Excellent Health

Most poor health traceable to diet comes from a boring diet, not a wicked one. Eat the same narrow set of things every day and something will be short eventually, however carefully you count anything.

The six requirements

Carbohydrates are fuel. Whole grains release them slowly; refined flour and sugar release them fast and leave you hungry sooner. Both are carbohydrate and they behave completely differently.

Protein is repair and structure. Fats are not the enemy - without fat you cannot absorb vitamins A, D, E or K at all. Vitamins come mostly from vegetables and fruit, with the important exception of B12, which is essentially absent from plant food. Minerals from greens, dairy, nuts and whole grains. Water, which everyone knows and most people still get wrong.

Why variety beats optimisation

Digestion works on the whole meal, not on isolated nutrients. Vitamin C improves iron absorption. Fat unlocks the fat-soluble vitamins. Fibre changes the pace at which sugar arrives. A varied plate handles all of this without anyone having to think about it - which is precisely why whole food beats supplements for most people most of the time.

Nobody ever got healthy by optimising one nutrient. They got healthy by eating a wider range of ordinary food.