15 health lessons I’ve stopped negotiating on

I get some version of the same question every week: what do you eat, what supplements are worth it, what’s the one thing that would change everything. There isn’t one thing. But there’s a short list of principles I’ve stopped debating with myself, because they hold up under every new study, every trend, and every conversation I have with clients and listeners. Here are fifteen of them.

1. Extremes aren’t the answer No diet that eliminates an entire food group, all plants or all animals, has the evidence to call itself the optimal way to eat. Plants and animals each bring nutrients the other doesn’t, and most of the diet wars online are more tribal identity than biology. The people who do best long term are usually the ones who stopped picking a team.

2. Food quality decides how hungry you stay Calories matter, but where they come from matters just as much. Ultra-processed food overrides your natural fullness signals, which is why it’s so easy to overeat it. Whole, minimally processed food tends to be more satiating at the same calorie count. “Just eat less” is technically true and still fails most people, because it ignores that food quality changes how hungry you feel in the first place.

3. Protein is important, with one caveat