How to Construct Your Perfect Diet

Trevor Hess
Jan 17, 2021
9 min read

Updated: Jan 18, 2021

You've probably been wondering why it's taken me so long to address the subject of nutrition, and that's a good question, but there's a good reason for it. Nevertheless, I bet you clicked on this article because of the title. How'd I know? Whether you realize it or not, almost every single advertisement trying to get you to hop on their diet bandwagon wants you to believe that their diet is the perfect diet. So you foolishly fall for their scheme, become extremely dogmatic in adhering to the views of the diet believing it's the only solution, and ultimately fail again and again because you're not getting the results you want. Feeling like a failure, you then indulge in poor food choices and end up in a worse spot than you were before you started the diet. Sound familiar? I bet.

But let me tell you a secret — there is no one, perfect diet. In fact, there's millions of perfect diets because every single one of us responds differently to various foods and macronutrient ratios. So what's the point of this article then? Well, given the fact that our ancestors only ate whole, unprocessed foods, I'm going to show you that by doing the same, you'll be able to construct your perfect diet and ultimately understand your body better. And don't worry, you'll have the power of making your meals because after you see my strategy, the meals options you can construct are endless.

So I bet you now probably understand why I haven't written an article on nutrition — it's a tough subject. Everyone believes there is this one, perfect diet that applies to everyone, but that's not true, and I'm surely not going to recommend one, single diet either. Instead, I'm simply going to provide you with the fundamental knowledge of how, and how not, to construct your perfect diet by following what our ancestors have done for thousands of years. Sound good? Great, let's hop right in then.

The Macronutrients

Okay, let's first start with the macronutrients. There are three main macronutrients that comprise the food we eat, which are:

Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates

Each plays an important function for our overall health, so it's important to include all of them in our diet. Yes, I said all of them. Now, I know, some are more important than others. For example, our body can actually survive with zero carbohydrates, but that doesn't mean it can thrive with zero carbohydrates. Conversely, protein and fat are essential to survive. With that being said, my goal is for you to thrive on your perfect diet, which is why the plan is for you to include all of them.

What about the calories of each you might ask? Yes, it's true that fat has the most amount of calories per gram, with 9 calories per gram as compared to 4 calories per gram for protein and carbohydrates. But, if you've gotten the gist of my article so far, this doesn't matter.

So what does matter then? What it really comes down to eating to satiety. Let me guess — you already eat to satiety and it's not working. But let me ask you something else? Do you eat whole, unprocessed foods? And by that, I mean, do you only eat whole, unprocessed foods? This is the fundamental problem most of us don't realize is attributing to our, so to speak, diet failures.

It's Not Your Fault You Overeat

You see, we, like our ancestors, are wired to eat until satiety. But the key difference between us and them is that they only had access to whole, unprocessed foods. These foods are key to providing the necessary satiety signal to the brain to tell us we're full. Conversely, the society we live in today provides us with endless, hyperpalatable foods, that don't provide us the necessary satiety signal, and this is why it's so hard to simply have just one cookie.

In addition, we have an endless variety of foods as compared to our ancestors. The problem here is that it's possible for us to be full of one food while feeling we can eat more of another. This is what's known as palate fatigue. Let's take Thanksgiving as an example. You fill your plate up with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and green beans, which you eat until you're full. These are all great, savory foods, but then the desserts come out and somehow you're hungry… again. So you pound the cookies and now have racked up thousands of calories in one sitting because you went from satisfying your craving for savory foods to then satisfying your craving for sweet foods.

How does this happen? Well, again, our body is wired to seek variety in order to get all the critical nutrients it needs. But this isn't necessary in today's day and age with the easy access to food at our fingertips. So what's the takeaway here — the meals you'll be constructing will satisfy two criteria:

Contain only whole, unprocessed foods
Have limited variety (choose 3 main items to fill your plate)

Now that we have the general structure of the plan out of the way, let's go a little more in-depth on each macronutrient, starting with protein.

1. Protein

Protein is necessary for a whole host of functions such as repairing tissue, forming enzymes, and assisting with hormone regulation. As a result, protein, like I said earlier, is necessary for survival. But as you'll see with all the macronutrients I cover, there are good and bad sources of protein.

With that being said, for protein, my recommendations are the following:

Ideally opt for organ meats, grass-fed meats, pasture-raised poultry and eggs, heritage-breed pork, and wild-caught seafood
At a bare minimum, consume hormone- and antibiotic-free meat
Avoid processed meats such as deli-meat, sausages, hot dogs, or anything else that doesn't look like real meat… yes, that means stop eating "fake meat" like veggie burgers

Let's run through the explanations of these recommendations. The reason to get properly raised meat has to do with the fat that comprises the meat. In ancestral times, animals ate what they were intended to eat. As a result, animals had high amounts of a fat called stearic acid and low amounts of a fat called linoleic acid.

Why's this important? Studies have shown that stearic acid promotes a lean body mass by allowing fat cells to shrink and release fatty acids for fuel. Conversely, linoleic acid does the exact opposite, allowing our fat cells to continually grow and store more fat, increasing our likelihood of developing obesity and whole host of other chronic diseases.

In addition, hormone- and antibiotic-free meat isn't always humanely raised, but it's at least more normal than the gigantic chicken breasts you now see at the grocery store. Think about it this way — an animal that eats a poor diet consisting of say, corn and soy, which leads to higher amounts of linoleic acid in their fat, means you're consuming more of that fat yourself. Similarly, an animal that's given hormones and antibiotics, means you're consuming some of those hormones and antibiotics as well. Neither scenario sounds good, so let's avoid them all together.

Finally, processed meat should be self-explanatory. It doesn't look like meat, so don't eat it. These meats usually have a whole host of chemicals, preservatives, and poor sources of fats. In addition, real meat has other beneficial compounds like peptides that you simply can't get from fake meat, but that are crucial for many bodily functions. Regardless, aim to consume about 4-6oz of protein per day.

2. Fat

Next up is fat. Like protein, fat is essential for our health due to its roles in hormone production and insulation. Nevertheless, there are also good and bad sources of fat as well. So my recommendations are the following:

Consume quality sources of fat, such as grass-fed tallow and lard, coconut oil, cacao butter, olive oil, and avocado oil
Avoid vegetable oils such as canola oil, soybean oil, grape seed oil, and sunflower oil

Coincidentally, the sources of fat I recommend you consume are high in stearic acid and low in linoleic acid while the fats I recommend you avoid are high in linoleic acid and low in stearic acid. Funny how that works out, huh? One caveat that I have to note is although I do think nuts are another great source of fat, they are somewhat high in linoleic acid, so try to consume them in moderation.

Now, there are some folks who believe the idea that "fat makes you fat." This is simply not true. Rather, fat should be leveraged to enhance the satiety and flavor of your meals. It just comes down to eating the right fats as I've explained. Along the same lines, folks believe saturated fat is bad for you. Again, this is not true. Our brains our comprised of nearly 60% fat, so what makes you think saturated fat is bad then? Exactly — it's not. The only fat that should be avoided is trans fat — period. Nevertheless, we should try to get quality sources of saturated, monounstratured, and polyunsaturated fat, though focusing on higher amounts of omega-3 than omega-6 polyunsaturated fats since linoleic acid is an omega-6. With that being said, consume enough fat to be satiated at each meal.

3. Carbohydrates

Last but not least is carbohydrates. Like I said earlier, carbohydrates are the one macronutrient that isn't necessary for survival, but that I still think is necessary to thrive. To explain, it's common for a low-carb diet to result in thyroid downregulation, ultimately leading to low energy, low libido, poor circulation, and much more. On the other hand, carbohydrates can support hormone regulation as well as greatly enhance performance during intense workouts by filling the glycogen stores within our muscles.

With that being said, my recommendations are the following:

Favor roots, shoots, tubers, vegetables, and low-sugar fruits such as sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and berries
Avoid grains and processed carbs such as wheat, rice, corn, and soy

The reason I recommend these carb sources is that they are the least processed and ultimately lead to the least amount of issues. Conversely, carb sources like grains and other processed sources commonly result in issues due to containing gluten and other antinutrients that impair nutrient absorption.

Finally, although I recommend that you include carbs in your diet. I'd say it's better if you consume the majority of your carbs at the end of your day. The reasons for this are two-fold. One, you'll put yourself in a more ketogenic-like state for most of the day, allowing your body to efficiently burn fatty acids for fuel. And two, carb consumption later in the day helps promotes restful sleep through the release of serotonin. Regardless, you'll only need to aim for 75-150g of carbs per day, as this is about the amount required to refill glycogen stores for the next day's activities. Since everyone responds differently to carbohydrates, I highly recommend taking a look at one of my past articles on continuous blood glucose monitors (CGMs) to learn how you can determine your ideal carb consumption.

Creating Your Meal Plan

At this point, you now understand the best foods to eat to optimize your health. So let's now move on to how you can create your meal plan. One of the most profound books I've read on nutrition is Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf. In his book, he explains much of what I've explained about why we eat the way we do and how to fix it, as well as the best foods to eat… though, in much more detail.

Regardless, I've pulled a table from his book that I think will really help get you started. By looking at the table above, you can see Rob Wolff divides your food options into four categories: proteins, vegetables (carbohydrates), fats, and spices. As a result, you'll construct each of your meals by choosing one option from each category. Coincidentally, notice that all the food options are whole, unprocessed foods and with the way the table's structured, you're limiting your variety at each meal — the two criteria I mentioned earlier.

Now, just because you're limiting your variety at each meal does not mean you're limiting your variety from meal-to-meal. In fact, Robb Wolff explains that if you were to just use this table, you would have 81,000 different meal combinations. So don't say you're bored of this meal plan because as you can see, there are plenty of options. In addition, since you're choosing one of each macronutrient in addition to a spice, you'll have plenty of flavor and satiety at each meal as well. As a final note, like I said earlier, everyone responds differently to certain foods, so I recommend checking out one of my past articles on gut microbiome testing to learn how you can see what foods work best for you.

Summary

So that just about does it. You now should be fairly confident with how to construct your weekly meals following the principles I've outlined throughout this article. At the end of the day, it really just comes down to consistency, so try to eat healthy at least 80% of the time… that's about 17 out of your 21 meals each week. In addition, clearly no one's perfect, and everyone likes to live a little as well, so don't feel like you can never have lesser good food choices every once in a while. Just before you do, consider your goals and how these foods will make you feel physically and emotionally. Finally, I don't like to talk about supplements much since they're not a fix, but rather should be used to supplement your diet. With that being said, if you don't like the taste of organ meats like I do, I highly recommend looking into organ meat supplements by Ancestral Supplements or Heart & Soil Supplements to ensure you're getting all the nutrients you need. So there you have it — everything you need to start creating your perfect diet. Just remember, enjoy the process because you can't expect to make monumental changes instantly, but rather, try to make small, incremental changes each and every day!