplements
See list of all above. Here are the AM/PM supplement splits
AM (With Smoothie A)
Creatine (In smoothie)
Half fish oil
Hyaluronic Acid 100mg
Finasteride 1mg
Half Turmeric/Black Pepper
Vitamin B12 50mcg (cyanocobalamin)
PM (1hr before bedtime)
Other half fish oil
Melatonin 300mcg
L-theanine 200mg
Other half Turmeric/Black Pepper
Magnesium 500mg
Vitamin D 2000 IU
Equipment
Equipment
Baking Sheets
Parchment Paper
Airtight containers for loose powders
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