Don’t Trust Me. Learn to Think for Yourself About Nutrition.

Question Everything, Including What I’m Telling You

At the very beginning of your journey into understanding nutrition, there’s something important I want to tell you.

You can’t automatically trust anybody to tell you the truth.

You’re going to have to do a fair amount of research on your own. You’re going to have to question the things you read, examine the evidence, and learn to recognize the difference between a scientific fact, a reasonable theory, somebody’s personal experience, and a sales pitch.

You can’t even trust me.

And just to be fair to everyone I’ve told you not to trust, I’d like to offer you the same opportunity to examine my writing. Find my weaknesses. Find my mistakes. Question my conclusions. If I say something that’s untrue, dismiss it. If I make an argument that isn’t supported by evidence, challenge it.

I don’t need you to believe me. I’d much rather you learn how to think for yourself.

I don’t believe that most of what I’m saying about nutrition is particularly controversial, although there are certainly people who disagree with some of my conclusions.

For example, there are still people who believe that human beings must consume animal protein to remain healthy.

The scientific evidence doesn’t support that as a universal requirement.

Books such as The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II, helped popularize the discussion about plant-based nutrition, although some of the book’s interpretations have been disputed. More importantly, decades of nutritional research have established that appropriately planned vegetarian and vegan diets can meet the nutritional needs of adults.

Consider India, where approximately four out of ten adults identify as vegetarian. Many consume dairy products, including milk, yogurt, and ghee, so vegetarianism there doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding every animal-derived food.

But the broader point remains: entire cultures have developed sophisticated culinary traditions that don’t depend on eating animal flesh.

And anyone who believes protein is available exclusively from the flesh of an animal has misunderstood something fundamental about biology.

Plants contain protein. Beans contain protein. Lentils contain protein. Peas, nuts, seeds, grains, and soybeans contain protein.

Animals obtain amino acids through their food, whether directly from plants or through other organisms in the food chain.

Plants, meanwhile, use energy from sunlight to manufacture organic compounds, incorporating nutrients from their environment into the structures necessary for life.

Think about that relationship.

The sun supplies energy. Plants capture it through photosynthesis. Animals obtain that stored energy by consuming plants or other animals. And human beings participate in that same extraordinary biological system.

The sunlight hitting a leaf is ultimately connected to the energy that allows you to stand up, walk across the room, and turn on a light.

It’s a remarkable system, and you don’t need to eat a steak to participate in it.

We Evolved to Survive. Now We Have the Technology to Choose.

Of course, many animals evolved to eat other animals.

Predators developed anatomical and behavioral adaptations suited to capturing and consuming prey. Depending on the species, these might include sharp teeth, claws, powerful jaws, acute hearing, extraordinary eyesight, sophisticated senses of smell, and digestive systems adapted to their particular diets.

Carnivory evolved for complex ecological reasons. Different environments offered different food sources, and natural selection favored traits that helped organisms survive and reproduce.

Human beings evolved with considerable dietary flexibility.

But here’s what I find interesting.

We weren’t born with electric lights, refrigerators, automobiles, irrigation systems, or grocery stores.

We developed those things.

We figured out how to transport ourselves enormous distances without running. We figured out how to light our homes without waiting for the sun. We invented ovens, refrigeration, food preservation, and technologies that would have been unimaginable to our distant ancestors.

So why wouldn’t we use the extraordinary nutritional technology available to us in the twenty-first century?

We have the ability to grow crops in diverse environments. We can transport fresh produce thousands of miles. We can refrigerate food, preserve it, freeze it, and make it available throughout the year.

We have access to an enormous variety of plant foods and the scientific knowledge to understand how to combine them into nutritionally complete diets.

Why wouldn’t we take advantage of that?

Now, that doesn’t mean I’m telling everybody they have to become vegan or vegetarian.

I know that kind of declaration would fall on deaf ears for many people.

What I would suggest is that you experiment.

Try eating a thoughtfully planned plant-based diet for a period of time. Maybe start with a few months. Maybe make it a year. If you enjoy it and feel well, continue exploring.

See whether it fits your lifestyle, your interests, your digestion, your energy requirements, and your personal preferences.

Just make sure you’re getting adequate nutrition, particularly vitamin B12 if you’re eating entirely vegan.

And remember that many vegetarians and vegans know exactly what meat tastes like because they spent significant portions of their lives eating it.

I’m one of those people.

How I Became Vegan

I was a meat eater for much of my life.

I first experimented with veganism when I was approximately forty-one years old. I stayed with it for a period, then returned to eating animal products. Around forty-three or forty-four, I returned to veganism and remained with it.

I found the vegan diet relatively easy.

But I had a cheat.

In 2010, I started a plant-based juice bar business that eventually grew into a chain. I was surrounded by plant-based foods all day long. I had access to juices, smoothies, fruits, vegetables, prepared foods, and all kinds of ingredients.

And I was preaching the virtues of plant-based eating.

So I had a little additional motivation to live according to the standards I was promoting.

I didn’t eat meat or dairy, but that didn’t mean my diet was perfect.

I certainly ate processed foods from time to time, and I drank coffee.

Which brings me to another subject.

Coffee Is Not an Innocent Little Beverage

Coffee is fascinating because many people treat it as though it’s just another harmless morning ritual.

And for many adults, moderate coffee consumption can fit comfortably into a healthy lifestyle.

But caffeine is a powerful psychoactive stimulant.

It changes our experience of wakefulness, alertness, and fatigue. It interacts with the central nervous system, particularly by blocking adenosine receptors, and can influence other signaling systems involved in arousal and stress.

It can increase heart rate and blood pressure temporarily. In sensitive individuals, or at higher doses, it can contribute to nervousness, restlessness, anxiety, and disturbed sleep.

Now, we don’t ordinarily hallucinate after drinking coffee the way we might with certain other psychoactive substances.

But the absence of hallucinations doesn’t mean a substance isn’t affecting our consciousness.

It absolutely is.

You drink a strong coffee, and suddenly you’re moving faster, thinking faster, talking faster, and feeling more alert.

Sometimes that’s enjoyable.

Sometimes it’s precisely what you wanted.

But if you’re already prone to anxiety, you may be intensifying physiological sensations that resemble the body’s response to stress.

For somebody like me, who has spent decades observing the relationship between the nervous system and anxiety, that matters.

Caffeine can also produce tolerance and physical dependence. People who consume it regularly may experience headaches, fatigue, and irritability when they stop.

Does that mean coffee is inherently toxic?

No.

Does it mean everyone needs to stop drinking it?

Certainly not.

It means you should recognize that caffeine is a biologically active substance and pay attention to how it affects you.

If you love coffee, enjoy it responsibly. But don’t ignore its effects simply because it’s sold next to the muffins.

Does the Time You Eat Matter?

I also prefer not to eat late at night.

When possible, I like to finish eating earlier in the evening, closer to the natural rhythms of the day.

There is research suggesting that meal timing and circadian rhythms can influence metabolism, sleep, and blood glucose regulation.

But I wouldn’t turn sunset into an absolute nutritional law.

People work different schedules. They have different family arrangements, different exercise routines, and different physiological needs.

Eating after dark doesn’t suddenly make food unhealthy.

If you’re eating a nutritious, balanced diet and getting adequate sleep, the precise time of your evening meal is probably not the first thing you need to worry about.

The much bigger challenge for many people is improving the overall quality of what they’re eating.

Which brings us to calories.

The Great Calorie Paradox

Yes, calories matter.

We can’t escape the basic mathematics of energy balance.

But there’s a misunderstanding that comes up whenever people start talking about calories, and I think it’s worth examining.

Imagine two people.

One consumes 1,200 calories of snack cakes and other refined sweets.

The other consumes 1,200 calories from a selection of whole fruits.

Would their bodies receive exactly the same nutrition?

Of course not.

The total measured energy would be approximately the same, but the fiber, water, vitamins, minerals, protein, essential fats, and other nutrients would be vastly different.

Neither diet would be nutritionally adequate as an exclusive long-term eating plan, but that isn’t the point of the illustration.

The point is that calories tell us how much energy food supplies, not everything we need to know about its nutritional value.

A calorie is a unit of energy.

It isn’t a measurement of nutritional quality.

Different foods also influence satiety, digestion, blood glucose responses, and the amount of energy our bodies expend processing them.

That’s why a bowl of lentils, vegetables, and brown rice may affect our hunger and satisfaction very differently from a dessert containing a comparable number of calories.

However, we shouldn’t take this observation and make the opposite mistake by pretending that calories no longer matter when we’re eating nutritious foods.

They still matter.

You can gain weight eating nutritious food if your energy intake consistently exceeds your energy expenditure.

You can also lose weight eating a poor-quality diet if your calorie intake is sufficiently low, although that doesn’t make the diet healthy.

Nutrition and energy balance are related, but they aren’t interchangeable concepts.

Losing Weight Is Not a Mystery, but It’s Not Always Easy

Now let’s assume you’re already eating a nutritious diet and you want to lose weight.

You’ve introduced a new objective.

To lose body mass over time, your energy intake generally needs to be lower than your energy expenditure.

That’s the basic principle.

You can influence that balance through food intake, physical activity, and other aspects of your lifestyle.

But the body is not a static machine. As weight changes, energy requirements can change too. Appetite, hormones, sleep, and individual biology can affect how easy or difficult it is to maintain a calorie deficit.

So while the basic equation is straightforward, applying it consistently isn’t always simple.

You also want to be careful about what kind of mass you’re losing.

If you’re trying to reduce body fat, you probably don’t want to lose substantial amounts of muscle in the process.

Resistance exercise, adequate protein, and an appropriate calorie deficit can help preserve lean mass.

And if you’re trying to gain muscle, you’ll need sufficient energy, appropriate strength training, and adequate protein to support that goal.

Again, none of this requires a mystical understanding of nutrition.

It requires learning a few principles and applying them consistently.

But Where Do You Get Your Protein?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this question.

Where do you get your protein?

As though protein were a mysterious substance found only inside a cow.

You need protein. That’s not debatable.

Protein supplies amino acids that the body uses to maintain and repair tissues, build muscle, manufacture enzymes, and carry out many other essential functions.

But animal flesh isn’t the only source.

Beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, edamame, peas, nuts, seeds, and whole grains can all contribute.

Even broccoli contains protein, although you’d have to eat an impractical mountain of broccoli to obtain all the protein you need from that vegetable alone.

So use some common sense.

Build your meals around a variety of nutritious plant foods, and make sure you’re meeting your total protein and calorie requirements.

Can you eat tofu?

Absolutely.

Do you have to?

No.

Tofu is a versatile source of plant protein, and for some people it makes the transition away from meat easier. But it’s not nutritionally compulsory if you can meet your requirements through other foods.

What about fake meat?

Personally, I’m not very interested in products designed to imitate the exact experience of eating animal flesh.

Some are heavily formulated with refined ingredients, added fats, sodium, flavors, and other additives.

Others have relatively straightforward ingredient lists and useful nutritional profiles.

I wouldn’t declare every meat alternative unhealthy simply because it’s processed. But I would examine the ingredients and nutritional composition rather than assume something is healthy because it’s vegan.

A vegan label doesn’t automatically make a food nutritious.

And a hamburger-shaped plant product doesn’t have to become the foundation of a plant-based diet.

There are already thousands of delicious plant foods in the world.

We can eat those.

What About Fried Food, Club Soda, and Electrolytes?

Let’s answer a few other common questions.

Should you eat fried food?

My preference is to avoid making deep-fried foods a regular part of my diet. They’re often energy-dense, and repeated high-temperature frying can create undesirable compounds, especially when oils are poorly managed.

That doesn’t mean every food briefly sautéed in a little oil is somehow dangerous.

Again, the method, the ingredients, and the frequency matter.

What about club soda?

Plain carbonated water can be a perfectly reasonable way to hydrate.

It’s generally more acidic than still water because dissolved carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid, but that doesn’t make it inherently harmful or nutritionally inferior.

The greater concern for teeth is frequently consuming drinks with added sugars or acids, especially highly acidic flavored beverages.

Personally, I enjoy good-quality still water. That’s my preference, not a scientific requirement for everybody else.

Do you need electrolyte supplements?

Sometimes.

People who exercise intensely for prolonged periods, sweat heavily, or experience significant fluid losses may benefit from replacing electrolytes.

But the average person going about an ordinary day doesn’t necessarily need a specialized electrolyte drink.

Most people obtain the electrolytes they need through food and ordinary hydration.

If you’re buying a supplement, look at its actual mineral content, ingredients, and intended use. Don’t be seduced by the packaging or the suggestion that a flavored powder is going to unlock some extraordinary level of human performance.

And don’t assume that an unpleasantly salty product is automatically more effective or purer than something that tastes good.

What About Vaping and Alcohol?

Should you vape?

My recommendation is no, particularly if you don’t already use nicotine. Vaping can create nicotine dependence and expose users to substances that may harm respiratory and cardiovascular health.

Should you drink alcohol?

My personal recommendation is also no.

Alcohol isn’t a nutrient we need for health. It’s a psychoactive substance with well-established health risks, including liver disease, certain cancers, and neurological harm associated with heavy or prolonged consumption.

Does everybody who consumes alcohol experience the same consequences?

No.

But the fact that people can consume something without immediately noticing harm doesn’t make the substance beneficial.

If you want to negotiate with alcohol, that’s your business.

I stopped drinking many years ago, and I have no interest in returning to it.

I don’t consider alcohol an essential part of enjoyment, celebration, relaxation, or social life.

And I certainly wouldn’t include it on a list of substances necessary for personal wellness.

The Most Important Thing Is to Remain Curious

Now, after all of this, I’d like to return to where we began.

Don’t believe everything I say.

Question it.

If you disagree with something, investigate it. If somebody offers evidence that contradicts a belief you’ve held for years, take a look.

You don’t have to defend your old ideas simply because you’ve invested time in them.

And you don’t have to become vegan, vegetarian, or anything else to begin improving your diet.

You can start by eating more nutritious plant foods, reducing your dependence on foods with poor nutritional quality, and paying closer attention to the relationship between eating, energy, sleep, cravings, and emotional states.

You can also begin noticing the psychological patterns that influence your food choices.

Do you eat because you’re hungry?

Do you eat because you’re bored?

Do you eat because you’re anxious?

Do you eat because something tastes delicious and you want the pleasure to continue long after your hunger has been satisfied?

These are questions worth asking.

We aren’t simply biological machines consuming nutrients. We’re conscious creatures with memories, habits, emotions, preferences, and extraordinarily complicated relationships with pleasure.

And those relationships can change.

I believe that a person who becomes more conscious of what they’re eating and why they’re eating it has already made meaningful progress.

You don’t need to know everything.

You don’t need to become a nutrition expert.

You don’t need to argue with everyone who orders a cheeseburger.

You need to become more informed, more observant, and more capable of making choices that support your own well-being.

And perhaps, over time, you’ll discover that the discipline involved in eating well is not really about giving something up.

It’s about developing a different relationship with pleasure, your body, and the choices you make every day.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.

Farewell.